Skip to main content

Kenyan Beers and Craft Beer Reviews for 2025

It's 2025, and you asked for yet another Kenyan beer review.

Let's cut straight to the chase - we keep the many stories for once we are drunk. Right?

This year we categorize the beers according to breweries. 

Bila Shaka / Bateleur 

Flagship is Bila Shaka which is a rich flavoured but bitter IPA with 6% volume. 

They focus more on quality and experimenting. 


Home to many pleasantly (sweet per 2 people. I agree) favoured beers like Dire Straits, and for the ladies who love it a lot on the sweeter side, there's Honey Badger. These come in at about 5% or so.

Jua Kali isn't as sweet as the above and is a mixed rice and barley beer, for some reason popular in the hot coast.

Capitan is their bar beer and is a light-ish, pleasant beer at 4% volume and a good time passer when you're there for a long and good night and have things to do the next day.

My favourite local brewer and highly recommended, especially Dire Straits. It's a medium beer, don't let the size of the bottle deceive you on the lightness. But it's not hard the day after. 

Their beers are very hard to find and usually only in select upmarket supermarkets and bars, top online liquor stores and their website.

254 Brewery

This is the most popular craft brewery, especially with their Niaje Lager. They tend to take a “fresher” crisper feel which may explain their popularity, and what I call a “lemongrass” taste in the background. I think I would recommend those looking to try craft beers to start with this one.


They have a stout whose name I have forgotten due to it being a while, and of course bias. 

Another popular one is Muratatu. It's a sweetish beer per my taste, but it's preferred because it's a triple 8% beer. It's in a small bottle but kicks harder than a horse. Watch out! 

There's about 1 or 2 other stables in between that I have left out. 

Brew Bistro / Wananchi / Hopsmith 

Different establishments but same beers. Story for another drinking day. 

Brew Bistro is now more of a bar that stocks high end beers and beers from other breweries as well including Bila Shaka and Kenya Breweries. 


Wananchi is a supposedly light larger at 4.2%. Crisp on the taste. Its downside is massive hangovers for many which I think is something to do with the brewing process. 

Simpilis is a medium 5.2% or so beer. It's far fair than its lighter counterpart but still, again. 

Nyatipa is a strong stout which I haven't seen being served in quite a while, again probably due to hangovers. 

I'd suggest the brewery sort out its hangover issue probably stemming from the brewing process or ingredients. More likely the process.

The bar serves other beers if you feel like playing it safe.

Kenya Breweries / East Africa Breweries 

Mainstreamer and basically defines Kenyan beer. 

Tusker is the flagship beer but I'll avoid it in this review as I forgot how it tastes. It's been long. 


White Cap is the second most or most popular beer. A little light at 4.2%, slightly maize flavour, pale beer with a distant flower taste. Slightly on the heavy side. 

Balozi is a new comer modern beer and probably the best of the stable. It's a vast refinement and modernisation of White Cap going for a more flowery flavour from the hops, crisp and light. This is a beer that you take to pass time and ensure you still turn up at your in-laws seemingly fresh. Better priced  as well which means some pretentious high end establishments may still refuse to stock it, but the situation has greatly improved. If you're a craft beer person, pick this one. 4.2% as well but far fewer hangovers.

Allsops is a heritage beer mostly found at the coast as only white tourists seem to love it. Of course it's strongly favoured especially due to its caramel base. Medium to strong beer. Percentage,  forgotten.

Guinness is a strong stout with hints of chocolate or caramel depending on how drunk you are. 

Pilsner is a strong beer. Pilsner Mfalme is a strong experimental beer with some sugar hints. They range at about 6.5%. Stocking depends on the establishment for political reasons I won't go into.

Heineken / Distell / KWAL

We'll skip Heineken beer, but they recently bought out the stable. If you want an alcohol free beer, please stick to Heineken 0.0. I won't say much but if you don't listen that's your problem.

This is mostly ciders. 

Savanna is the gold standard. Medium dry, quality South African cider.

