Pasteur Street Brewing Company Journey

This blog post is the final installment in a three part series about the journey of Pasteur Street Brewing Company throughout our first four years. Click here for part one of the story and here for part two.

Pasteur Street’s growlers in Saigon (Source: Hot Table Vietnam)

Expanding the market!

In the first year after Pasteur Street Brewing Company opened, the company was experiencing a lot of success! Tourists, expats, and locals alike were coming to the Tap Room and the beer was not only popular, but our Cyclo Stout won the first World Beer Cup Award for the country of Vietnam with a gold medal! The team knew it was time to take Pasteur Street to the next level and start selling our beers to bars and restaurants throughout the country. 

Distributing beer to outlets was more complicated than just delivering a keg. Craft beer needs to be kept cold, not only during the time it is tapped, but during transportation and storage as well. The Pasteur Street team had to be mindful of these conditions when partnering with bars and restaurants. Pizza 4Ps, Quan Ut Ut, The Boathouse, and Biacraft ended up being the first places to serve Pasteur Street beers outside of the Original Tap Room. It was Pizza 4P’s that helped push the PSBC team take their brewery even further. 

Pasteur Street in Hanoi (Source: Asia Bars & Restaurants)

On the journey to the North!

Pizza 4P’s was expanding to Hanoi when they were aligning with Pasteur Street and wanted the brewery to send our beers up north in addition to their restaurants in the south. When informed that Pasteur wasn’t distributing outside of HCMC yet, the 4P’s team informed, ‘No problem – you have 3 months to figure it out.’ Organizing shipments of cold beer to Hanoi for one restaurant didn’t seem too worth it so John and the gang loaded up a truck with cold kegs and temporary draft equipment and made stops in Nha Trang, Danang, and Hanoi to try to raise interest in the beers and open enough accounts to justify cold-chain distribution in Vietnam’s four biggest markets. It was this fact that helped the team to make the decision to open our next Tap Room in Hanoi. The volume at the first round of outlets in Hanoi (Chops, The Republic, Moose & Roo, and 4P’s) led to the decision to open PSBC’s first Tap Room outside of HCMC – at No. 1 Au Trieu in the Old Quarter, behind St. Joseph’s Cathedral.  

Pasteur Street’s beers at The Hill Station Hanoi (Source: soon.bro on Instagram)

Tap Rooms were not the only part of Pasteur Street that was expanding, distribution was growing throughout the country as well. In addition to the cities listed above, beers were also going out to Mui Ne, Vung Tau, Hoi An, and Sapa. The Hoi An Sports Bar even purchased the original draft system from Pasteur Street in order to serve our beers. The Hill Station in Sapa also became the first place in this iconic city where one could find craft beers on tap! Prior to Pasteur Street’s Jasmine IPA the only beers flowing on draft in Sapa were bia hoi – Pasteur Street climbed the mountain before any of the big name commercial breweries. 

Since 2014, Pasteur Street Brewing Company has brewed more than 300 styles of beer, releasing core styles in cans and bottles. We have grown into five Tap Rooms in Vietnam, most recently in the Ancient Town of Hoi An. We have sent beer to more than 300 outlets domestically and internationally to seven countries. We are proud to be among the first craft breweries in Vietnam, and are even more thrilled that we weren’t the last. After four years of expansion, we still hold the original vision of bringing together American methods of brewing with Vietnamese flair close as a core value of the company. Thank you to everyone that has been a part of this journey with us, we can’t wait for more adventure! The craft beer revolution is strong in Vietnam and we are all the better for it. 

Pasteur Street’s PassionFruit Wheat Ale and Jasmine IPA cans