Cheers / ‘ganbae’ to the Taiwan beer scene – the drinking culture in Taiwan can be fun for foreigners, from a beer tasting tour in Taiwan’s oldest brewery to cool craft beers and ‘sweet as’ fruit beers in convenience stores.
Most Taiwan cities have independent craft beer bars and breweries and we’ve noticed craft beer strength in Taiwan is generally quite high – for instance, most Taiwan craft beers are 5% to 10% ABV, so it makes for a fun night!
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From classic beers like Taiwan Beer “18 Days” to independent breweries like Yongjin and Jim & Dads, we take a look at all the best beer activities in Taiwan – and you can even create your own distinctive whisky blend at Kavalan Whisky in Yilan.
Beauty is always in the eye of the ‘beerholder’ – here is our Taiwan beer guide to the best brewery tours, craft beer bars and distilleries in Taiwan.
Taiwan checklist
We love using agoda.com (use the code TAIWANDERERS for a discount), expedia.com and booking.com for researching and booking all our hotels.
For booking tours, transfers and buying SIM cards/eSIMs we recommend Klook, Get Your Guide, Viator or KK Day.
For booking rental cars visit Discover Cars. For private drivers and taxis, check out our Transfer guide >
Find safe storage spaces across Taiwan with Bounce (and get 5% discount).
For more recommendations, check out our Taiwan travel booking resources page >
All set for Taiwan? Do one final check with our Taipei first timers guide and our packing list guide. Travelling with kids? Check out our Taipei For Kids eBook >
Favourite Taiwan Beers
We recently posed the question in our Taiwan Travel Tips Facebook group: Taiwan beer lovers – which of these classic beers do you drink when in Taiwan? 🍺
In the name of ‘research’, we bought and photographed all these at Sun Moon Lake and then had to drink them all – hard work but these are the ‘sacrifices’ we make!
These beers are (from left to right)
- Taiwan Beer Sweet Touch – Kumquat and Plum
- Taiwan Beer Classic
- Gold Medal Taiwan Beer
- Taiwan Beer “18 Days” (18天台灣生啤酒)
Based on the results, it does seem there is no clear winner as drinkers each have their own preferences – must for us, it has to be an ice cold 500ml of Taiwan Beer “18 Days” (18天台灣生啤酒) every time.
If you want to try Taiwan Beer 18 Days, it is available at bigger supermarkets, Jianguo Taiwan Brewery in Taipei plus it usually available in the Din Tai Fung restaurant chain.
Taiwan Beer also produce other fruit flavoured beers such as lychee & lemon, guava & rose apple and mango & passionfruit.
You can also purchase Gold Medal ONE (an American style light lager), and an alcohol free beer.
Jianguo Taiwan Brewery in Taipei
They always say beer is best at the source – so recently we went to the Jianguo Taiwan Brewery in Taipei to try Taiwan’s national beer (yes, this is the OG beer!)
Free to visit with a cheap brewery shop (and yes, they have ice cold bottles of Taiwan Beer 18 Days!), this is a slightly curious Taipei brewery attraction in Zhongshan District.
There is also a Taiwan Beer Brewery Tour which you can book in advance here with TourMeAway (it operates most Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays at 3.30pm) – use our discount code TAIWANDERERS to get up to 15% off when booking directly. You can also book on Klook (use the code CKTRAVELS for a discount).
The Taiwan beer brewery tour lets you explore Taiwan’s first brewery (built in 1919). As well as seeing historic bottles, exhibits and brewing vats, you’ll learn how Taiwanese beer has influenced local culture and about different Taiwan beer types, plus lots of tasting opportunities too including the iconic Taiwan Beer 18 days and Gold Medal beer.
Last time we visited the brewery, the tour wasn’t operating so we just drank beer in the brewery shop and yard outside instead! It still has some bottling going on plus as you drink in the yard on the picnic benches, the odd fork lift truck goes past.
Best of all, the well stocked brewery shop here has loads of chillers of ice-cold beer of all types plus you can buy Taiwan Beer infused chicken noodles.