Hunters Gold and Hunters Dry are alternative ciders on the sweeter and sweet side.

Windhoek and Windhoek Draught are back with this consolidation. Windhoek Draught is actually not a bad beer but the adjectives were blown away by the strong Namibian winds. Windhoek is pronounced Venduk. Namibia was a German colony before it passed to apartheid South Africa through the British. It's 2025 but you should still learn to use Wikipedia.


KO

Strong ciders at 8.0%. Not been brave enough for these. Also Quality Assurance has been a reported issue which can leave you nursing a nasty hangover depending. Very popular among young people or those seeking a kick from their drink.

Sirville / Tsavo

Not sure where these are available but they are a mild lager last time I remember before they sold their Galleria Mall outlet to Brew Bistro then it was shut in a tax dispute. 

There you have it. The ABC to the XYZ of Kenyan beer. Left out something, let me know in the comments. Love it? Hit the share buttons.


Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Beers in Kenya: A sober opinion

Note: This is a dated post and has since been mostly passed by events. SAB Miller beers including Castle and Peroni are no longer widely available in Kenya after their exist. Sirville Brewery was bought out by Brew Bistro before being permanently shut in a tax dispute. Kenya is a land of milk, honey, beaches and taxes. I have penned, or is typed, a newer post here .  Peroni - One of the best beers in Kenya. Did a taste of canned and bottled Italian, and bottled Tanzanian I like the tangy flavour and body in Tanzanian Peroni. The can is close. Heineken drinkers will like the Italian one.  I have had a short beer swigging stint in my life. It has however been long enough for me to share my opinion of Kenyan beer. Interestingly, over the course of sharing such opinions with other drunkards connoisseurs,  I have found that we all have different views as to what beer is the best, which one makes you too drunk, or which one gives one free, extra hangover for every ha...

Best mid-budget tyres in Kenya 2025

It is often said that tyres are the only thing keeping you in contact with the ground, and therefore safety is essential here. If we all could afford, we could purchase the best set of Michelin that money can buy and there would be no need to discuss options.  But wishes are simply that.

How to Make Your Own Sparkling Water

Buying your own kit means you need to carbonate it in a fridge or freezer since Carbon Dioxide best dissolves at temperatures around zero.  I have been making my own sparkling water for about a month now.  It started with a love for carbonated water, but being appalled by the price - about KSh. 80 per 700 ml recyclable glass bottle. Sparkling water is sold as a premium drink.  This got me researching into what it really takes to make your own sparkling water. 

Nairobi's Top 4 Texas Brisket Places Reviewed and Ranked

Brisket on a bed of roast vegetables with barbecue sauce at Texas Brisket, Kikuyu  This review has been updated after a number of you suggested I try the brisket at County2County.  What's the best place to have Brisket in Nairobi? What's even brisket?  Brisket is one of the toughest cuts in a cow, from around the belly. It is so tough that it has to be smoked for about 16 hours to tenderise. But that there, is the catch.  12 to 16 hours later, it is the most flavourful and softest cut you will ever have. So full of flavour and so soft you can pick it apart with your fingers.  However, due to the long cooking time involved, only a few places offer brisket in Nairobi.  The best so far is Texas Brisket which is located within Kikuyu Railway station.  They do the meat for a proper 16 hours, and will usually have a fatty or non-fatty portion. The fatty portions are more tasty. A 500 gram serving goes for KSh. 900 and a 1 KG order comes with a serving of fre...

WhatsApp Solution: Sorry we were unable to restore any of your message history backup

*This method only works if you are trying to transfer WhatsApp from one phone to another, and have not deleted WhatsApp data or formatted the old phone. If you already uninstalled WhatsApp and deleted data or logged into a different number, it won't work. If you get the “Sorry we were unable to restore any of your message history backup” when trying to restore your WhatsApp messages, trying to restore again from the same backup will probably fail. The issue seems to be caused by an issue with your backup file such as if you repeatedly tried to backup with internet connecting and disconnecting.