YAU Beer: Hong Kong elements are our root, more flavours coming next year

Craft Beer is rapidly gaining popularity in Hong Kong. As one of the leading brands in the city, YAU is proud of its Hong Kong spirit of friendship and community. In addition to brewing three craft beer flavours with local ingredients, the brand also rolled out a platform to support local craftsmanship, further strengthening the bonds between the brand and Hongkongers.

Established in 2017, YAU is one of Hong Kong’s leading craft beer brands. The brand is proud of its roots in the city, from sourcing local ingredients to create the beer to collaborating with local design trio BrainRental Lab for packaging design that creatively showcases Hong Kong's unique culture.

Currently, YAU’s beer is offered across restaurants, coffee shops, supermarkets and online platforms in the city. However, only three flavours are available.

“We want to stay focused (on what we are doing) so we only create three flavours: pale ale, lager and wheat,” says James Beacher, commercial head, C&S Brands at Carlsberg Brewery Hong Kong.This could be the major difference compared to other brands in Hong Kong. However, launching new flavours is in the pipeline. Asked if he could tell some hints about the new offerings, Beacher just laughs: “Stay tuned!”

Marketing has been doing a lot of interviews this year but we have been asking one question to all interviewees: the impact of COVID-19 on their business.

As restaurants and bars have been required to close several times this year, the business of YAU, undoubtedly, has been influenced as the brand relies on these outlets. Even before the pandemic, YAU has been collaborating with delivery platforms to reach more customers. The brand's partnership with foodpanda’s grocery delivery arm pandamart helped drive more sales and made the beer more accessible.

As a brand supporting local artists and craftsmen, the craft beer brand launched Project YAU, a platform supporting local artisans and celebrating Hong Kong’s unique creativity and spirit.In November, YAU collaborated with three photography enthusiasts and the owner of Hong Kong Reminiscence to launch the city’s first locally produced rice paper films showcasing various Hong Kong cityscapes. A total of 100 rice paper films were produced under the collaboration.

To celebrate their passion and success, YAU invited the creators at an event to talk about their dreams and stories of producing these works.

Prior to this event, Project YAU also collaborated with illustrator JASONTOMMY, candle company BeCandle, and Saturn Wood Workshop, telling their stories of pursuing their dreams and similarities to the brand. Looking forward, bringing the local elements to customers will still be YAU’s plan. Some activations are already in the pipeline and will be rolled out after Chinese New Year. If COVID-19-related regulations will be relaxed in the future, the brand will continue to host offline events at bars or restaurants, telling the stories of YAU beer and local craftsmanship.