A frequent question about beer in Vietnam is if you can get hold of a Guinness or any other stout or porter. But why drink a expensive imported beer when you have many tastier local beers with more malt and taste?

 There are many microbreweries that make black beer with imported malt and hops. Black beer served at Legend Beer (German style brewery) in My Dinh, Hanoi.

Local commercial beers in Vietnam                                                                                  There are a good number of locally produced lagers in Vietnam that you can get on both can and bottle. The only commercial black beer in Vietnam is Dai Viet super on can which is a black lager, easy to find at most supermarkets like Fivi Mart or Big C. You can also find Guinness on 33 cl can at some of these places. But the best option is to visit one of the local microbreweries in Vietnam for a tasty black beer.

The beers above are the most common “local” commercial beers produced in Vietnam.

Top five best black microbrew beers in Vietnam                                                    There are about 45 microbreweries in Vietnam and most of them produce a blond and a black beer. All black beers in Vietnam are made of black malt, chrystal malt and pilsner malt imported from Czech Republic, Austria or Germany. The amount of malt is higher than in a Guinness and has stronger notes of coffee and chocolate.  Here is a list of microbreweries that make really good beers. You can only get the beer direct from the tap, none of them have cans or bottles. There are many more black beers to try but these are the strongest and most full bodied.

1. Hoa vien Brauhaus at 16 Pho Quang, Ho Chi Minh City   (Czech style beer)     There are five Hoa Vien Brauhaus in Vietnam, two in Hanoi and one in Mui Ne.

2. Goldmalt at 65 Ngo Thi Nam Hanoi             ( Czech style beer)                                 There are 11 Goldmalts in Vietnam, 10 in Hanoi and one in Ho Chi Minh City.

3. Bidega at 848 Tran Hung Dao, Ninh Binh             (German style beer)                This is the first microbrewery in Ninh Binh and opened 2014.

4. Mai Vien Brauhaus, 145 Trung Hoa, Hanoi                                                               This brewery makes two full bodied beers and can sometimes have three  beers on tap.

5. Bia Tuoi Tiep at house A2, Nguyen Co Thach, My Dinh district Hanoi        This microbrewery is situated about 10 km from the old qaurter in Hanoi.

For a more information about location take a look at each brewery on Beervn.com’s youtube channel. Here is a short clip from Bia Tuoi Tiep in My Dinh, Hanoi.