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