The prices are NT$55 for a big 600ml of Taiwan Beer Gold Medal or NT$70 for a 600ml Taiwan Beer 18 days. The Taiwan Brewery chillers have lots of fruit beers and dark beers I’ve not seen elsewhere plus spirits galore.
The Taipei Taiwan Brewery shop is open 12pm to 8pm Monday to Friday.
Our favourite Taiwan craft beer bars
Here at Taiwanderers, we are big Taiwan craft beer fans and have been to dozens of breweries all over including the best brewery bars in Taipei.
Here are our Taiwan craft beer bars, from independent pubs to big Taiwan craft beer breweries:
Taipei Craft Beer Bars
Zhangmen Brewing (five Taipei craft beer bars)
Zhangmen Brewery 掌門精釀啤酒 is a cracking craft brewery in Taiwan with over 10 brewery taprooms, including five in Taipei.
Their latest Taipei taprooms can be found at Taipei Dome (Zhangmen Brewery opened here in 2024) whilst a new one has recently opened inside Amber Land bar in LaLaport Nangang.
The Taipei Zhangmen Brewing taprooms and breweries usually have an incredible tap-range (around 16 craft beers to try on our last visit) and a good selection of snacks.
We like their 6.4% cherry sour 6.6% American IPA. We definitely recommend Zhangmen Brewing as one of the best craft beer breweries in Taipei and Taiwan.
Taihu Brewing
Taihu Brewing dominates the Taiwan craft beer scene with numerous craft taproom bars plus it is stocked in many 7-Eleven stores.
Taihu’s craft beer can featuring a tiger (Taihu Shisu Plum Ale), and their 9.99%(!) Happy Set strong beers can be found in most of the larger Taiwan 7-Eleven stores plus in the special 7-Eleven bars in selected cities.
Look out for their brightly coloured craft beer cans in convenience stores like Taihu Brewing’s Mugicha Black Tea Ale and their Taiwanese Guava Gose – both quite unique local additions to the Taiwan craft beer market.
We’ve been to several Taihu Brewing craft beer bars in Taiwan including their Taichung Taihu Brewing taproom, complete with roof terrace and rather magic ‘Back to the Taihu’ / Back to the Future inspired neon sign – all have cracking beer selections.
We also like their huge Tainan taproom, their Ximen Driftwood bar and their gyoza pub at Rongjin Gorgeous time in Taipei.
Flow Brewing Beer Taproom 心流釀造
An American Taiwan brewery, Flow Taproom is Xinyi is one of the newest taprooms in Taipei and we visited for a beer (or three) one weekend in May 2026 after going to a baseball game at Taipei dome.
A good looking craft beer in the heart of the city, Flow Brewing Taipei was founded by American brewers Joe Merrell and Tyler Rubin and usually has around 8 to 10 beers on tap – when we visited, the bar was crowded with expats and live sports was on TV.
We enjoyed their signature IPAs including the Dive Hazy Triple IPA (9.5%) and their Anna Hazy IPA (7%) – also on tap were craft beers from other breweries like Black Drongo (Yilan), Ugly Half and Taihu brewing.
Flow 4 packs of mixed cans from the fridge were also available to takeaway for NT$1,000.
More things to do in Xinyi including BeerGeek Micropub >
Floating Taipei
Easily one of the best craft beer bars in Taipei, ‘Floating Taipei’ is a short walk from Dihua Street and Taipei Main Station.
It is also the first bar we’ve even ‘Bean’ to…sorry…been to that is showing episodes of Mr Bean all around the pub walls – which we kind of like (Mr Bean is a national UK treasure to us)!
A modern taproom with 18 different craft beers on tap, we opted for two local beers – Taiwan Earl Grey Tea Beer (5.2% and seriously addictive) and ‘Ugly Half’ Big Three XPA (4.4%), brewed in nearby Wugu District.
Both cost us NT$250 per ‘pint’ (or you have a smaller glass for NT$220). They had international beers on tap too like our favorite New Zealand breweries, The Garage Project and 8Wired.
As well as Mr Bean and great beers on tap, Floating Taipei has baseball figures and merchandise lining the walls plus several well stocked chillers with at least 50 other types of canned craft beers – so a great place to do a Taiwan takeaway.
