When you enter The Artist House in Hong Kong’s Causeway Bay district, it might strike you as more of a science lab than a bar. Off to the right, a glowing hydroponic farm sprouts edible herbs and flowers under rows of intense LED lights, while a “scent lab” at the back of the bar helps first-time visitors determine their ideal beer variety. A few sniffs of carefully arranged perfume bottles, and I’m steered toward the floral notes of a Belgium-based brewer’s IPA. Within the hour, I’ve also tried my hand at the DIY beer-labeling station and attempted to brew my own beer with herbal infusions from the aquafarm.

Just a few years ago, a beer-centric destination like this would have been unheard of in Hong Kong. The vast majority of bars only stocked boring, big-batch commercial beers like Carlsberg, Heineken, and Tsingtao, while even craft beer pioneers like The Globe—an institution on Graham Street in SoHo, with 19 taps and a 200-strong beer menu—were limited to imports. “We ended up with an odd situation with lots of imported beers but no homegrown craft beer,” says Toby Cooper, owner of The Globe and founding chairman of the Craft Beer Association of Hong Kong.

Five years ago, it was as if someone flicked a switch. The territory’s local craft beer market boomed, jumping from two breweries in 2013 to more than 35 in 2018. The catalyst? Industry experts in Hong Kong all point to Young Master's debut in 2013.

Young Master is largely credited with kicking off Hong Kong's craft beer revolution. Courtesy Young Master Ale

The story starts as many do: Young Master founder Rohit Dugar couldn’t find any quality beer in Hong Kong, so he made some himself. But Dugar wanted to go beyond the small expat market, which was driving demand at the time, and create true Hong Kong beers. With this in mind, he turned his attention to residents of Chinese descent, who account for 91 percent of the city’s 7.34 million population.

To reach his ideal demographic, Dugar set about trying to spread the good word about craft beer in Kowloon. Located across Victoria Harbour, north of Hong Kong Island, the Kowloon peninsula is connected to mainland China and home to the vast majority of Hong Kong residents. He teamed up with a few beer-obsessed partners and opened TAP - The Ale Project in 2014 in Mong Kok—a primarily Cantonese neighborhood, and one of the world’s most densely populated areas, with 130,000 people per square kilometer.