Beer in the Congo basin is older than any brewery. In the east the home-brewed banana beer kasiksi survives in North Kivu, where it is served at weddings and at the enthronement of traditional chiefs, and in the west the traditional drink is palm wine (malafu). Under Belgian rule bottled beer was imported, mostly from Germany and the Netherlands. After the First World War Belgian businessmen with bank backing decided to brew locally; company histories say the aim was a standard product to replace the home-made alcohol of the time.

The first industrial brewery was the Brasserie de Léopoldville, founded in Léopoldville (Kinshasa) on 23 October 1923 with 4 million francs of capital; it soon became Bralima (Brasseries, Limonaderies et Malteries). Its first beer, Primus, left the plant at the end of December 1926 (sources give the 17th, 26th or 27th). Primus was not pasteurised and could be sold only in the city until the director Visez introduced pasteurisation; output grew from 3,500 hl a month in 1936 to 10,800 hl in 1945. After the war Bralima opened plants at Bukavu (1950-51), Kisangani (1957), Boma (1958) and Mbandaka (1972), and later at Lubumbashi.

In Katanga, settlers in Élisabethville (Lubumbashi) began brewing on a small scale on 24 April 1922 because European beer was hard to get, and a company was formed in Brussels on 8 December 1923. The Brasseries du Katanga brewed the first Simba in 1925 under Paul Alsteen, opened a second brewery at Likasi in 1931, and added Kamina (1953) and Kolwezi (1957). By 1960 capacity was 500,000 hl a year, and in 1973 Simba and Tembo reached 974,000 hl. The Likasi, Kolwezi and Kamina plants closed in 1991. Interbrew sold the company to Castel's BGI group on 12 April 1994, and Kolwezi reopened in 2009.

The other big name began at Stanleyville (Kisangani), where General Alfred Dupont founded the Brasseries de Stanleyville in 1949 (beer: Stanor); its main plant was inaugurated in 1951. Breweries followed at Luluabourg (Kananga), Léopoldville and Paulis (Isiro), and the four merged as Unibra in 1960, with Skol as its main beer. Pierre Castel started the Société des Brasseries de Kinshasa in October 1973. BGI bought all of Unibra in February 1996, and the Kisangani plant went to Bralima. The company took the name Bracongo on 30 May 1997, and in 2007 it passed its Mbuji-Mayi and Kananga plants to Brasimba. Bralima has been Heineken's since 1986.

Two groups share the market today: Heineken's Bralima (Primus, Mützig, Turbo King, Legend) and Castel, through Bracongo (Skol, Castel Beer, Beaufort Lager from 2014) and Brasimba (Simba, Tembo). Brasimba opened a plant at Beni, North Kivu, in December 2012 after an investment of about 125 million euros; its output there tripled to 600,000 hl between 2013 and 2021. No craft brewery was found. Bralima's Bukavu and Goma sites stopped production in early 2025; Heineken reported in June that it had lost operational control of them and booked a 113 million euro impairment, and on 19 November 2025 the Bukavu brewery was transferred to Synergy Ventures Holdings of Mauritius for 1 euro, with a three-year buy-back option. On 10 April 2026 Heineken sold the rest of Bralima, the breweries at Kinshasa, Kisangani and Lubumbashi with about 730 staff, to Mauritius-based ELNA Holdings, and keeps its brands under licence.