Read it first as a beer — and only second as a non-alcoholic one.
禮辭 — a gracious decline. Yesa is a non-alcoholic lager — under 0.5% ABV — brewed in full and then dealcoholized at low temperature. It is not boiled, and it is not made by stopping fermentation early. It is built to be read first as a beer, and only second as a non-alcoholic one.
Removing it cold keeps the flavour heat would destroy. 禮
Most non-alcoholic beer is built backwards. Yesa is built the other way around.
Humulus lupulus — lat. // hops Almost every non-alcoholic beer is a dealcoholized version of an alcoholic parent. Yesa is built from scratch — both the recipe and the brewery exist only for non-alcoholic beer. It is fully fermented like any beer, then the alcohol is physically removed at low temperature, in a separate step. It is not boiled, the commercial route, where heat strips the flavour so sugar is added back; and it is not arrested early, the craft route, which leaves the beer thin and unfinished and is why craft non-alcoholic beer is mostly hop-heavy ale. Removing the alcohol cold keeps the flavour a full fermentation creates, so a real lager works without alcohol — and most of Asia drinks lager, not ale. The process was developed over more than a year with an equipment partner in China.
Restraint as respect — not abstinence.
禮辭 — the customary first decline. 禮辭 (Korean 예사) is the classical Confucian term for the customary first decline — the expected, gracious refusal before an offer is accepted, whether an honor, a gift, or a drink. In the 향음주례, a Confucian village drinking ceremony codified in Korea's National Five Rites in 1474, a cup is offered three times, and each offer is met with that restraint before it is accepted. 禮辭 is the spirit of that first decline — restraint as respect, not abstinence. It keeps you at the table and in command of the evening.
Two people who couldn’t find a non-alcoholic beer worth drinking — so they built one.
Kim Jongeon
Jongeon doesn’t drink. He spent about eight years in private equity across Asia — GIC, then EQT — was admitted to a Wharton MBA, and dropped out to fund this venture instead. He quit alcohol in February 2024 after his own wearable data showed a single beer wrecking his sleep, which earned him a quiet reputation in Singapore as the only Korean who doesn’t drink. Every non-alcoholic beer he tried was named something “zero” and tasted like it. He found the cold physical-extraction method in small American and European breweries, watched people drink it over Heineken without realising it was non-alcoholic, and set out to build it in Asia. He cold-emailed brewers across Singapore and China; nine said no — and Todd said yes.
Todd Su
Todd is a mechanical engineer who built data-centre thermal and fluid systems across Europe and Asia, then walked away in 2020 to start at the very bottom of brewing — milling grain and washing kegs. Within three years he was Head Brewer of Hong Kong’s largest craft brewery, and he developed the recipe now sold as Hong Kong’s best-selling craft non-alcoholic beer. He holds a Diploma in Brewing and is a member of the Chartered Institute of Brewers and Distillers (MCIBD). He left because traditional craft methods had a ceiling — to engineer Yesa’s dedicated cold-dealcoholization process.
“If a beer has everything a great beer has but no alcohol, I’d choose that one a thousand times over.”
Not yet — you get invited.
Until the brewery opens at the end of 2026, Yesa is poured only at invite-only tasting sessions, mostly in Singapore. At launch it moves to select venues and stockists in Singapore first, then Hong Kong. Request access and we'll bring you into the next round.
| Method | How it's made | The trade-off |
|---|---|---|
| Commercial NA | Brew beer, then boil the alcohol off | Heat strips flavour; sugar added back |
| Craft NA | Stop fermentation early | Thin and unfinished; leans on heavy hopping |
| Yesa | Fully ferment, then remove the alcohol cold | Keeps the finished beer — minus the alcohol |
You don't buy Yesa yet — you get invited.
Until the brewery opens late 2026, Yesa lives at invite-only tasting sessions in Singapore. Tell us who you are and how you found it.
Singapore · Hong Kong