Craft Beer in Thailand, Part 1: The Current State of Affairs
Despite the tremendous challenges caused by COVID-19 effectively ending tourism in Thailand, the current state of craft beer in the country is relatively healthy. This is in part because of the popularity of craft beer amongst Thais rather than tourists; one bartender at a very popular craft beer bar in one the central tourist areas of Bangkok once told me that 70% of their clientele were Thai, and 30% foreigners; of that 30%, most were expats, meaning that tourist visits to craft beer bars in the country were rare.
This may not be too surprising, given the history of craft beer in the country (which I will save for a separate installment of this series), and its imprint can be seen throughout the country. There are a tremendous amount of craft beer bars in Nonthaburi, a suburb of Bangkok where few western faces are seen; the clients there will be Thai beer enthusiasts, many of whom will know a great deal about barley, hops, and the making of beer. While homebrewing is technically illegal in the country, homebrewing is commonplace, and some of these clients will be brewers themselves.
The domestic focus of Thai craft beering is particularly observable with two of its most famous products: Outlaw Brewing, a brewer and bar in Loei (in Isaan), a town in a region were very few foreigners will visit. Nonetheless, Outlaw’s beers, particularly its Mosaic IPA, have become raving successes amongst local craft beer drinkers, to the point where some of its beers are sometimes sold in convenience stores — about as mainstream as one can get in Thailand (a country famously addicted to its 7–11s and Family Marts).
To my palate, Outlaw’s IPA is not the best Thai craft beer, but that is mostly because I’m not a fan of Mosaic hops. I am an anomaly in this taste, however, and it should be noted that Outlaw’s Mosaic IPA, a heavily hopped beer with a huge IBU and clear signs of aggressive late-stage hopping and dry hopping, could easily stand its own against the hoppier west coast IPAs from the U.S. that have become globally beloved.
That said, tourists who come to Thailand and want to experience the craft beer scene might want to limit their consumption of Outlaw or the other craft beer products that are brewed by Thai brewmasters in Cambodia and imported here. A note on that: many Thai breweries will set up breweries in Cambodia and make their beers there for export to Thailand (one does this in Australia) for tax reasons; much like the U.S. in the 70s, the Thai government protects its large macrobreweries with restrictive laws that force craft brewers to leave the country to brew and import, thus paying a very high tariff in doing so; ostensibly, this is done for public health reasons, but the economic protectionism is clear for all to see.
Microbreweries in Thailand
A loophole is in the house rule for craft beer; a microbrewer can sell their beers on premises if brewed in Thailand, resulting in some craft breweries creating and selling beers in the same location. Perhaps the most famous locally is Tawandang Brewery in Bangkok, which serves German style beers in a large and festive beerhall, with live entertainment available almost constantly. Do not expect lederhosen or yodeling; the performances here are decidedly Thai, with popular Thai music and dancing. The food, as well, is spicier than any Bavarian could imagine, even if the dunkel and weisen beers are very recognizable.
Tawandang is popular for office parties, birthdays, and other big group celebrations. Due to its festive atmosphere and German beers, I hate it. Source: Tripadvisor.
There are brewpubs in Pattaya; Hops Brew house is an Italian restaurant that, when I went, sold continental Pilsners and lagers of little discernible unique character, and Wizard Beer, which has had a sizeable presence in stores with its bottled beers. Like Outlaw and many smaller craft breweries in Thailand, west coast IPAs are the dominant product on offer. Koh Samui has the Bees Knees, a very ugly brewpub with a lot of wicker furniture, white tile and white paint that makes it not look or feel like a pub. This is unfortunate, because the beers are all absolutely delicious and expertly made, and the English bitter tastes and looks like an English bitter should do.
Don’t be fooled by the decor; this brewpub has the best beer in Koh Samui, and some of the best in Thailand. Photo source: Bees Knees Brewpub Twitter.
There is an unfortunate coda to the Bees Knees story; Google maps claims the pub is permanently closed; since I have no contacts on Samui I cannot confirm nor deny this, and I hope it is not true. If you have any information, please comment below.
Another brewpub in Phuket is perhaps the most successful in the country: Full Moon Brewworks, a microbrewery whose Chalawan Pale Ale has earned so much praise and love that the beer has become the most easy-to-find craft beer in the country, with bottles sold at convenience stores and Thai restaurants nationwide. The beer itself is an absolute essential must try for visitors to Thailand, because it is a craft beer that is distinctly Thai in flavor. This is in sharp contrast to the macrobrewed beers in Thailand: Chang, Singha, and Leo, which are poor versions of skunk beer (in the case of Chang) and international pale pilsners (in the case of Singha and Leo) that lack character or flavor, a familiar affliction to Americans raised on Coors Light and Budweiser.
