The story of the microbrew revolution in Thailand is unfortunately quite a sad one. As the rest of the Asian world experienced a new dawn of interest in small-time craft beers about three years ago, Thailand was left in the dark due to asinine import duties assessed on imported brew.
People simply didn鈥檛 have access to the good stuff because of the high costs associated with importing it. Distributors only brought in the moneymaking big brands and skipped over the small guys. For a long time, Thailand has had such limited exposure to microbrews that the nation鈥檚 beer tasting palate hasn鈥檛 yet had the chance to evolve. While the wine bar craze came and went, the interest in beer has been steadily growing. Craft beer bars are popping up all over town, but the problem still remains: They only source their booze (which is good, don鈥檛 get me wrong) from a few distributors in Bangkok, so most end up having the same selection of Belgians and a few German brews. Oh yea, and you can buy some Australian suds at Villa market as well.
But what about the rest of the beer-producing world? Why skip over what they have to offer?
Well, it looks like things are about to change. , a 鈥渃urator鈥 of sorts has finally entered the Kingdom and vows to bring us some of the world鈥檚 most distinct microbrews.
Aaron Grieser and Brian Bartusch, two ambitious microbrew-loving Americans are the men behind the operation. The name? 鈥淢y home town is actually nicknamed Beervana,鈥 says Aaron Grieser. The place he鈥檚 referring to is truly the mecca of brewing beer: Oregon, in the Pacific Northwest of America.
Bangkok is in dire need of a few beer geeks to spearhead the revolution, and these guys plan to search the world and handpick the best beers to bring into Thailand. The beers will be available at 24 locations around Bangkok, starting with at in Thonglor on Oct. 3. Their first shipment also included Anderson Valley鈥檚 lineup, a brewery in Northern California. It looks like Bangkok鈥檚 beer scene is finally coming of age.
So, Beervana, if you鈥檙e listening, 黑料社 would like to give you our wish list: Pliny The Elder by Russian River Brewing Company, Old Rasputin Russian Imperial Stout by North Coast Brewing Co., and Resurrection Dubbel from Brewer鈥檚 Art Baltimore. Kthxbye.
