A colonial export beer, renamed by a state brewery.

333 — said in Vietnamese as “ba ba ba,” three three three — is one of the two beer brands of Sabeco, the Saigon Beer-Alcohol-Beverage Corporation of Ho Chi Minh City; the other is Bia Saigon. Its name grew out of an older one. English Wikipedia says the beer was first called 33, read as “ba mươi ba,” thirty-three, a name it took from the 33-centilitre bottles it was sold in from the early 1900s.

That beer was 33 Export, a brand of the French group Brasseries et Glacières de l’Indochine, or BGI. French Wikipedia says 33 Export was launched in Indochina by the Cholon brewery in Saigon, which BGI took over; Sabeco’s own history says the brewery begun by the Frenchman Victor Larue in 1875 was merged into BGI in September 1927, while French Wikipedia dates the Cholon brewery to 1894. English Wikipedia, citing memoirs of the war, says 33 was well known among American soldiers in Vietnam in the 1960s and 1970s.

The change from 33 to 333 followed reunification, though accounts differ on the reason. English Wikipedia, citing the brand’s former American website, says that in 1975 the government renamed the beer to distance it from its colonial origins; French Wikipedia also dates the end of 33 Export in Indochina, and its replacement by 333, to 1975. The writer Loïc Muller, in a history of Vietnamese beer published by Ẩm Thực Hiện Đại in January 2025, gives a trademark reason: BGI kept selling 33 Export in other countries, so the state brewery that took over BGI’s Saigon plant could not use the name and introduced 333 Export instead.

A can in 1989, a new face in 2019.

The state took over the brewery in 1977. Sabeco says a decision of the Minister of Food dated 17 May 1977 handed all of BGI’s plant to the state’s Southern Alcohol company, and from 1 June 1977 it was renamed the Saigon Brewery, on the site in Chợ Lớn that is now Nguyễn Chí Thanh street in District 5.

333 became a canned beer. Sabeco dates the launch of the 333 Export can, in a 330 ml size, to October 1989; Muller’s 2025 history calls it Vietnam’s first canned beer and gives the year as 1985. English Wikipedia, again citing the brand’s American website, says 333 became available in the United States after the two countries normalised relations in 1994.

The current look dates from late 2019. Sabeco says it relaunched the 333 can in December 2019, after relaunching Bia Saigon that August; the Vietnam Investment Review, in June 2020, put the new 333 packaging in November. The news site Vietnamnet reported on 4 December 2019 that the centrepiece was a redrawn logo in a red-pink tone, which it said was meant to recall the brand’s heritage, with bronze-gold and silver; the three “3” digits were resized so they were no longer uneven, and the border around the logo was removed.

The same report described three new symbols on the pack: an eagle for Germany, home of the Hallertau hops the company uses; an iris for France, where it says its recipe began; and a five-pointed star drawn from Vietnam’s national emblem, for the local brewers. Sabeco’s chief executive, Bennett Neo, told Vietnamnet the new look was part of an integrated campaign to relaunch the brand. The Vietnam Investment Review described the new colour as ruby red, and gave the brand’s motto as “Open up to the world, yet remain true to itself.”

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all lagers and beers from South and Southeast Asia: Angkor from Cambodia, 333, Huda and Larue from Vietnam, Bira 91 from India, Lion Lager from Sri Lanka and Myanmar Beer from Myanmar. Beer brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from names that grew up inside a single national brewery to labels that now belong to much larger international brewing groups, and a single brand can be poured everywhere from a street-side stall to a hotel bar.

A beer brand’s identity is usually carried less by the liquid than by a name, a label, a can and the place it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, taken on foreign partners or moved its brewing far beyond the city where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its beer is actually brewed and packed.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its shareholders over time, where its beer is brewed and how its labels and advertising have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

Three countries on one can.

The ownership behind 333 changed in December 2017. Sabeco says the Ministry of Industry and Trade sold 53.59 per cent of the company to Vietnam Beverage Company Limited and kept 36 per cent; The Chemical Engineer reported on 19 December 2017 that Vietnam Beverage was the local unit of Thai Beverage, or ThaiBev, and named Saigon Beer and 333 among the brands in the deal. 333 has been under ThaiBev’s control since then, alongside the group’s Thai beer Chang. The 33 name went its own way: French Wikipedia says 33 Export, brewed in France from 1960, now belongs to Heineken.

Sabeco now sells two beers under the name. The original, which its website calls “Bia 333 Nguyên Bản,” comes in a 330 ml aluminium can, with the line “Biểu Tượng Vang Danh Mọi Thời” — roughly, an icon famed for all time. The company says it combines Hallertau hops from Bavaria with a recipe and yeast inherited from France, brewed by Sabeco’s own brewers; in 2019 it told Vietnamnet the beer was exported to 18 countries. In 2024 it added 333 Pilsner, which the company says uses a long, cold maturation; the Vietnam Investment Review reported in August 2024 that it came in a high-necked green 330 ml bottle and a tall can.

For a design guide, 333 shows how a number can carry a beer through a change of name, state and owner. Compare Bia Saigon, Sabeco’s other beer, and Chang, ThaiBev’s beer in Thailand. For this guide we use a ruby red, bronze gold and silver with a condensed sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep 333’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.