Thailand’s Newest Premium Beer “Federbräu”

ThaiBev, creators of Chang and Sangsom, have launched a new premium beer called Federbrau.

It allegedly adheres to German Brewing laws and rocks in at 4.7%.

The launch is going to be massive but I am outside of Thailand for the moment and wonder if it will still be around when I return...

For the full scoop go to: http://absolutelybangkok.com/?p=519

Beer Lao Draft on the Mekong

“Bia Sot” and “Nam Kawn” (“Fresh Beer” and “Ice”) are the two things you have to be able to say if you are to enjoy a trip in the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos.

It is only in this tiny and remote Communist country that you can drink Beerlao fresh from a beer tap.

When I arrived in Vientiane the first thing I did after checking into my hotel was go out and order a pitcher of this golden nectar at a nearby bar overlooking the Mekong.

The taste of Beerlao Draft renders any notion of canned or bottled beer completely obsolete.

The beer tastes amazingly pure and fresh thanks to the close proximity of the Beerlao brewery.

The picture says it all really…

Tiger Beer roars and pours in Laos

My first Laotian beer update is not about the national brew but the new foreign arrival from Singapore.

Last month Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) announced that their domestic operations in the Lao Peoples Democratic Republic would be brewing Tiger Beer before the end of the year.

While Tiger has been available as a high-end, premium import in the country for over a decade APB decided that the market was now mature enough to support a brewery that competes with the excellent, but somewhat monopolistic, Beerlao.

APB prefers to brew domestically rather than rely on imports and now has operations in Singapore, Malaysia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and China as well as many other countries around the globe.

Good Morning Vientiane

My long awaited reconnaissance mission to Laos took place recently and has provided me with enough Communist beer related stories to fill this blog for at least a month.

More to come shortly…

Korean expats are right - Hite can be shite

Lambasted by Korean based English teachers since the dawn of time I can now confirm that beer originating in the land of the morning calm can be accurately described as shite.

I recently bought a bottle of 4.5% Hite lager from a Korean mini-mart and with much trepidation and refrigeration I cracked it upon and took a few long swigs without experiencing any immediate nausea or discomfort.

In fact it tasted alright.

There was certainly nothing special about the brew but nor could I detect any hint of chemicals, dirt or piss.

The label on the bottle was seemingly being truthful where it stated that Hite was made, “From naturally fresh water” and utilised a “Fresh Taste Keeping System.”

With about ¾ of the still icy cold bottle finished I went to have a quick shower.

About five minutes later I returned to a luke warm beer from which I took a big gulp.

At this point I realised that all those Korean based English teachers were not exaggerating about how bad that country’s beer can be.

It was apparent that my ice cold fridge had conspired with the beer and helped to disguise a nasty chemi-brew aftertaste.

Hite is definitely not a keeper, however my liver is undaunted and next on the list is Cass Red…

Asian Whisky A Go Go

It is hard to say what is worse; the general lack of decent beer in Asia or the native population’s taste for crap whisky.

Due to a holiday season extended by endless work related parties that revolved around massive consumption of Johnnie Walker I did not have much capacity for beer or anything else in most of January.

Chinese New Year combined with an astonishing number of wedding and birthday parties led to an alcohol sodden start to February and even more Johnnie Walker.

Recovery is now underway and I hope to continue my regular sampling of the good, the bad and the ugly beers that Asia has to offer.

Why I do drink – Part 2

As of 2007 and 2008 I have begun to party a fair bit less than my London years but continue to enjoy a tipple or two on a regular basis.

I don’t drink everyday and limit my consumption to weekends and Mondays.

I avoid my previous drink of choice (large bottles of vodka) and prefer to sup on beer and wine nowadays.

So why do I drink?

For me it is not a social thing.

I have never much cared for big gatherings or endless work parties and while I regularly endure both with a drink in hand they are not the main cause for my drinking.

For me the optimum combination is good booze, fine food and an excellent backdrop.

Garden barbeques with a bottle of beer, gin and tonics with Satays at a beach bar and champagne with fresh seafood on a friend’s yacht are among the best examples.

I drink because it is enjoyable and intend to continue doing so in the best of surroundings and most favourable of situations.

Other people are free to do as they like and who am I to judge?

Korean beer comments (hint - it sucks)

The teachers over at the Dave ESL Korean forum have been ruminating over the arsepit that is the Korean brewing industry (http://forums.eslcafe.com/korea/viewtopic.php?t=111690&sid=2a9497f4a90994ae820fa644264cf169)

Comments of note include:

Korean beer is truly the worst beer in the world.

I think that the cASS s-HITE and OB all taste pretty much the same, bad.

Korean beer is the worst in Asia.

Korean beer is one small step up from cold urine.

Korean beer IS proper tramp sweat.

