The Global Reach Of Craft Beer – One Night In Hanoi

In TravelLocal’s humble opinion, one of the great joys of travelling is discovering the local tipple. There can surely be no greater joy than relaxing at the end of the day with a cold glass of the local beer, discussing what you’ve seen that day with your travelling companion, or simply contemplating the world go by wherever you happen to be.

Often the local beer can be refreshing and perfectly pleasant, but a little generic, especially if you’re in a country with a lack of beer culture. Certainly TravelLocal has yet to discover anywhere in Asia with anything like the breadth and variety of beers we get back here in the UK (though maybe we’re a little biased…). So we were particularly interested to hear from Jonathan Gharbi, a Swedish ex-pat living in Hanoi, that the city is developing a real craft beer/microbrewery scene. There are around 14 microbreweries there, all producing ‘fresh’ beer for sale in brewery-owned bars/restaurants only – none is bottled/exported and most customers are Vietnamese. The style is generally German or Czech, the quality is high and a visit to one of these microbreweries is a great way to get a taste of contemporary Vietnamese life. Better yet – the cost is a fraction of that in a UK pub or German Brau Haus – around $1.50 for a great tasting beer!

‘Vô’ as they say in Vietnamese!

Make it happen

Check out our Vietnam pages for details of what do and see. Jonathan leads tours of Hanoi’s microbreweries and has a blog all about Vietnamese beer. To talk to someone in the TravelLocal office, call 0117 342 7898.