Antigua began to brew its own beer only in the early 1990s. Antigua Brewery was built by local contractors on the Crabbs Peninsula in the north-east of the island, with Brauhaase International Management of Hamburg in charge of the technical side, the firm that also set up the sister breweries in Dominica and St Vincent. In 1993 it launched Wadadli, named after the old Amerindian name of the island, which became the national beer; the brewery also made Red Stripe, Carib, Guinness and soft drinks under licence.
In 2006 the Danish Royal Unibrew bought control of Antigua Brewery together with the Dominica brewery and a bottle plant for 31 million US dollars. In 2009 it sold them to Cervecería Nacional Dominicana, which soon closed and took apart the Antigua brewery and moved Wadadli to the St Vincent Brewery, where it is still brewed.
Bringing brewing back became a government promise: in 2016 the government signed a memorandum with the German firm Brewtech to restart the idle Crabbs plant, with production expected in August 2019, but the project was held up over the lease and no start was reported. Local beer came back only in May 2025, when Long Bay Brewing began selling its Long Bay Lager across the island, together with a stout and an IPA.