Can Korean beer really be that bad?

Is it possible that a country can make worse beer than Thailand?

I need to track down some of this Cass beer and do a taste test.....

Cheers Beer on TV

Cheers Beer has launched a TV campaign to support its piss influenced, spawn of Satan brew.

The TV adverts are great but the beer remains the same (i.e. shite)

http://www.snotr.com/video/823

Why I do drink – Part 1

A comment was recently left by the writer of the Stories from Thailand blog.

He asked a reasonable enough question (why don’t you stop drinking?) which I pondered upon whilst browsing through the posts on his site.

Before replying to his initial comment I stumbled across a post of his (http://storiesfromthailand.blogspot.com/2008/01/why-i-dont-drink.html) which explained why he doesn’t drink and invited those who do to state their case.

Here is my reply:

“It’s a waste of money.”

This is subjective. Alcohol is a luxury purchase but no more a waste of money than other items of pleasure such as art, music, film, fine cuisine, holidays etc.

“It gets you intoxicated and when people are drunk they do stupid things”

Not everybody drinks to excess. Sometimes I get more pleasure out of one drink than ten and while I have done stupid things when drunk I find there is a fair balance between my sober and non-sober acts of stupidity.

“Do you drink?”

Yup.

“Everyday?”

Not currently but I have done in the past.

“Then, you’re a loser! Convince me you’re not!”

I disagree entirely.

Elsewhere in the post the writer argues that time spent sober allows him to increase his teaching qualifications and therefore his earning capacity.

Considering that most farang teachers earn an absolute pittance I find it laughable that one should bring their peanut based salary into the equation.

I balance a busy work life alongside my penchant for beer and earn many times more than some of best paid teachers and lecturers in Thailand.

In financial terms I am certainly not a loser.

BeerAsia 2008 New Year Resolutions

Late as ever my beer related New Year resolutions for 2008 are as follows:

1. Avoid Johnnie Walker like the plague.
2. Continue regular consumption of all kinds of Beer Lao.
3. Follow through on plans to visit the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos and make sure to leave with as much Beer Lao Dark in my suitcase and carry on as physically possible.
4. Encourage the masses to rise up and boycott the Thai beer monopoly.
5. Promote freedom and democracy for Burma as a means of increasing international availability of Beer Myanmar.

BeerAsia 2007 Resolutions Update

Last year I made 5 resolutions - some I managed to keep and others I failed miserably at:

1. I tried my best to stop drinking spirits in favour of beer but sadly work related duties caused an increase in my consumption of Johnnie Walker and a variety of other crap whiskies.
2. Thanks to a number of trips via Bangkok I managed to get my hands on a decent amount of Beer Lao Dark and have carefully laid plans for a 2008 reconnaissance mission to the beer’s country of origin.
3. I have successfully avoided drinking nearly every Thai brewed beer available including Chang, Singha and Cheers Beer.
4. Japanese beers, especially Yebisu, have maintained a constant presence in my refrigerator.
5. Beer Myanmar has not been available in regular supply anywhere outside of the beer’s borders due to continued international sanctions and the military junta’s mass oppression of tens of thousands of monks and innocent civilians.

Bali Hai Beer – A Javanese Gem

Sneaky bugger that I am this month I managed to lay my hands upon a case of freshly brewed Bali Hai Beer - it had been recommended highly to me and for good reason as I found out.

The can states it is brewed in Bekasi, West Java so I guess that this Balinese beer does not originate directly from the famed holiday island, although it is said to be widely available there and has a strong following amongst foreign visitors and residents.

Available as a regional export in Japan, Singapore, Vietnam, and Cambodia, I also hear that many Indonesian restaurants in America and Europe also stock the beer.

The brew’s stats are the familiar 5% alcohol lager that is available in the standard 330ml can and bottle but Bali Hai proves to be more satisfactory than many other regional beers.

Promoted as a “Classic brew of chosen malts, hops, obtainable for satin smooth distinctive character,” this beer immodestly invites drinkers to, “Experience Perfection.”

Not a bad tasting lager it is slightly dry and has some taste and body of note, unlike many other Asian brews.

It has a tropical feel and goes well as an accompaniment to spicy food or on its own but I have the feeling that the beer would be best enjoyed on a beach in Bali.

Iceberg Lager Beer – Why oh why do I drink beer made in Thailand?

Brewed and canned for World & Tobacco PTE Singapore, but actually made in Thailand by San Miguel (formally Thai Amarit), Iceberg Lager Beer has recently made its debut.

The can offers the usual boast of “Premium Quality” and notes an alcohol content of 5.2% but gives few other details about the beer.

My first instinct upon closer inspection was that it was yet another brew by numbers, with quality and taste coming second to market price and positioning.

