Craft beer in Uganda: Banange Brewing Company

Published: April 27, 2024

The second Sub-Saharan African country we traveled to, during our half a year trip in East Africa, was Uganda. Like in the neighboring Kenya, craft beer is still a relatively young concept in Uganda, but luckily that doesn’t mean that there isn’t some delicious local craft beer available! In this post we introduce the (so far) only microbrewery, that brews craft beer in Uganda. Kampala-based Banange Brewing Company is dedicated to bringing high quality artisan beer to the people of Uganda, and hopefully will inspire also others to enter the market in the future!

Banange is a craft beer pioneer in Uganda

If you were a craft beer lover moving to a country where there are no microbreweries and not a lot of beer imports either, how would you survive? This question became relevant to dam from Canada and Pall from Iceland, who both moved to Uganda for work and decided to stay. They met through their mutual passion for freestyle kayaking on the Nile, and shared the interest in good beer too. Because there was only a very limited selection of beers the market, they started a home-brewing club, first just to brew beer for own consumption. Pall already had background in home-brewing, and over the years their home brews started to get better and better, and and a wider public than just a circle of friends also wanted to taste them. In 2019 Adam and Pall made the decision to turn the brewing hobby to a business, and co-funded Banange Brewing Company.

Banange is often called the first and only brewery making craft beer in Uganda, but there were actually a couple of others who tried to set up microbrewery business before them. One of them offered Adam and Pall their brewing equipment, which basically was the starting point of founding Banange Brewing, even if they didn’t end up buying that set. Adam and Pall gathered together a handful of investors, imported a 1000-liter brewhouse and fermenting tanks from China, and built a brewery in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. Getting the needed licenses took some time, but it wasn’t as bureaucratic process as in some other East African countries.

Revolutionizing the Ugandan beer market

When Banange entered the market, the beer selection in Uganda was very limited. Basically there was only a few bulk Lager beers by two big breweries (East Africa Breweries Limited and Nile Breweries) available, as well as a couple of locally brewed Stout beers, mostly Guinness Foreign Extra (by East Africa Breweries). This means that the local crowd was not very aware of the world of craft beer, and chancing the drinking habits wasn’t an easy task. Adam and Pall still decided to focus on local audience, and to market their bears especially to Ugandan people. Naturally, expats who already are interest in craft beer, are an important customer group too, as well as tourists traveling to Uganda.

Banange is a Luganda (the most widely-spoken local language of Uganda) word that translates to “All my Friends”, but also means a phrase like “Oh my gosh!” – this is the kind of reaction that Banange Ales tend to receive in the bars of Kampala, being so different from the basic lagers. Banange brews four core beers; a crispy Lite Ale, a slightly sweet Belgian Witbier, a malty Amber Ale and a tasty IPA with medium bitterness. In addition to these four, there is seasonally brewed Chocolate Stout called Banange Muzei. All of the Banange beers are of good quality, and very different from each other, but rather light and easy enough to better match with the taste buds of locals.

When we visited in autumn 2023, the monthly production level of Banange Brewing was between 3000 and 5000 liters. The brewery is not big, but there is still some capacity to brew more, if and when demand increases. Pale malt that used in the beers is locally produced, but all specialty malts are imported, as well as hops of course. Banange beers are widely available in bars and restaurants in Kampala, but the best place to taste them is of course Yujo Izakaya, an excellent Japanese restaurant located right next to the brewery. Yujo Izakaya kind of doubles as a Banange taproom – a warm recommendation to visit if your travels take you to the busy capital of Uganda!