Slow Boat - the name derives from the 1930s song Slowboat to China - came about when Jurinka met fellow American Daniel Hebert, an expert brewer, who had moved to Beijing with his international schoolteacher wife, Sharee. The two began chatting and, over time, formulated a plan to make natural beer, or real ale as it is called in England.

It was a fitting match. Hebert, who is from Oregon had the skills to make the amber nectar while Jurinka, who has ties in Colorado and Chicago, possessed the business and marketing skills and - just as importantly - knew how to deal with the Chinese systems, rules and regulations. Both had previously studied in China and were proficient in Chinese.

Jurinka was a student during the mid-1990s, before returning to the United States to pursue a successful career in on-line analytics, ultimately selling a company he co-founded to the internet giant Google. It gave him breathing space to think long and hard about his next career move - ultimately concluding that China offered the most interesting opportunities.

Says Jurinka: "When people think back, they always think of the great days, and I always wanted to come back to China; I started a marketing company which had a lot to do with food and beverage. That meant I got to know a lot of restaurants and bars and met Daniel and discovered he was a brewer.

"We talked and talked and decided that it was feasible to make a go of a brewery. There have always been the German brew pubs in China, but there was not much else catering to people who liked craft beers.

"There were some good breweries before us but they were probably before their time. You didn't have that many returning Chinese in the past, or the microbrewery revolution kicking into high gear worldwide and you didn't have the distribution system."

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