Touring Three Craft Beer Breweries in Hong Kong
Beers come and beers go. And then hopefully it’s someone else’s round. Hong Kong’s craft beer scene has exploded in the last two years: We’ve seen importers, homebrewers, and of course—Hong Kong’s first craft beer festival. But there’s something else that’s been fermenting under the surface in the last few months: Hong Kong’s very own breweries.
The Old Hand
In a way, the Hong Kong Beer Co. is nothing new; it’s been around since 1995. But this isn’t the brewery your old man remembers—or even the one you remember from a couple of years ago. Established in Hong Kong in 1995, Hong Kong Beer had been quietly pootling along for years, churning out the occasional barrel of Aldrich Bay Pale Ale and Too Soo Brew. But over time the organization lost its fizz, and the whole enterprise was sold to Devin Kimble and Daniel Flores, founders of Singapore’s longstanding Brewerkz microbrewery, who moved the whole shebang to a new ground-floor space in Chai Wan.
From there, the company has refocused its attention on setting up an American-style microbrewery. They’ve brought in Brewmaster Simon Pesch, formerly of the Pyramid Breweries in Berkeley, California, who has relished the opportunity to get back to basics. “I used to run a team of eight,” he says. “Now it’s just me and one employee.” Pesch is throwing himself into the business from the ground up. The idea is to make five classic craft beers, from amber lager to IPA to stout. Redesigned labels and marketing materials have updated the previously staid branding into something more modern, and a deal with the Liquid Assets distribution chain means that you’ll be seeing a lot of Hong Kong Beer Co. in the near future.
It hasn’t been an easy road: the idea had been to get up and running by November, but issues with getting a license to brew mean that they’ve come right down to the wire. Equipment is still trickling in and the beers will be ready for Beertopia in a matter of days. Touring the brewery with Pesch, we try out a tester ale he’d knocked together to calibrate himself into the Brewing Co.’s equipment.
It’s rich, fruity and—as Pesch himself admits—“a bit too bitter.” You can guarantee that will be fixed: it’s all part of getting to know your malt, your hops, your equipment. The result will be a made-in-Hong-Kong beer to be proud of again. “We like to say that 95 percent of our ingredients are from Hong Kong,” laughs Pesch. “That’s the water.”
Get It: It’s just getting off its feet, but in a matter of weeks you can check out this old brewery’s new beer at Inn Side Out (2/F, South China Athletic Association, 88 Caroline Hill Rd., Causeway Bay, 2895-2900) or the Hong Kong Brew House (G/F, 21 D’Aguilar St., Central, 2522-5559), amongst others.
The Young Master
