Black Yak brewers grab a silver medal

Brewed with highland barley and black caramel malts, Shangri-La Brewery's Black Yak is a dark beer with a hint of chocolate and roasted coffee beans. The intriguing name and robust taste have drawn crowds at beer festivals around China, and more recently won a top accolade in Europe.

Black Yak won the silver medal in the Bohemian-Style Schwarzbiercategory at the recent European Beer Star 2016, the company announced last week in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province.

The brewery is run by an ethnic Tibetan team and a German brewmaster in Yunnan's Shangri-La. Mixing traditional recipes with a 21st-century craft twist, the beers are made with Tibetan highland barley, pure Himalayan mineral water, fine German hops and Belgian malts.