Other recommended Taipei craft beer bars include Time Beer at Raohe Night Market, 精酿专卖, BUDA 好運豬酒吧Taproom & Wine in Gongguan, Learn Bar 學吧精釀, Kahu Craft Beer 精釀啤酒花園 and Hit Cat Brewing in Songshan District – we feature all these bars in our Taipei craft beer bar guide >
Breweries, craft beer bars and brewery tours outside Taipei
Jim & Dad’s Brewing Company, Yilan
A beer fuelled visit to Jim & Dad’s Brewing company in Yilan County – talk about brews with views! We dropped by this gorgeous craft beer taproom located in an old gravel warehouse in the rural Yuanshan Township of Yilan.
Jim & Dads was founded by a father-son team and opened in 2015. The brewery has a large tasting hall, outdoor seating and a five-story observation tower overlooking the Lanyang Plain.
We sampled many of their wonderful beer flavours that use local Taiwanese ingredients including passionfruit, Lil’Kumquat and Lemony Sip, plus we snacked on burgers (juicy!) and fried platters from their food menu.
We even tried their current seasonal asparagus flavoured beer! Which actually tasted really good!
The brewery offers guided tours and tastings which need to be booked ahead, but please note they don’t offer English speaking tours.
You might like our things to do in Yilan County guide including Kavalan Distillery.
Yongjin Brewery Tour
A little out of Taipei and a possibility for airport layover / transit passengers too, this Taoyuan 湧金啤酒廠 Yongjin brewery tour costs just NT$200 / £5 / $6.50, including a NT$50 beer credit.
You’ll get to walk through the brewing plant, learn about modern Taiwan beers plus sip their signature beers like their honey infused Golden Ale Beer 5.0%, Caramel Brown Ale 5.0% and their Imperial Brown Ale 7.5%.
Stop in the taproom after for more best beers at the source – book your Taoyuan Yongjin Brewery Tour here or visit their official website.
Please note Yongjin Brewery (湧金啤酒廠) is a 30 minute walk (or 12 minute taxi ride) from Chang Gung Memorial Hospital MRT station.
Kavalan Distillery
One of the best (and booziest) things to do in Yilan, a trip to Kavalan Distillery 金車噶瑪蘭酒廠 will likely result in high ‘spirits’.
From learning about the production process to tasting or even blending your own unique Kavalan whisky, this is a treat for curious travellers or seasoned whisky connoisseurs.
Yilan was chosen as the location for the Kavalan distillery due to the region’s clean water supply from the snow mountains which is used in the brewing process.
Visitors can see the production process up close, take part in various activities or just enjoy some food and drinks in the splendid Spirit Castle.
From making your own whisky to the rather excellent gift-shop (plus free souvenir ink stamps), raise your glass and check out our guide to Kavalan Distillery >
Check out this Yilan Winery day tour (Kavalan Whisky / Jim & Dad’s Brewing Company / Yilan Distillery / Shenkeng Old Street) on Klook >
Yilan Distillery Chia Chi Lan Wine Museum
A former working distillery in Yilan that was built over 100 years ago, Chia Chi Lan Liquor Museum is now more of a cultural park and old fashioned complex, with lots of food stalls, shops and historical distillery artifacts to see.
There are several ‘big’ things to pose with like a huge can of Taiwan Beer and large bottles of Yilan liquor and wine, plus massive stores selling Yilan produce like frozen scallion food products and oysters.
Free to visit, you can also try the local alcohol here plus there is a cafe selling different types of beer.
Taipei Bar Crawl
We’ve already given you lots of information about how to visit the best beer bars, breweries and distilleries by yourselves but you could always consider a Taipei bar crawl.
TourMeAway run a Taipei Pub Crawl where you visit 4 pubs in 3 hours. The tour operates Wednesday through Saturdays and you can book it on Klook (use the code CKTRAVELS for a discount) or book direct with TourMeAway (get up to 15% off using our TAIWANDERERS discount code).