Best Thai Craft Beers
Chalawan Pale Ale is about as different from these beers as is imaginable. A light brown color (I’d venture it has an SRM of around 8–10) and a dense haze, it does not look like an industrially produced beer. It has a light floral aroma, but it is in the flavor that its Thainess comes through. With strong notes of lychee and smaller hints of pomelo and a bit of watermelon, its hops profile exactly fits the flavor profile of fruits native to and popular in the country. Its subtle malty sweetness is the perfect antidote to a very spicy dish, and Chalawan goes very well with padkrapao (a strifried basil dish with generous doses of chili). The lychee and pomelo match and counterbalance the umami of the dish while the maltiness counteracts the bite of the red peppers. It is a phenomenal beer perfect for the climate and cuisine of the country, and visitors to Thailand should try it as the pinnacle of what Thai craft brewing can be.
Full Moon’s Chalawan Pale Ale takes its name from a mythical alligator that stole damsels in distress from local villages; it definitely stole my heart. Photo source
Visitors should also make sure to try the Chiang Mai Red Truck Red Ale, one of the earliest craft beers in Thailand and to date one of the most popular. There is good reason for this; it is a fantastic beer. It has an interesting history, too; according to the brewers, their initial attempts to make an IPA were not met with enthusiasm by Thais when the beer was first made in 2014; ironically, only three years late you could find me complaining that hoppy IPAs were almost the only beers available in craft beer pubs in the country! When the brewers retooled their recipe, they came up with a red ale reminiscent of an Irish Red (with more pronounced hoppy character) or an American Amber ale (but with significantly less hoppy character). The result is a very drinkable clean beer with the kind of hop and malt balance that is hard to find outside of England; I would say it is closest to Fat Tire in flavor, but with a fruitier hop character with hints of lychee (though much less than Full Moon’s hoppier profile). It is an excellent session beer and has won several awards. It deserves more.
Since American style IPAs are so popular both in Thailand and abroad, I should perhaps also point to the Devanom Red is More red IPA, which the bartenders at Yolo Craft Beer Bar (in the Yaowarat district) once recommended to me as the best Thai IPA. It is definitely extremely good and worth trying, although I cannot comment on its flavor since I have not had it for a couple of years. It’s also worth noting that Devanom seems to have pivoted to making meads, one of which I did try at bo.lan and is very good; meads are highly complementary to Thai food, it should also be said.
English Beer in Thailand
The English beer scene in Thailand is clearly very targeted to English expats, and in my time visiting the places where English beer is served, few Thais are around. Where they can be found, such as the Patpong hotspot for live music and comedy Shenanigans (itself an Irish pub), I have never seen a Thai or even an Asian tourist sipping an Old Speckled Hen (often on tap); those that are are either English or western.
This is different from the craft beer pubs popular with Thais, where IPAs often dominate the menu. And that points to a fact of the craft beer scene in Thailand: it appears to be a few years behind America and is heavily influenced by American craft beer. Few Belgian or British beer styles are attempted. An important exception was Dwyer’s Beer, which I have not seen in the country for a couple of years. Dwyer’s was a clear Worthington’s/John Smith copycat beer brewed and served solely on tap at bars popular with English expats who missed a bog standard English bitter, which Dwyer’s provided. At one time, I did meet with one of the founders of Dwyer’s, and he has since disappeared from my list of contacts for reasons unbeknownst to me. I would like to get an update on what is happening with that beer.
On the English front, there are imports of Abbot Ale and other English beers, although these are typically distributed to locales frequented by English expats, with Thais blissfully unaware of the English brewing tradition (I have met Thai brewmasters and asked them if they’d ever considered making a dark mild; they were unfamiliar with the beer style entirely). These are typically only available at bars, some resorts, and the members-only British Club in downtown Bangkok — a club which is worth being a member of if one lives in Bangkok.
London Pride is readily sold at Gourmet Market and Villa Market, but the pandemic’s hit to beer brewing in the UK has meant this beer is harder to find than it has been in the past in Thailand. Some other Fuller’s beers are also available, and at times in the past some other British beers have been available, too — but, oddly enough, beers from the south seem to be the only ones to make it to Thailand. Theaksons, John Smiths, and Tetley’s are readily available in some export markets (including Hong Kong, which is not too far from Thailand), but curiously not in Thailand despite the large English customer base. This should be rectified.
A mainstay of English beer culture in Bangkok has been The Londoner, a brewpub that also served a stellar Sunday lunch buffet in central Bangkok until the proprietor moved to a suburb north of the city and took his bar with him. The new premises is beautiful and arguably more fitting for what the bar is than the basement of an office building that The Londoner had the first time I visited it in 2012. That said, the inconvenience of making the trek to said suburb means that few expats frequent this bar as much as they used to. It should also be said that The Londoner has moved away from its British roots, with two Pilsners on tap upon my last visit (although its IPA was very much a good English IPA). I am not sure if its Brown and Golden Ales, which it has made in the past, will come back anytime soon — they were not on offer or on the menu when I last visited about a year ago. It is also unconscionable that The Londoner has not invested in a beer engine.
