Turkmenistan declared its independence from the Soviet Union on 27 October 1991, after more than a century in the Russian Empire and then the USSR, of which it was a union republic for 67 years. The sources we could read do not describe any brewery in Russian Transcaspia or in the Turkmen SSR; the Russian Wikipedia article on Turkmenabad (Chardzhou) says only that a brewery and a dairy plant work there today. Beer in Turkmenistan is a post-Soviet, private business. The Diplomat noted in 2019 that the country, though Muslim by tradition, inherited a very Soviet relationship with alcohol, and in 2016 the Conway Bulletin wrote that sales of spirits, mainly vodka, still dwarfed beer.

The oldest of today's makers is Biyat ES, the producer of the Zip brand. It says it began brewing in 1996 at a small plant on the outskirts of Ashgabat with equipment bought from Zip Technologies of Hungary; the brewery now stands in Abadan, on the edge of the capital. The EBRD described it in 2010 as the second largest private brewery, with five beers in returnable bottles and kegs and the only beer in aluminium cans in the country. In 2006 an American USAID volunteer helped a local brewer in Ashgabat to set up a microbrewery whose beer, a commenter on the Brookston Beer Bulletin wrote, won a Best of Show at a Turkish beer festival that summer.

From 2009 the EBRD financed the private brewers. Altyn Aylag borrowed USD 2.7 million that year to build a new brewery and raise output from 16,000 to over 36,000 litres a day. Biyat borrowed USD 1.0 million in 2010 for a carbon dioxide plant at Abadan, to lift its peak capacity from 100 to 250 hectolitres a day, and a further USD 3 million was approved in October 2021 for a line that turns spent grain into animal feed. Yager borrowed USD 2.7 million in 2015 to raise capacity by 50 per cent at its main brewery in Turkmenabad and to equip a second brewery in Ashgabat, and was to have a CO2 recovery system running by mid-2018. Berk, the brewer of the Berk beer made at Yaslyk in Ahal Region, had grown over six years with the bank's support by 2016, when it borrowed USD 2.8 million for a potato-crisp plant outside Ashgabat; the EBRD's 2019-2024 strategy calls Berk Beer the leading brewery. Demand for local beer rose when imports were taxed more heavily, while a weak currency made imported malt, hops and bottles dearer.

Two pale lagers, Zip and Berk (spelled Birk in one guide), are what most bars and restaurants serve, at about 3.5-4% alcohol by one account; BeerAdvocate lists Berk 1 and Berk 2 at 4.4% and 4.5%. A microbrewery, Altyn Damja in Ashgabat, makes the Garagum lager. Drink is closely policed. Alcohol sales stopped in Ashgabat before the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games of 2017. A law in force from 1 January 2019 bans sales on trains, aircraft, ferries, at sports facilities and on public holidays, forbids sales to under-21s and caps beer containers at 330 ml; a weekend ban was planned from 2021. After the president approved a national programme for 2025-2028 on preventing alcohol harm on 18 July 2025, Radio Azatlyk reported that outlets selling beer were closing in Balkan Region, bottles had to carry a +21 label and prices rose by about 30 per cent. By WHO figures drinking fell from 6 to 5.4 litres per person between 2010 and 2016. We found no 2026 news on any of the breweries.