FOOD PAIRING
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This brewery’s story doesn’t begin in Singapore. It begins on the banks of the Thames, in Lambeth, London, in 1836.
That’s where James Goding founded the original Lion Brewery Co, on land built with the help of architect Francis Edwards. For over a century, the brewery shipped heavily-hopped ales to trading posts scattered across the British Empire. A practical decision as much as a stylistic one. Hops don’t just add flavour; they help preserve beer on long journeys, which is exactly why those Lambeth brews were loaded with them before being sent halfway across the world. It’s an early, unglamorous precursor to what beer drinkers today call IPA.
The original brewery didn’t survive the 20th century. The building was damaged and eventually closed and demolished around 1949, and the site went on to house the Royal Festival Hall, a piece of London that has nothing to do with beer anymore. But the brewery’s lion statues outlived the building itself. They were preserved, and you can still find them today near Westminster Bridge and at Twickenham Stadium, home of English rugby, and an odd but fitting resting place for a set of statues that once watched over a working brewery.
Lion Brewery Co re-launched in 2017, in both London and Singapore, after roughly seven decades away. That’s not a small gap to close. A brewery returning after 70 years isn’t simply reviving a name. It’s rebuilding a beer for a world that’s changed completely since it last brewed one.
The Singapore chapter took that seriously. Rather than importing the same recipes that once left Lambeth’s docks, the beers were designed specifically for a tropical climate. A sensible move, given that a beer built for grey London weather doesn’t always translate to Singapore’s heat and humidity. Alongside that, the relaunch carried a stated focus on clean living and sustainable practices, positioning the brand as something more considered than a straightforward heritage cash-in.
Since then, Lion Brewery Co has expanded its Singapore range to include products like nitro stout cans. A format that brings a smoother, creamier pour to a style that’s traditionally associated with cooler climates, made more approachable for a local drinking scene that leans toward lighter, brighter beers.
There’s something genuinely interesting about a brand that can trace a direct line from Victorian-era trading posts to a can on a shelf in Singapore today. Most breweries don’t get to claim 190 years of history, let alone a history that includes statues surviving a demolished building and a brand sitting dormant for longer than most people’s working lives.
For craft beer Singapore drinkers, that history isn’t just trivia. It’s a useful lens for understanding why the beers taste the way they do. The tropical-climate focus isn’t a marketing line. It’s a direct response to the same problem 19th-century brewers were solving when they hopped their ales heavily enough to survive a sea voyage. The ingredients and methods have moved on, but the underlying challenge, brewing something that holds up in the heat, hasn’t changed at all.
If you want to taste that history for yourself, drop by Ki-setsu’s craft beer bar and ask what’s currently pouring from Lion Brewery Co’s Singapore range. And if you’re building out a wider tasting list while you’re at it, our pick of the best craft beer to try in Singapore is a good place to plan your next few rounds. Either way, it’s worth raising a glass to a brand that took 70 years off and still remembered how to brew.