The American influence on Thai beer is most likely a result of the American influence on Thai homebrewing in the 2000s, when the founders of Chiang Mai Beer, Chit Beer, and other now successful craft brewers bought kits from Amazon or learned about beer from years abroad in America. As is typical when one culture follows a trendy subculture from another culture, there is a lag time, meaning that New England IPAs only began appearing with any frequency in Thailand in 2019, and only in 2020 did they really become prominent on taps at the trendiest craft beer bars in Bangkok. I am unaware of any Thai craft breweries making NEIPAs as of the time of this writing, but I imagine they will begin appearing more frequently later this year or in 2022.
The Best Craft Beer Bars in Bangkok
I have mentioned a few craft beer bars in Thailand, and while I have visited most of them in central Bangkok, I have not visited many outside of the capitol, so I cannot give recommendations for the many beloved craft beer bars in Nonthaburi let alone upcountry or in various tourist hotspots throughout the country. But whenever visiting Thailand, one should search for craft beer bars at one’s destination and have a go.
Of the bars in Bangkok, however, the most famous to outsiders will be Mikkeler. The most famous to Bangkok residents is probably Hair of the Dog, while Silom’s golden child is Mash. Chinatown has Pijiu Bar, Thonburi has Save Our Souls, and Thonglor has too many to list. There is also the Wishbeer franchise, of which the less said, the better.
Which craft beer bars should you visit in Bangkok? I fortunately am very qualified to answer this question, and even more fortunately there are many options. In no particular order, here they are:
Tai Soon Bar
Easily the most stylish craft beer bar in Thailand, Tai Soon is across the street from Jay Fai (the world famous Michelin starred crab eatery that has gotten more fame from Netflix’s profile; the food exceeds the hype, which is amazing considering how much hype there is about the place) in an often overlooked neighborhood in Chinatown. With beautiful shopfronts and old world charm, the neighborhood is beautiful itself in that uniquely Bangkok way: by combining delicate, beautiful flowers with hideous mold-ridden deteriorating concrete, the neighborhood highlights the extremes of the city’s culture.
Rumor has it that I am rather fond of this bar.
Tai Soon is the sexiest craft beer bar in Thailand, by far. Source.
Unique Features: Besides the style of the place, Tai Soon is unique in focusing on beer rather than food (which is almost always terrible in craft beer bars in Bangkok, an impressive feat considering how good the food is almost everywhere else). Tai Soon also is unique in focusing on smaller glasses, which keeps the price per drink down and encourages tasting of different beers. The beer fridge is also very well stocked, and the sours are highly recommended by the bartenders.
Pros: Beautiful atmosphere, great for trying new beers, great location, nice staff and clientele.
Cons: Heavy focus on IPAs and NEIPAs, which tend to dominate the taps with a few stouts thrown in for good measure.
Mash
A popular spot for expats and Thai professionals alike, the bar has two personalities. If you go early in the evening, you will find yuppies having their after-work drink and relaxing; if you go later at night, you will find a mix of beer enthusiasts and revelers who want both a good time and good beer. As a result, Mash often has one of the friendliest and most party-like atmosphere of the craft beer bars in the country, and thanks to the diverse and cosmopolitan clientele, there is a mix of languages and cultures that makes it an even more enjoyable place to kick back a few and have a chat.
Mash goes with a minimalist white decor and soft incandescent lighting (not seen in this picture) which make for an intimate and comfortable setting. Source.
Unique Features: Mash’s long l-shaped bar makes it easy to chat with fellow beer lovers, and the bar’s staff have historically done a good job of making customers feel comfortable hanging out and talking to one another.
Pros: Great fun spot to relax and meet people with a great beer selection and bartenders who know a lot about beer.
Cons: Bottle and can selection is very small, and some may find the food not particularly to their liking. “Some” here meaning me.
Mikkeler
The Danish brewery that has become a worldwide phenomenon thanks to its San Diego microbrewery put down roots in Bangkok early, taking up a house in Ekkamai (one of the swankier parts of the city) that has a beautiful and unusually large garden. It’s a must stop if you’re in the area, which you probably will be if you’re visiting Bangkok.
Mikkeler has a crazy tap selection. Source.
Unique Features: With 30 taps, Mikkeler has the biggest craft tap selection in the country (afaik). The quiet courtyard and large dining area also mean there is plenty of room if you want to have a quiet night of drinking with friends.
