Hong Kong’s Gweilo Beer Redefines Craft Beer In Asia

Hong, Hong Kong’s Gweilo Beer Redefines Craft Beer In Asia

Hong Kong’s largest craft beer brewery and “one of Asia’s most advanced,” Gweilo is riding a wave of success spurred on by the city’s growing demand for serious artisan beer.

But with success comes the need for expansion, and Gweilo Beer is all about it…

Launched in 2015, by British Ex-pats Ian Jebbitt along with his wife, Emily, and their friend Joe Gould, Gweilo Beer, (Cantonese slang for a foreigner) quickly caught fire.

And what started in a humble spare room has now grown into 14,000-square-foot US$5 million brewery, according to the South China Morning Post, with full-scale production planned for March.

The new brewing facility, which is based in the New Territories (one of the Hong Kong’s three main regions), boasts a state-of-the-art US$1.2 million Italian canning machine, capable of producing 6,000 cans per hour, to help herald Gweilo Beer (and its fans) into the era of craft beer in cans.

Since October, Gweilo’s new Fo Tan brew hub has reportedly “installed a brewing equipment from Canada, a bottling machine from Germany capable of producing 3,000 bottles an hour, a centrifuge from Sweden, a  custom-made chiller from the US and the Italian canning machine.”Hong, Hong Kong’s Gweilo Beer Redefines Craft Beer In Asia

The Gweilo Beer team has shipped ingredients from the US, Britain, Vietnam, Germany, Netherlands, New Zealand and Thailand in preparation for the new and expanded beer portfolio.

They’ve hired American Matt Walsh, formerly head brewer at Modern Times Beer, Lost Coast, Speakeasy and Karl Strauss in the US, to refine the recipes and steer the Hong Kong brewery in exciting new directions.

And Gweilo Beer isn’t going to be playing it safe either…

They’re planning on introducing a full range of beers from the obvious to the exotic. And in addition to their core beers and seasonals they will be delving into small-batch experimentals, sours and barrel-aged creations…

Ambitious? Maybe…

But we gotta admit Gweilo Beer has our attention and we’ll be watching as they redefine craft beer in Hong Kong.

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