If you’ve spent any time on the beautiful island before you’ll know that the Bali beer options can leave you somewhat wanting. Imported regular larger is expensive and craft beer can be hard to find.

Don’t gemme wrong a good ol’ Binnie (read with an Aussie accent, short for Bintang, the most popular local beer) will do the job on a hot day and for only a couple of dollars but if you’re into your beer, that’s not going to cut it for long. Bali Hai and Prost aren’t much better either.

Bali is getting better for craft beer now though.

It can now even been found in the sticky-floored-vodka-redbull-double-double filled Kuta all the way through Seminyak and up to Canggu.

Good luck anywhere else in Indonesia but with craft beer not just being imported to the island of Bali now but breweries popping up too, you’ll manage to find the right pint for you somewhere.

For ease, I’ve separated out where to find the best craft beer in Bali by area to save you searching around wherever you happen to be.

***Disclaimer: Alcohol prices for anything other than local beer are high. The craft beer available has gotten a lot better in Bali in recent years, especially with the Black Sand Brewery opening up, but the cheapest bottled craft might disappoint you and pints of the stuff aren’t cheap***

 

Where to find Craft Beer in Bali in

Kuta | Seminyak | Canggu

 

Craft Beer in Kuta

Beer & Co.

Right in the middle of Kuta, nestled in the center of the madness on Jalan Raya Legian, there is an off-license (that’s a bottle shop or liquor store to any Aussies and yanks that need a translation) which has rows of craft beer in the fridges one side and then a bar the other.

You can therefore either go in and buy whichever IPA or pale ale takes your fancy to take back to your hotel and chill by the pool with or prop yourself up at the bar and have the drink there. Beer & Co. has plenty of other alcoholic drinks in the bar section too if you happen to be there with people who don’t like beer but would like a tipple.

Since it is basically an off-license the price of the beer is extremely reasonable for craft beer by Bali standards.

When I say one side has fridges with the beer though and the other a bar, imagine the distance between those two sides like a corridor, and then shrink the space. It’s a small place but it’s open late, fun, good for a mingle and they have better-tasting beer than almost everywhere around for a fraction of the price.

 

Stark Craft Beer Bars

***I’ve listed this as Stark Craft Beer Bars since until really recently there was a bar called Stark’s House just by Skygarden in Kuta. It’s apparently permanently closed at the moment though, however so is Skygarden. And Skygarden gets closed and re-opens all the time so it’s still potentially worth a shot. If not there is still a Stark Craft Beer Garden down by Lippo Mall in Kuta.***

Stark is one of the few craft beers actually brewed in Bali. For that reason, it doesn’t cost much more than the local beers and certainly wouldn’t set you back as much as a Heineken. Before other craft beers started being imported it was by far one of the best options to still get a good beer in Bali.

And they have some bars around where you can get it on draught as well as by the bottle in supermarkets.

Craft Beer in Seminyak

Hoi Polloi

Hoi Polloi in Seminyak was the first place in Bali you were able to find beer from the Little Creatures Brewery in Australia on tap. It’s now available at Finns Rec in Canggu too. The closest next place to find it after that in southeast Asia is Singapore (which has even more craft beer options).

Hoi Polloi looks small at the front but it has a large beer garden at the back and if you’re from England, and feeling a bit homesick for pubs, I can thoroughly recommend a bit of time hanging out on their picnic benches to fix it.

They serve a large collection of craft beer on draft and in bottles with deals most days of the week on food and beer.

They also have some of the nicer wine I’ve had in Bali and serve it in large glasses (it’ll cost you more than a large wine in London though).

Their main food focus is pizza but they also have steak nights and a lot of other meat options (not a great one for the veggies among us).

 

Wild Habit

Wild Habit has craft beer, good wine and what I think I would now actually say is the best pizza in Seminyak.

That’s what they do, craft beer and pizza. And it’s a delight.

If you’re looking for bang for your buck though you’ll be better off at Hoi Polloi as their craft beer pints aren’t far off the price of a third at Wild Habit.

 

Bintang Supermarket

Don’t be put off by the name, Bintang means star in Indonesian so a lot of things end up with that name without there being any link to the famous local Bintang beer.

You can only get one type of craft beer at Bintang supermarket and that’s Stark but they’re about 35,000 IDR a bottle (£2, $3.5 AUD or $2.5 USD) so worth stocking up if you want some at home.

 

Red & White Off-licence

There’s a Red & White off-license just opposite Bali Deli on Kunti I in Seminyak but the stock should be similar at all of them (it’s a chain). There you can pick up 4 packs of BrewDog. The cheapest 4 pack is about 400,000 IDR ($40 AUD, £20 GBP, $30 USD), with the more expensive one sitting at about 600,000 IDR ($60 AUD, £35 GBP, $42 USD).

 

Mad Ronin

Prefer your craft beer with ramen noodles over pizza? Look no further than Mad Ronin on Batu Belig heading towards Petitenget.

Their craft beer bottles ain’t cheap (150,000 IDR a bottle on average) and they sometimes run out of a few options but it is well-positioned if you like a speakeasy and want to pop upstairs to 40 Thieves or across to Baker Street Social afterwards.

 

Flat Stanley

Back on Pizza and craft beer, soooooorrrry. On Petitenget, next to the Alila, Flat Stanley aims to bring Californian vibes to Bali

If you’re on a budget head there on a Wednesday where they have Pizza and craft beer for 150,000 IDR.

The Pizza is wonderful but they only have two craft beer options so it is a bit limited.

 

Galaxy Sports Bar

So we don’t get too fancy and carried away with this, if you just want some Stark IPA in a bar in Seminyak head to the Galaxy Sports Bar on Dhyana Pura where they’ll hook you up.

 

Craft Beer in Canggu 

Black Sand Brewery

There is now a craft brewery in Canggu. And it’s a massive bar too.

It seems a few people have felt the frustration at the lack of good beer in Bali and so did the owner of Black Sand Brewery. So he decided to do something about it. 

They brew on-site, the beer is good and very reasonably priced as somehow they’ve managed to work things out to be allowed to brew it in Bali.

Black Sand Brewery is great for a Friday night out in Canggu.

 

Beer & Co

Like in Kuta there is a Beer & Co in Canggu which again is essentially an off-license also with a bar inside.

That also means if you’d like to pop into Lovster and get yourself a roll to go with your craft beer there though you are allowed to.

 

Scran

Apparently, Scran means food in northern (soz, English Southern/Northen bants). Scran is a shop next door to the English pub the Plumbers Arms on Raya Banyar Anyar. Run but the same owners Scran sells Stark beer at about 35,000 IDR a bottle and you can use GoShop (on the Gojek app, which is like Uber for motorbikes) to get it delivered right to your door for almost the exact same price #LazyWinning.

 

Da Romeo

We’ll talk about Da Romeo in a lot more detail another time as it’s one of the best places to get Pizza and cocktails in Bali but it also has craft beer. When we went they had run out of a few of their usual options but they still had a good selection.

Always the Pizza places that have the craft isn’t is 🤔.

If you want to drink the Bali beer on your Bali travels or vacation then Bintang is the one you should stick with.

Bintang beer basically is Bali beer.

And most other drinks will cost you quite a lot more in Bali. But if you want to stick to Bali prices and still have craft Stark Beer will get you through good enough. And it is much better to drink beer in Bali since buying spirits in Bali comes with risks of never knowing if it’s legitimate. And buying wine in Bali pretty much requires taking out a mortgage if you want it not to fizz on your tongue and be a thoroughly unpleasant experience.

Much better to stick to beer in Bali.