The taste, smell and churning in my stomach confirmed my instinct to be correct within half a sip. I braved about a quarter of a can before giving up and cracking open an ice cold bottle of Beerlao to take away the foul taste in my mouth.

I am sure that most Thai breweries simply churn out these production jobs with exactly the same chemi-beers each time, only stopping to change the name and can from time to time.

The problem with most Asian beer is.....

• It is mostly crap
• Mass market focus by breweries and retailers
• Emphasis on low cost and low quality
• Presence of large amounts of hangover inducing chemicals
• Over-branding, over-marketing and over-selling
• Premium beers are normally either imports or just overpriced swill
• Lack of decent black beers - ABC, Guinness and Black Panther are all way too strong to be regular tipples
• Protectionist governments who set high tariffs on import of drinkable beer in order to protect monopolistic domestic brewers (COUGH Thailand COUGH)

Isaan Beer is here!

Courtesy of the Nation newspaper:

Singha plunges into cheap-beer market

BANGKOK: -- Singha Corp expects its new Isaan beer to be a hit with medium-to-low-income drinkers, especially in the countryside.

The company says it will fill a gap not fully reached by its Singha and Leo brands.

The brewer and beverage producer said the new, 4.7-per-cent-alcohol beer could capture a 3-per-cent slice of the Bt100-billion-a-year market.

Company marketing manager Chatchai Viratyosin said yesterday Singha was a favourite in Bangkok and other cities, while Leo was drunk by lower-income consumers in cities and in rural towns.

He said the new beer would entrench the company among all low-income drinkers, including those at the grass roots.

It goes on sale tomorrow and will cost Bt100 for three bottles. This is still more than its main competitor, Archa, from Thai Beverage. Archa has been selling for three years and costs Bt100 for five bottles. It is heavily promoted.

Chatchai said Isaan would not offer price promotions, because that could contravene marketing laws.

But he was confident Isaan could "certainly catch the attention of grass-roots drinkers in the Northeast". The name will grab brand loyalty, he added.

He said Northeast drinkers would want to try it at least once.

"Northeastern people are patriots. We've done surveys throughout the region and found that they are very proud of their dialect, culture and food, so we've applied that to beer. It's made in the Northeast for northeasterners," he said.

The beer is brewed at the company's Khon Kaen plant, and production capacity is 800 million litres per year. Chatchai said the company would soon increase that to one billion litres.

He said Singha was the only company with a brewery in the region and that this saved on costs. Tax revenue will also be poured back into the area, he said - another selling point.

Isaan is expected to boost total Singha sales in the Northeast by 3 per cent, reaching 30 per cent of total sales.

Initially, the brew will be sold in the Northeast only, but because Isaan people are resident all over the country, distribution will be expanded later.

Chatchai said Singha was the first brewer to introduce a purely regional brand, but he expected more to follow.

He said European brewers were extremely provincial, especially in Germany.

2007-11-10

Bye Bye Big Mango Bar

One of the best places on Sukhumvit to enjoy a Beerlao in a hassle free environment that offers good food and great views has sadly had to close due to issues surrounding an expensive new lease.

Karl Marx was right, property is theft and landlords are all bastards.

The Big Mango Bar was a good joint for all and sundry; from those who fancied a pre-session tipple to people that wanted to meet up with mates to me who simply wanted to get hammered on a limitless supply of reasonably priced Beerlao.

There are plans to reopen in a new location but this is all very recent and nothing is yet planned.

Mercifully my other favourite place to swill Beerlao in Bangkok remains open – thank God for Oh My Cod!

For Big Mango Bar updates you can check their website: http://www.bigmangobar.com/

Beer Lao Dark AKA Beer Lao Dum

As soon as I heard that Beer Lao Dum had arrived in the bars of Bangkok I revised travels plans I had to allow me a day (and night) in the City of Angels so I could try the darker, stronger sister of Beer Lao.

Time was limited so instead of going to my favourite Asian Fish and Chip Shop, Oh My Cod near Khao San Road, I headed to the Big Mango Bar in Nana Plaza and started downing the stuff as quick as I could.

The taste is similar to regular Beer Lao but the body offers a much fuller, darker hit and the brew rocks in at 6.5% - enough to knock me for six after just a few bottles.

The waitress at the bar told me that the beer had been quite popular with regulars and tourists alike.

She also pointed out that farang get drunk much quicker on Beer Lao Dum but that it was okay as this meant that they normally ended up leaving bigger tips.

As I stumbled out I also found myself leaving a larger than normal tip, having enjoyed the beer and the conversation greatly.

Brahma – a Brazilian beer in London

This is the last of my beer reviews/highlights from my UK trip and strangely enough it is for Brahma, a popular Brazilian beer.

