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| 1886–1948 |  British Burma: Upper Burma annexed on 1 January 1886 after the Third Anglo-Burmese War and ruled as a province of British India (Arakan and Tenasserim had been taken in 1826, Lower Burma in 1852), a separate Crown Colony from 1 April 1937, occupied by Japan in 1942–1945 |
| 4 Jan 1948 | independence from the United Kingdom on 4 January 1948, under the Burma Independence Act, 1947: the sovereign Union of Burma (Union of Myanmar in the Burmese form), a republic from the first day; the English name Myanmar came only on 18 June 1989 |
| 1948–1974 |  Union of Burma (Union of Myanmar), under the constitution of 1947 in force from 4 January 1948; the red flag with the blue canton and the white star among five small stars was hoisted at independence |
| 1974–1988 |  Socialist Republic of the Union of Burma, under the constitution that came into operation on 3 January 1974; the flag with the cogwheel, the ear of paddy and 14 stars replaced that of 1948 the same day |
| 1988–2011 | Union of Myanmar, the name set by the law of the State Law and Order Restoration Council of 19 October 1988 (retroactive from 18 September 1988), the English form Union of Myanmar from 18 June 1989; the flag of 1974 stayed in use until 21 October 2010 |
| 2011– |  Republic of the Union of Myanmar, under the constitution of 2008, which came into operation on 31 January 2011; the present yellow, green and red flag with the white star was adopted on 21 October 2010 |
Myanmar's first beers were brewed in villages. Home-brewing of rice, millet or corn, flavoured with fruits, spices or herbs, has a long history, and Luke Corbin's Heritage Drinks of Myanmar describes fourteen traditional drinks still made as part of village economies. Commercial brewing began in 1886, the year Britain annexed Upper Burma: the British turned a cannon factory in Mandalay, set up in 1859 by Crown Prince Kanaung, into the Dyer Meakin (Burma) Brewery, whose first brewer was Edward Dyer. Under the Japanese occupation it was the Takasago Brewery; it was nationalised in 1954 as the State Brewery, renamed several times, made the People's Brewery and Distillery under the Ministry of Industry in 1965, and was bankrupt by the early 1990s.
A joint venture of 1993 with the Singapore firm Yaung Chi Oo Trading ended when the military took the plant back in 1998. The first new brewery was Myanmar Brewery Ltd, formed on 29 March 1995 by Union of Myanmar Economic Holdings (UMEHL) and Asia Pacific Breweries, a Fraser & Neave and Heineken company. Its brewery at Pyinmabin, Mingaladon, Yangon, began in September 1996 with 140,000 hectolitres a year, making Tiger and Myanmar Beer; Fraser & Neave took over the foreign stake in 1997. Dagon Brewery in Yangon was set up by Myanmar Economic Corporation (MEC), Myanmar Golden Star and Brewinvest, a company founded by a Malaysian partner to whom Carlsberg lent money in 1996; Carlsberg sold its stake to MEC on 10 November 2004, days after EU sanctions named the brewery. Until 2015 Myanmar Brewery had the market almost to itself.
The opening of 2012-2015 brought foreign brewers back. Carlsberg returned in 2012 through a joint venture with Myanmar Golden Star and filled its first bottle at a US$75 million brewery in Bago on 7 May 2015, brewing Carlsberg, Tuborg and the local Yoma. Heineken's joint venture APB Alliance Brewery opened a US$60 million brewery at Hmawbi on 12 July 2015 for Tiger, Heineken and ABC Stout. In August 2015 Kirin of Japan bought Fraser & Neave's 55% of Myanmar Brewery for US$560 million, and the company lost Tiger and ABC to Heineken. In 2017 Kirin sold 4% to Myanma Economic Holdings (MEHL) and paid US$4.33 million for 51% of a new Mandalay Brewery Ltd, a base in the north. Burbrit, the first craft brewery, had its soft opening in North Dagon, Yangon, on 20 January 2017.
The coup of 1 February 2021 made the military's brewing interests a target. Boycotts cut Myanmar Brewery's sales volume by 46% in the first quarter of 2021, and its revenue fell from MMK 451.7 billion in 2019 to MMK 282.8 billion in 2021. Kirin announced its withdrawal on 14 February 2022 and agreed on 30 June 2022 to sell its 51% back to the company itself; the buyback closed in January 2023 at JPY 20.5 billion (about US$160 million), and Mandalay Brewery followed the same way. Myanmar Brewery is now wholly owned by MEHL and Dagon Beverages by MEC, both sanctioned by the EU, UK, US, Canada and Australia; on 28 September 2026 Monde Selection of Belgium withdrew the awards it had given to Dagon and Myanmar Brewery.
The foreign brewers carry on. Heineken Myanmar reported mid-teens volume growth for 2025, led by Tiger, ABC Stout and Heineken (results of 11 February 2026), and in March 2026 a labour federation threatened a boycott over agency contracts at Hmawbi. Carlsberg Myanmar still employs more than 400 people at Bago. Burbrit now lists six taprooms in Myanmar and one in Bangkok.
