# Cambodia

Country page of DA Caps, a collection of beer bottle caps. Web page: https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country/kh/info

- Official name: Kingdom of Cambodia
- Local name: ព្រះរាជាណាចក្រកម្ពុជា
- Caps in the collection: 7 (https://dacaps.imcoll.com/country_caps/182)
- Brands: 4

## Beer in Cambodia

The old drink of Cambodia was rice wine, shared from a jar through bamboo straws. Beer came with the French, who ruled the country as a protectorate from 1863. In September 1927 the Saigon company Brasseries et Glacières de l'Indochine (BGI) was formed to take over breweries and ice works in Cholon, Saigon, Phnom Penh, Haiphong and Tourane, and in 1939 the economist Pierre Robequain listed a brewery at Phnom Penh among those built first for European customers and working mostly with imported materials. In 1954-58 BGI still sent 203,073 hl of beer from its Vietnamese brewery to Cambodia, while its Phnom Penh works made soft drinks.

After independence in 1953 the government commissioned a brewery of its own at Sihanoukville, chosen for its clear spring water. A French contractor built it with technical help from France, and the architect Vann Molyvann designed the building; Prince Norodom Sihanouk opened it in 1965. Bayon was its first brand, and Angkor Beer, which one source dates to 1963, was the other. The brewery stopped working in 1975. In 1991 Cambrew Ltd, a Malaysian-owned company, took over the site; after nine months of rebuilding it brewed again in 1992, the year it also took the PepsiCo licence, and Bayon came back in 1995. It is often said that the project was already planned in the 1920s, under the French, but no source we found confirms it.

Foreign brewers followed. The Vattanac Group's Progress Import-Export, an importer of beer since 1988, formed Cambodia Brewery Ltd in 1994 with Asia Pacific Breweries, later Heineken's, for Tiger, Anchor and ABC Stout; Heineken owned it alone from 2014 and on 10 March 2017 opened a second brewery near Phnom Penh (3 million hl, USD 100 million), where Heineken itself is brewed. Carlsberg bought 50% of Cambrew in 2005, 75% in August 2018 and the rest on 1 November 2019. The Sihanoukville plant has a design capacity of 12 million hl and brews Angkor Premium, Angkor Extra Stout, Klang and Black Panther, with Carlsberg, Tuborg, Guinness and Asahi under licence.

Local capital built the next breweries. Chip Mong Group bought 9 ha at Cheung Ek in Phnom Penh in 2009, built the Khmer Brewery there with Ziemann Holvrieka from January 2010 and launched Cambodia Beer in 2010; the brewery was formally opened in 2012, grew in 2013 and in 2017 (USD 120 million), when it became Khmer Beverages. Kingdom Breweries, founded in 2009 in a former Nestlé factory on the Tonle Sap, launched Clouded Leopard Pilsener in September 2010 and also brews for regional craft brands. Ganzberg Brewery in Phnom Penh, run by the German brewmaster Bernd Kirsch from late 2010, followed. Craft brewers and brewpubs began to open from about 2017, with craft beer bars in Phnom Penh, Kampot and Siem Reap.

Two large plants opened in 2021. Vattanac Brewery in Phnom Penh (USD 140 million, approved on 10 June 2020, 6.5 million hl) held its first brewing ceremony on 21 October 2021. Hanuman Beverages, of the Khieu family, started the first 1 million hl stage of its USD 160 million brewery in Kandal province in October 2021, after a brewpub in Phnom Penh in 2019. By June 2020 the country counted ten industrial brewing companies. On 2 July 2026 Hanuman announced its launch in the United States, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.

Sources:
- [Carlsberg Group: Cambodia, Cambrew key dates](https://carlsberggroup.com/who-we-are/about-the-carlsberg-group/global-presence/cambodia/)
- [English Wikipedia: Cambrew Brewery](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambrew_Brewery)
- [English Wikipedia: Angkor Beer](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Angkor_Beer)
- [M+ Hong Kong: Vann Molyvann Drawings (SKD Brewery, 1965)](https://www.mplus.org.hk/en/collection/archives/vann-molyvann-drawings-ca57/)
- [Les entreprises coloniales: Brasseries et Glacieres de l'Indochine 1927-1975 (PDF)](https://www.entreprises-coloniales.fr/inde-indochine/BGI_1927-1975.pdf)
- [88 Bamboo: Cambodia's Big 5 Beers and a brief history (11 Oct 2026)](https://88bamboo.co/blogs/craft-beer/taste-testing-cambodias-big-5-beers-a-brief-history-of-southeast-asias-most-vibrant-new-brewing-scene)
- [inside.beer: Cambodia, Carlsberg buys remaining shares in Cambrew (1 Nov 2019)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/cambodia-carlsberg-buys-remaining-shares-in-cambrew)
- [inside.beer: Cambodia, Heineken opens 3 million hl brewery (11 Mar 2017)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/cambodia-heineken-opens-3-million-hl-brewery)
- [inside.beer: Cambodia, Two new breweries approved (17 Jun 2020)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/cambodia-two-new-breweries-approved)
- [inside.beer: Cambodia, Vattanac brewery starts operations (22 Oct 2021)](https://www.inside.beer/news/detail/cambodia-vattanac-brewery-starts-operations)
- [English Wikipedia: Khmer Beverages](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khmer_Beverages)
- [English Wikipedia: Kingdom Breweries](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_Breweries)
- [B2B Cambodia: Cambodia Craft Brewery Industry (20 Aug 2020)](https://b2b-cambodia.com/articles/cambodia-craft-brewery-industry)
- [B2B Cambodia: Hanuman Beverages gets green light for 160.6 million brewery (2020)](https://b2b-cambodia.com/news/hanuman-beverages-gets-green-light-for-160-6-million-brewery)
- [VLB Berlin: Hanuman Beverages new member (2022)](https://www.vlb-berlin.org/en/news/hanuman-new-vlb-member)
- [VLB Berlin: Vattanac Brewery new member (2025)](https://www.vlb-berlin.org/en/news/vattanac-cambodia-memember-vlb)
- [Manila Times, PR Newswire: A New Era for Hanuman Beverages (2 Jul 2026)](https://www.manilatimes.net/2026/07/02/tmt-newswire/pr-newswire/a-new-era-for-hanuman-beverages-expanding-the-global-footprint-through-world-class-innovation-and-cambodian-excellence/2377634)
- [World Statesmen: Cambodia (state forms and dates)](https://worldstatesmen.org/Cambodia.html)
- [English Wikipedia: Flag of Cambodia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Cambodia)

## Breweries (4)

- [Angkor Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/1272.md) — 3 caps, 1963–
- [Hanuman Beverages Co. Ltd.](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/7161.md) — 1 cap, 2021–
- [Khmer Brewery](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/3188.md) — 2 caps, 2009–
- [Kingdom Breweries](https://dacaps.imcoll.com/brewery/2208.md) — 1 cap, 2009–