Kilnfire started, like a lot of breweries, with one stubborn person who could not buy the beer they wanted to drink.
That person was Darius Ng. For the better part of a decade he brewed in a cramped Bukit Batok kitchen, chasing a clean, soft lager that held up in Singapore's heat — and getting frustrated that the freshest, most interesting beer always seemed to be made somewhere else and shipped here past its best. Friends kept telling him his beer was good enough to sell. Eventually he believed them, quit a steady logistics job, and went looking for a space with a drain and a high ceiling.
He found it on Tyrwhitt Road in Jalan Besar — an old shophouse unit with just enough room for a small brewhouse and a bar in front of it. The idea was simple and has not changed: brew in small batches, sell most of it a few metres from where it was made, and never let anything sit long enough to go stale. The name is a nod to the kiln that roasts the malt — the fire at the start of every beer.
Today Kilnfire keeps eight beers on tap, runs Saturday tours through the working brewhouse, and fills cans and growlers for the neighbourhood from a second little counter by the Kallang canal. It is still a small operation, and we like it that way — small enough that the person who brewed your beer might be the one who pours it.
What we care about
Brewed where you drink it
The brewhouse is behind the bar. Most of what you drink was made a few metres away, weeks ago at most.
Small batches, brewed fresh
We brew often and in small runs, so beer never sits. Hazy IPAs and sours are made to be drunk fresh, and we date the cans.
A beer for everyone
From a soft golden lager to a resinous IPA to a tart fruit sour, there is a pour for the curious and the committed alike.
No pretension at the bar
Ask anything. Our staff would rather talk you into the right beer than upsell you the priciest one.
The people behind the bar
Darius spent a decade homebrewing in a Bukit Batok kitchen before quitting a logistics job to open Kilnfire. He builds the recipes, runs brew days, and is usually the one wiping down tanks at midnight. His flagship lager took a full year to get right.
Marcus came up through a larger brewery before joining as our second pair of hands. He runs the cellar, manages our fermentation schedule, and is the reason the hazy IPAs land fresh and the nitro pours perfectly every time.
Priya runs the floor and the bar team. If you have been steered toward the right beer, booked a tour, or had a group table that just worked, that was her. She knows every regular's usual order by heart.