Malaysian craft brewery; drink it at its Chicken & Beer outlets and partner bars in Bangsar (also Damansara Utama, Petaling Jaya), Kuala Lumpur

PaperKite Brewing Co.

Go Fly Kite in Bangsar

3.5 of 5

For years, craft beer in Malaysia meant imports. Good ones, poured by obsessives, priced like a car payment. Alvin Lim was one of those obsessives. He helped found Taps Beer Bar, one of the oldest craft beer bars in the country, and spent a decade selling other people's beer before starting PaperKite Brewing Co. in 2022 to make the local beer that did not exist. The name comes from the childhood ritual of building a kite from bamboo and paper and failing until it finally flies. The rallying cry is a Malaysian idiom for telling the doubters where to go: Go Fly Kite.

The core range is deliberately plain: Pale Ale, IPA, Copper Ale and Oatmeal Stout, with a Hoppy Lager, a Witbier and seasonal brews built around Malaysian ingredients. Plain is not timid. The Copper Ale, an English-style bitter, took gold at the 2023 World Beer Awards and the Pale Ale took silver, the first such medals for a Malaysian craft beer, and the brewery has kept medalling there every year since. Lim says he wanted beers that drink well when the weather is warm. In this city, that is every day.

There is no grand brewhouse hall to tour. The place to drink it is PaperKite Chicken & Beer in Bangsar or Damansara Utama, where the menu is exactly what the sign says. It also pours at Taps, Tap Room and a long list of bars around the Klang Valley. Start with the Copper Ale, finish with the stout, and keep the chicken coming.

Order this

Copper Ale, Pale Ale, Oatmeal Stout, IPA, Fried chicken, more than seems sensible

The damage

$$

Go

Evenings at PaperKite Chicken & Beer in Bangsar or Damansara Utama, or wherever it is on tap

Find it

PaperKite Chicken & Beer, Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur (street address not confirmed)

Website

paperkitebeer.com