The recent debut of two regional craft breweries in Malaysia highlights the country’s quietly flourishing beer industry.

Vietnam’s East West Brewing Co. & Myanmar’s Burbrit both launched in the Southeast Asian country recently, riding a frenzied wave of growth in the craft beer market.

When reminiscing about her 2018 visit to East West in Saigon, Mili Lim, co-founder of MyBeer/Taps, found that the brewery had “really solid beers but they weren’t exporting at that time.”

TAPS, an integrated beer entity spanning importing, distributing, and F&B operations with a bar in Kuala Lumpur and a bottle shop in Penang, marked a decade of operations last year.

The country’s beer industry employs 61,000 people directly and indirectly, and generates RM3.7 billion in taxes, profits and salaries to Malaysia, which is equal to 0.3% of GDP, according to the Confederation of Malaysian Brewers.

Though the increase in Malaysia’s beer production in 2022 was modest, clocking in at 0.3m hl, it’s a noteworthy jump considering the significant Muslim demographic and stringent brewing licenses.

“Now that we have our Malaysian craft breweries, I believe that local awareness will grow exponentially,” shares Mili.

“We are also seeing more and more food and beverage outlets looking for craft. During the pandemic, we saw demand increase, as limited travel led to an increase in spending on lifestyle products locally and people are now willing to spend more for better quality.”

“Though the craft beer scene is small in Malaysia compared to that of Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam, I find the crowd in Malaysia is quite passionate,” shares Burbrit founder Htin Lin.

“We are excited to introduce Burbrit Craft Beers to craft beer fans in Malaysia. We are also learning from this first shipment what kinds of beer styles will be most suitable for the market.”

Besides commercial reasons, the large expatriate community of Burmese residing in Malaysia was a big positive for bringing in a locally made craft beer.

“Htin from Burbrit visited Taps a few years back with some samples. Some of the guys on the team hail from Myanmar, and this was a little bit of home for them,” shares Mili.

As craft beer globally faces headwinds, Malaysia – with its large middle class and restrictions on domestic production – is an intriguingly positive market for breweries looking to expand their regional footprint.