Our favourite craft beer bars outside of Taiwan
Yilan
Black Drongo Brewing Co. 烏鶖啤酒
Another reason to enjoy Yilan is their craft beer scene – cheers to Black Drongo Brewing Co. 烏鶖啤酒 opposite Yilan Dongmen Night Market; they have around 20 draft beers on tap including 15 which they brew themselves.
Prices vary greatly too between cities and breweries but Black Drongo is one of the less expensive ones we’ve been to with 500 ml / large beers costing around $NTD 200 to 230 (around £5 / $6USD / $9 AUD).
Kaohsiung
KW2 Zhangmen Craft Beer Bar
When we talk about the Taiwan craft beer scene in our Taiwan Travel Tips (TTT) Facebook group, we always get members saying Kaohsiung’s best located craft beer bar is 掌門精釀啤酒Zhangmen Brewery at KW2, looking out over the water.
With an outdoor terrace facing towards the harbor plus an air-conditioned taproom indoors, this is a great Kaohsiung craft beer bar for all weathers (but especially so at sunset) – plus the beer range is broad and quaffability quality excellent.
Check out our things to do in Kaohsiung guide >
Tainan
Outside of Taiwan, we think one of the best Taiwan cities for craft beer bars is Tainan.
We’ve listed several of our favourite Tainan craft beer bars here – like We Drink Beer 沃隼釀造 and Sparrow brewing – but we think our favourite place to drink in Tainan is Piao-Lounge Craft Beer Bar 漂浪.啤啤.
Compact and cosy over two levels, Piao-Lounge is a neighborhood craft beer bar with around 12 beers on tap, focussed mainly on Taiwan beers plus a few US and European beers.
On tap when we visited were local Taiwan breweries like Red Point, Yilan’s Black Drongo Brewery, Jim & Dad’s, Ugly Half, Flow Brewing and several more.
Taiwan beer merchandise
Although we are partial to Taiwan craft beer bars, there is a big market for Taiwan Beer souvenirs from cool clocks made out of compressed glass bottles to super cute beer can stickers.
Other malt merchandise includes Taiwan Beer themed tote-bags (perfect for carrying a 6 pack) plus cute can keyrings and fridge magnets. Cheers / Ganbei!
Taiwanderers tip – sometimes in Taiwan convenience stores like 7-Eleven Taiwan, we’ve seen Taiwan Beer offers such as buy 6 cans and get a free souvenir glass or bag. So buy big to get free gifts. You’re welcome – with the money you’ve saved with this tip, why not buy us a beer?
7-Eleven Taiwan beer / craft range
7-Elevens in Taiwan have huge chillers and fridges filled with all types of beer, plus pre-mixed / RTD (ready to drink) alcohol.
The most common beer to buy in Taiwan 7-Eleven is the Taiwan Beer. A small can of Taiwan Beer Classic costs NT$34 whilst a small can of standard Taiwan Beer (5% – slightly stronger) costs NT$37. Larger cans cost NT$50.
Taiwan’s craft beer and brewery scene is massive and you’ll also find unique (and very strong) craft beers in 7-Eleven Taiwan including green plum ale and yummy yuzu beer. Ready to drink cocktail cans around 8 to 10% ABV are quite common too.
You can also buy international beers in Taiwan 7-Eleven stores like Budweiser (USA), Super Dry Asahi (Japan), Jeju Beer (South Korea), Heineken (Holland) and Kronenbourg 1664 (France).
You might like our 7-Eleven Taiwan food and drink article or themed 7-Elevens in Taipei.
Bonus (Former) Distillery – Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei
Taiwan’s best creative park (and most bustling), Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei is packed full of permanent and pop-up shops and exhibitions, street performers plus bars (like Vinyl Decision) and restaurants.
The park is located on the site of a former Taipei distillery, originally Houji Distillery (芳醸株式会社酒造廠) that closed down in the 1980s and which now has a new lease of life.
The historic site is also rather distinctive, with red brick buildings and warehouses all transformed into thriving business, a reminder of the previous industrial use – the banyan trees and their long roots encased in the walls and old plum brewery buildings also make for very picturesque backdrops.
PS Sadly the Zhangmen craft beer bar at Huashan 1914 has now closed down.
You might like our guide to Huashan 1914 Creative Park in Taipei >
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