Brewing in Costa Rica began with the coffee money of the mid-19th century. In February 1852 the state fixed the licence for opening a brewery at 50 pesos a month, and around 1853 the German traveller Moritz Wagner noted that tavern beer was a new drink in San José. In April 1856 the merchant house Joy & von Schröter advertised its Cerveza de Torres, a barley and hops beer, at two pesos for a dozen half-bottles; the brewery closed in 1861, which La Nación puts down to a failed dark beer and high licence fees. In 1867 the Englishman James Hasland and the German Arthur Kopper opened a brewery in Cartago, and in 1868 the state had Karl Johanning build and run one in San José; it lost money and the state never brewed again. By the 1880s at least six breweries worked in San José and Cartago: in 1885 the Cervecería del León claimed 7,500 bottles a day, and in 1887 the Irazú brewery installed modern machinery.

The brewery that shaped the country's beer was opened in Cartago in 1888 by José Traube Tichy, a brewmaster from Bohemia, as the Cervecería del Globo. It moved to San José and in 1900 to the Río Torres, where it became the Gran Cervecería Traube; its Pilsen, Selecta and Pájaro Azul were sold across the country. In 1908 the brothers Lindo Morales, of Jamaican origin, founded the Florida Ice and Farm Co. (FIFCO) at La Florida de Siquirres to make ice and farm, and in 1912 it bought the Traube brewery: today's Pilsen is the beer of Traube. The Ortega family of Spanish origin brewed Imperial, launched in 1924, and Bavaria; FIFCO bought the Ortega brewery in 1957. In 1966 FIFCO opened a new plant in Echeverría, Heredia, the Cervecería Costa Rica, and the Traube works closed the same year. Cervecería Tropical, founded in 1966 by Cuban emigrants, sold its first beer in August 1970; FIFCO took a majority in 1977 and the rest in 1998, so that the country's beer came from one company.

A 2025 university study of FIFCO's history says that the company comes close to a monopoly. In 1986 it took the licence to make and sell Heineken, in 1995 it launched Rock Ice, brewed with ice, and in 2002 Heineken bought 25% of its beverage arm. Imperial leads the market, Pilsen is second, and FIFCO is said to hold about 75% of all beer sold.

Craft beer came late. The restaurant K&S in Curridabat, opened in 1997, brewed Chivo Blanco and K&S Lager until 2009, and the brewpub Cabeza Grande opened in San José in 1998 and moved in 2010 to Lake Arenal, where it became the Lake Arenal Brewery. The modern scene is dated to 2010, when the Costa Rica Craft Brewing Co. began selling Segua and Libertas; only three craft beers were then registered with the Health Ministry, and about 85 six years later. In 2012 came the Cervecera del Centro with its German-style Ambar, the first craft beer festival (about 400 visitors, some 3,000 in 2014), the first importers of malt and hops for home brewers and the association of craft brewers, whose president counted about four breweries then and some 40 in 2016. Treintaycinco, which started around 2013, was the largest craft brewer by volume in 2016. FIFCO answered in 2014 with its own craft arm, La Micro Brewing Company, and its Domingo 7 beers. In 2018 the association created an independence seal for small producers and counted more than 100 breweries; estimates now run to about 200, most in the capital and the tourist areas.

On 22 September 2025 FIFCO signed the sale of its beverage, food and retail business, with Imperial, Pilsen, Bavaria and the Cervecería Costa Rica, to Heineken for 3.25 billion US dollars. The deal closed on 30 January 2026: Heineken, which had held 25% since 2002, now owns all of Distribuidora La Florida, and the FIFCO chief executive Rolando Carvajal stays to lead the business. A July 2026 report in the London Drinker notes that Costa Rican drinkers mostly stay with the FIFCO beers, that craft brewers import their hops and that brewing in a warm country is not easy.