The husband and wife behind Hong Kong craft beer Moonzen, and how it got its name
Laszlo Raphael started out brewing beer as a hobby; two years on, he and his wife make 1,000 litres at a time. They’re proud to be infusing their beers with the localist spirit and reviving the ‘Made in Hong Kong’ tradition
A couple of years ago, Laszlo Raphael was brewing beer at his Hong Kong home in a five-gallon pot. Now he makes it commercially in his own 6,000 sq ft brewery, Moonzen.
“You know when you’re good at something, and all your friends say, ‘You should do this for a living. You should start a business’, and in one of those crazy moments, you take that advice …” he says, by way of explanation.
Raphael and his wife, Michele Wong Raphael, officially started Moonzen in December 2013, renting a tiny industrial space in Kwun Tong, Kowloon, and producing batches of just 100 litres. This year they moved into different Kwun Tong premises, where they are able to produce 10 times as much.
Neither had any experience in the industry: Raphael was an oil engineer, who left his job in Tunisia, North Africa, because of unrest in the area, and Wong Raphael worked at a university in Hong Kong.