Pros: The crazy amount of beers on offer is just one pro; the bar also offers many beers you can’t find elsewhere. The bartenders are nice and knowledgeable (one politely tolerated my drunken teasing one night), and the food is reportedly good (its restaurant upstairs, now shuttered, once earned a Michelin star; I’ve never eaten there, but it is on my todo list).
Cons: I would not go to Mikkeler to meet people, and the beer selection is very hipster-y when it isn’t German focused. I am not a fan of Marzens and DDH Imperial IPAs, so that list of 30 options is often really a choice of a Punk IPA or a Beglian Dubbel for me.
Beer Republic
At the dead center of Bangkok across the street and up the road a bit from Eraway Shrine, Beer Republic is a relatively new bar with a massive selection on tap and in bottles and an admirable focus on beer. Not craft beer, not beer from one country, just beer. That means its menu includes British beers (Boddington’s is always on draft), Irish beers, German beers, and American beers. They do special events, such as a Belgian beer month recently, but the focus here is on beer and all the different permutations thereof. As a result, it is a wonderful place to go with a group to learn about beer and try different beers. Additionally, it is unusual for a craft beer bar in that its food is very good.
Beer Republic’s Pseudo-Outside Half. Source: Tripadvisor.
Unique Features: An indoor and outdoor seating area, with sports outside and live music inside to cater to expat and local customers’ preferences.
Pros: Excellent selection of a variety of beers, both craft and macrobrewed, without pretension or an obsession with trends.
Cons: The music inside is way too loud, and the traffic outside is way too loud.
Beer Bridge
Just down Langsuan Road from Beer Republic is Beer Bridge, also in the center of Bangkok taking up one wing of a shopping center. The road it is on is quiet, which means its terrace is great for meeting with friends, especially if one is a smoker. Also unusual: the food is really good, and the pizzas in particular look incredible (I’ve sadly yet to have one).
Beer Bridge’s Restaurant Interior Belies its Wonderful Wraparound Terrace. Source.
Unique Features: Wide and diverse selection of beers, including actual good macrobrew Thai beers such as Kopper beer, as well as a wide variety of export bottles. Ciders, wines, and hard liquor are also readily available.
Pros: The terrace sitting is its biggest pro, but the good food and late closing hour are big wins too.
Cons: Sitting outside at the Beer Bridge past midnight runs the risk of severe existential crises.
Save Our Souls
Possibly the most obscure beer bar on my list, Save Our Souls exists just down the street from Icon Siam, the largest shopping mall in Thailand, which is itself on the rather obscure west side of the Chao Praya river. The eight taps are usually well diversified (I often saw a golden ale, a stout, and a Hefeweisen available alongside the omnipresent IPAs) and the bottles are priced a lot lower than many other craft beer bars. It is worth stepping into, especially if you’re in the neighborhood; don’t expect to see any other foreigners, as this is very much a locals’ hangout.
Small and intimate, SoS is a suburb neighborhood Thai craft beer bar at a location where tourists might actually be nearby. Source.
Unique Features:
Pros: SoS serves Jim’s Burgers, which are some of the best burgers in Thailand. Plus a good beer selection and friendly staff make this a great place to go to.
Cons: Remote for most tourists and the outdoor seating area is quiet small and cramped, making it a bit awkward for smokers.
Alt + Tap
I would never have gone to Alt + Tap if a friend of mine didn’t live nearby, but I am glad he dragged me there. Located in the lobby of a particularly ugly and delapitaded office building, Alt + Tap has nothing going for it in the architecture category. The owners don’t make up for it with decor, either; the utilitarian 10 tap array behind the bar with visible gas regulators looks like it was made to be as cheap as possible; above head wrapped around the awkwardly large-for-a-bar windows are empty one-use kegs. There are some band posters on the wall, behind the mic stand — which is itself disturbing, because it means the very small bar has very loud live music. And it often does.
This picture is the craft beer equivalent of a Tinder selfie taken from way above with perfect lighting. Source.
Unique Features: Alt + Tap reportedly has a large selection of alcohol free beers. Its beer selection is also very good, and its large windows mean it’s a good place to come before sundown to buy beers and take photos in the sunlight.
Pros: The owners clearly care about beer and curate high quality craft beers, including obscure beers and mainstays like Rogue and Deschutes products. There’s something for just about everyone here.
Cons: There’s a lot of very loud music a lot of the time, and because of the space itself it often feels like you’re drinking in an optometrist’s office
Yes, I Have More to Say
In my following pieces in this series, I will discuss homebrewing, illegal brewing, the history of craft beer in Thailand, and what changes should be made in the industry to improve the quality of the beer and the industry as well as how to promote growth in Thai craft beer popularity at home and abroad.
