Singapore Craft Beer and Bar Guide 2026
- Marcus Tan
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Singapore's Bar Scene Is Better Than Its Reputation
Singapore has a reputation for expensive drinks and corporate hotel bars. It's a reputation that was earned in the 1990s and 2000s and has been slow to update even as the reality changed significantly. The craft beer movement that took hold from around 2010 onwards has matured into a genuine scene with multiple local breweries, a growing network of independent bottle shops, and bars that take their beer lists as seriously as their cocktail lists. Alongside that, a natural wine community has established itself in the Keong Saik and Jalan Besar areas, and the cocktail bar scene has produced internationally recognised practitioners.
The drinking is expensive by regional standards — Singapore's alcohol excise duties are among the highest in Asia — but the quality-to-price ratio has improved considerably. A well-made craft beer or a thoughtful cocktail at a serious bar in Singapore is now comparable in price to equivalent experiences in major European cities, and often comparable in quality too.
Singapore's Local Breweries
One of Singapore's earliest craft breweries, established in 2002 and still operating with outlets in Dempsey Hill and Clarke Quay. The flagship green monster lager is designed for the Singapore climate — light, clean, and cold. The brewing programme runs beyond the core range to seasonal and experimental batches that are worth asking about when you visit. A significant piece of Singapore's craft beer history and still a reliable venue.
The craft brewery at 33 floors above Marina Bay Financial Centre holds the distinction of being the world's highest urban microbrewery. The beers brewed on-site — a house lager, a wheat beer, a porter, and seasonal specials — are well-made and sessionable. The distinction between 'drinking beer that was brewed in the same building' and 'drinking beer that was shipped from a production facility' is minor in absolute terms but meaningful in context when you're sitting above the Marina Bay skyline.
A Singapore independent brewery with a range that covers lager, IPA, and session ales distributed across the island. The flagship Love lager is clean and well-attenuated. Brewlander has distribution at an increasing number of independent bottle shops, bars, and supermarkets — worth picking up a can to form your own opinion.
A smaller, more experimental operation producing hazy IPAs, sours, and collaborative brews with regional Southeast Asian breweries. The output is less consistent than the more established names — some batches are very good, some are works in progress — but this is where Singapore's craft beer scene is doing its most interesting work. Worth seeking out if you're genuinely interested in the category rather than just a cold beer.
The Best Bar Neighbourhoods
Keong Saik Road (Tanjong Pagar)
A single street of conserved shophouses that has become one of Singapore's most interesting bar and restaurant strips over the past five years. Cocktail bars, natural wine bars, neighbourhood bottle shops, a few serious restaurants, and several spots that blur the categories between them. The street is short enough to walk end-to-end in ten minutes. Walk it before you sit down — most of the spaces are small and the quality varies enough to be worth checking before committing.
Ann Siang Road and Club Street
The original bar belt of the CBD. Less hyped than it was five years ago, which means it's easier to get a seat and the operators who remain are doing so on merit rather than location buzz. Several good cocktail bars and wine bars with strong lists operate on and around this strip. A reliable choice for after-work drinks without the crowd density of the newer areas.
Jalan Besar
An emerging area for independent bars with lower rents and more creative programming than the established CBD corridors. Several spots here focus on natural wine, craft beer, and cocktails with a neighbourhood-bar atmosphere rather than a destination-bar one. The area rewards exploration on foot — some of the best places have no visible signage.
Dempsey Hill
Large outdoor spaces, garden surroundings, and a pace of drinking that is deliberately slower than the city centre. RedDot Brewhouse anchors the craft beer side of Dempsey. Several restaurants in the area also have strong bar programmes worth noting.
Natural Wine in Singapore
Singapore's natural wine scene has grown from a niche interest to a genuine movement in the past three years. Several bars in Keong Saik and Jalan Besar have built their entire identity around natural and low-intervention wines — skin-contact whites, light-bodied reds, pétillant naturels, and bottles from small-production European and New World producers that don't appear elsewhere in Southeast Asia. If you have any interest in natural wine, Singapore is a better city to drink it in than its size might suggest.
What Drinking in Singapore Costs
Alcohol in Singapore is taxed at one of the highest rates in Asia. A craft beer at a bar or restaurant costs SGD 14 to 22. A cocktail at a serious cocktail bar runs SGD 22 to 35. A glass of wine at a natural wine bar starts at around SGD 18 and can go considerably higher. Happy hour — usually 5pm to 8pm on weekdays — can reduce these prices by 20 to 40% and is worth factoring into your plans if price is a consideration.
Most bars have a last orders call at 1am on weekdays and 2am on weekends. The city is not a late-night drinking city by regional standards. Plan accordingly.
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