Beer came to Suriname in two ways. The Indigenous peoples made casiri, a fermented cassava drink, long before the Dutch took the colony from the English in 1667, and stout is still an offering in some Indigenous rituals. Everything else was imported from the Netherlands. Around 1924 Trio Stout of the Zuid-Hollandsche Bierbrouwerij appeared in Paramaribo through the importers Van der Schroeff and Van der Voet; it became a tonic drink for men and stayed after the brewery was bought by d'Oranjeboom in 1960. It is still brewed, by United Dutch Breweries and since 2024 formally by Martens.

Suriname had no brewery until the 1950s. Around 1950 two brewers from Zeeland, the brothers Piet and Arthur Dumoleyn, decided to carry on their business there. Heineken is said to have refused so as not to upset its importer, and Amstel took a share instead. Surinaamse Brouwerij N.V. was built in Beekhuizen, Paramaribo, with a second-hand plant from Zeeland, and Prince Bernhard opened it in October 1955. The first Parbo Bier was brewed at the end of December 1955 and won the Prix d'Excellence at a beer competition in Ghent in 1958. Output rose from 15,000 hl a year at the start to 120,000 hl by 1973, and within a few years Parbo had over 60% of the market. Heineken took over Amstel in 1968 and the brewery has been part of Heineken since. Suriname became independent on 25 November 1975.

Parbo Bier is a 5% pale lager made with pale malt and rice from Nickerie, and it still holds about 80% of the market. Its one-litre returnable bottle, the djogo, is a national symbol of sharing. The brewery was among the first in the Americas with both ISO and HACCP certificates. The range grew with Parbo Light, Parbo Chiller with passion fruit and lime, Parbo Radler (2016) and Parbo Bright, and strong anniversary editions: Parbo 6.8% in October 2023 and Parbo 7.0 in May 2025.

The first rival was Sranan Biri. In December 2012 the brewery launched a dark pilsner of that name for the holidays, but the Transatlantic Group of Companies, which had registered the brand in 2010 and was building its own brewery, won a court order against it in April 2013. The Transatlantic brewery on Ringweg Zuid in Paramaribo, financed by Hakrinbank and planned for up to 60,000 litres a day, was to have its first cans on the shelves in November 2013 and was officially opened on 9 October 2014. It stopped on 1 July 2016 for economic reasons. Surinaamse Brouwerij bought its land, buildings, equipment and the brand that year with a EUR 4 million loan from Heineken International, and relaunched Sranan Biri in December 2016 as an economy beer in 50 cl cans.

Until 2021 a law capped the brewery at 200,000 hl a year; in November 2021 Parliament raised the limit to 500,000 hl, and Heineken is now brewed locally: cans from August 2022 and returnable bottles from November 2022. 2025, the 70th anniversary year, was a record year, with a free festival for more than 20,000 people on Independence Square. In August 2026 the first commercial export to Guyana left, two containers of Parbo Bier and Parbo Chiller in 275 ml bottles with Rudisa Agencies as partner. Craft brewing is small: Wan Bon Biri, a micro-brewery and beer garden in Paramaribo started by Robert Chin Fo Sieeuw in December 2019, brews with local fruit such as markoesa and awara, and has some beers brewed in Amstelveen.