If you’re planning to drink your way through Hong Kong’s craft beer scene, one thing becomes clear very quickly: you’ll need a fairly healthy budget.
Whether the beer was imported from overseas or brewed directly in the special administrative region, craft beer in Hong Kong is expensive. Paying the equivalent of 8 to 10 Swiss francs for a small beer is not unusual here.
The good news? The quality is excellent.
Between Mong Kok in Kowloon and Central on Hong Kong Island, you’ll find a surprisingly vibrant craft beer scene filled with taprooms, bottle shops and bars where it’s easy to lose an entire evening — or several.
Here are five places that, in our opinion, are especially worth visiting.
Out of the Brew
A very cool mix of bar and bottle shop with a relaxed atmosphere — at least during the week. The staff is friendly and uncomplicated, and the selection on tap and in the fridges ranges from local beers to Belgian Trappists.
Price-wise, everything still falls within what could reasonably be called “acceptable” by Hong Kong standards. Your beer can either be enjoyed inside or outside on the staircase in front of the bar — which honestly feels like part of the experience.
On weekends, however, the place fills up quickly — mostly with rather snobby expats. Not entirely our thing.
Yardley’s Taproom
One of the most exciting craft beer spots in the city — not least because they serve their own Yardley’s beers here.
The brewery clearly enjoys experimenting and regularly releases interesting collabs. Stylistically, the menu goes in all directions: from dark, dessert-like peanut butter stouts to colourful slushy sours.
The prices aren’t exactly low, but the quality is excellent. The atmosphere is also pleasantly relaxed: the taproom sits slightly above Lan Kwai Fong, Hong Kong’s main nightlife area, making it noticeably calmer than many nearby bars.
The staff is friendly and happy to help with recommendations.
Blue Supreme
A bar with a very exciting beer selection, both on tap and in bottles. They are particularly strong when it comes to sour beers — including rare bottles from European breweries such as Belgium’s Cantillon.
The food menu, which somehow balances between fine dining and pub food, is also worth mentioning. The seating arrangement, however, can feel slightly awkward: if you’re unlucky, you’ll end up sitting on tall stools directly opposite strangers at narrow communal tables.
Not exactly cozy — but still absolutely worth a visit.
The Madhouse
A pretty cool craft beer bar with a large selection of beers from Hong Kong and around the world.
The Madhouse also offers its own house beer. Beyond “brewed in Hong Kong by a contract brewer”, however, the staff did not want to reveal much more. Naturally, this leaves room for speculation as to whether the beer might actually be brewed just across the border in much cheaper mainland China.
Still: friendly staff, good beer selection and an ideal stop while wandering through the surrounding shoe and clothing stores.
Ale Project
Ale Project actually has everything needed to rank among the city’s top beer bars: a good selection, comparatively fair prices and plenty of space.
Unfortunately, both the staff and the interior felt slightly uninspired during our visit, which takes away some of the bar’s potential. In the hope that we simply caught them on a bad evening, it still earns a place on this list.
Other Bars Worth Mentioning
Kowloon Taproom: A solid beer selection with a strong focus on pale ales and IPAs. Overall, however, not particularly memorable. The space could feel a bit more welcoming, and the service wasn’t especially approachable.
The Globe: The beer selection is large and genuinely interesting — but also correspondingly expensive. The atmosphere inside the very dark pub felt a little strange, especially with the many wealthy older expats around. The staff was friendly, though seemingly more occupied with giving the bar a deep clean during Thursday evening peak hours. The food — especially the Sunday roast — is said to be excellent, although we did not try it ourselves.
Craftissimo: Unfortunately, this bottle shop was only recommended to us after we had already left Hong Kong. Still, because it apparently deserves the praise, it earns an honorary mention here.
Brewery Visits
From Black Kite and Hong Kong Beer Co. to Yardley’s and Heroes Beer Co. — Hong Kong doesn’t just have many breweries, but surprisingly good ones too.
The best part? Some of them even open their doors to visitors. The easiest way to discover breweries is through Untappd, while Instagram and brewery websites usually provide information about visits, taprooms and opening hours.