Hong Kong's craft beer movement takes a big step forward
With three passionate companies behind it, the future is bright
Just two years ago if you asked your neighbourhood publican for a Hong Kong brew, they most likely would have shrugged and steered you towards an import instead. Or if they had scrounged up a locally produced beer, you would probably have wished they hadn't. How the times have changed. Hong Kong is a little late to the party, but local craft beers are starting to take off.
Not only are the city's mushrooming specialist pubs proudly serving a selection of made-in-Hong Kong beers, local craft operations are producing microbrews that can stand up to the hottest labels from the US and Europe.
The leader of the pack is arguably Hong Kong Beer Company, which is coming into its own under new ownership.
Established in 1995 as the South China Brewing Company, it used to be known more for producing lacklustre brews. A name change in 2003 did nothing to improve its reputation until the brewery was sold this year to Devin Kimble and Daniel Flores, founders of Brewerkz Restaurant & Microbrewery in Singapore.
Under the pair's direction the only thing that remained of the old company was its name. Everything else, from ingredients and equipment to labels, got an upgrade. They moved the brewery to a new space in Chai Wan and brought in Simon Pesch, a brewmaster formerly at Pyramid Breweries in California. Today the operation is run by just three people: Kimble, Pesch and brewer Ferdie Pingol, who has been with Hong Kong Beer since before the takeover.
The company officially relaunched in March at Beertopia, the city's biggest beer-focused event to an appreciative crowd of drinkers.
"We were really surprised how supportive Hongkongers are and how excited they were about having a craft beer to call their own," says Kimble, "It's not really like that in Singapore."