What You Should Know About The Fast-Growing Craft Beer Industry

From timely collaborations to the latest labels on the shelf, here’s what you should know about the fast-growing craft beer industry in Singapore

- June Lee

The beer-making community in Singapore has long been a robust one, and particularly so in the past decade where craft beer is concerned. Even microbreweries such as Paulaner Bräuhaus and Brewerkz (established in 1996 and 1997, respectively) are as invested in the scene as the newer players. Just ask Gabriel Garcia, the brewmaster at Level33, a restaurant and craft brewery which opened at the Marina Bay Financial Centre in 2010. He faced a daunting task when circuit breaker measures were announced by the government in light of the Covid-19 pandemic in April.

“We had to stop restaurant operations, and quickly think of how to develop online sales and open channels,” Garcia recounts. It also occurred to him that other breweries would be in the same boat, and that perhaps they could sell their beer together as a stronger effort. He reached out first to personal friends at Rye & Pint Brewery—who said yes—then Paulaner Bräuhaus, RedDot BrewHouse, Binjai Brew and Lion Brewery Co. Some, like Brewlander, were interested but were not in time to get into the first tranche of offerings, although its founder John Wei has since become a leading figure in the resulting #SGCraftTogether initiative.