I picked up a bottle of the brew at the Yates pub in Leicester Square and found it to be a relatively indistinct pale lager somewhat similar to Corona.

Brahma is marketed as an easy-to-drink beer and this label is quite accurate, it is easy to drink but I also found it to be quite a forgettable beer.

It has been brewed since 1888 and due mainly to the colossal size of the Brazilian beer market Brahma is now one of the world’s best selling beers, sitting comfortably in the global top ten where it hovers between 7th and 8th position.

As part of a nationwide export push in Brazil the beer is being shipped all across the world and is now available in 15 countries including the UK, US, Canada, Russia, France, Australia and New Zealand.

By far the most unique aspect of Brahma is its interestingly shaped bottle, the relatively bland brew is nothing much to write home about but for a beer to become a global bestseller it is the branding and advertising that are the key drivers for growth with such beers tending towards the lowest common denominators in regards to taste.

Courage Directors Bitter

This is another one of the brews of note that I supped on whilst in England recently.

It is a decent enough cask bitter but I found it to be a tad too bitter for my tastes, perhaps all this Asian beer has led to my taste buds becoming over-sensitized from lack of use.

There are a range of beers which are part of the Courage family including Courage Bitter, Courage Best Bitter, Courage Directors Winter Warmer, John Courage, John Courage Amber and John Courage Export Lager.

Courage is quite a large brewery that dates back to 1787 and is now a part of the Scottish & Newcastle brewing empire that is also responsible for brewing Beamish, McEwan's, Newcastle Brown Ale, John Smith's and Websters as well as acting as license holders for Foster's, Holstein, Kronenbourg and Miller Pilsener.

Although I managed to get through three or four pints of Courage Directors Bitter during a pub lunch, I do not think this beer will be at the top of the list during my next trip to the UK

Spitfire Beer and the Battle of Britain

To honour the 50th Anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 1990 and to raise money for the RAF Benevolent Fund Shepherd Neame's, Britain’s oldest brewery, decided to create a commemorative ale and launched Spitfire Beer with an initial brewing volume of 500 barrels per month.

Within three months high demand led to the capacity being doubled and the brew soon became Shepherd Neame’s best selling cask conditioned ale.

It is a Kentish Ale that is brewed using pure spring water from the brewery’s artesian well and the highest quality English malt and Kentish hops. It has strength of 4.5% and really does manage to capture a certain “blitz” spirit with its excellent packaging matching that complements the high quality of the beer.

The brew is not short of fans and was recognised at the Brewing Industry International Awards as one of Britain's fastest–growing premium ales, duly being awarded a Gold Medal for being “The Best Strong Cask–Conditioned Beer in the World”.

One beer reviewer, Andrew Jefford, summed up the beer far better than I could explaining that, "Deep amber in colour, generous aromas of tangy malt..spicy hops follow through to provide a complex finish"

Spitfire has to be the most patriotic beer available in Britain and has a well deserved following.

Greene King IPA – A fine English brew

A fine beer may be judged with only one sip, but it's better to be thoroughly sure.

One of the most widely available cask ales in the UK is the Greene King IPA.

With a brewing history dating back nearly a thousand years it originates from the market town of Bury St Edmonds in Suffolk.

This brew is an enjoyable tipple and at 3.6% a refreshing change from the 5% plus lagers I am used to drinking in Asia.

Available straight from the casks in pubs around the UK it is a beer with a clean finish, distinctively hoppy and with an impressionable bite to it.

It is an award winning brew (mind you so is Chang…..) and won the Gold award at the 2004 Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) Great British Beer Festival and was also a runner up in the Champion Beer Of Britain category.

The parent company, Greene King, is the largest British owned brewery in the UK and is also responsible for Abbot Ale and Old Speckled Hen.

Monopolistic takeover and acquisition policies have led some to refer to the company as Greedy King but nether-the-less the beers they produce are some of the best brews available on the mass market in the UK.

Bad news for Beer Lao

Shamefully unreported by this blog here is a belated round up on the halting of Beer Lao's expansion into Thailand:

Lao Brewery Co's plans to flood Thailand with its popular Beer Lao next year have been put on hold until 2011, a senior executive said Thursday.

But the government of Laos and Thailand recently decided that beer was too sensitive a product to be tariff-free in their respective markets.

"Both governments decided to keep the tariffs on beer until 2011," said Sounthone Phommachak, senior deputy managing director of the Lao Brewery Co. "Each country is still trying to protect their own beer market."

Bugger.................

More can be found at the following sites:

http://nationmultimedia.com/2007/09/20/business/business_30049676.php
http://whatismatt.com/beer-lao-not-coming-to-thailand/
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/230699/Beer_Lao_delays_export_plans

British Boozers

A recent sojourn to England gave me the chance to alcoholically indulge giving myself access to a near endless stream of finely brewed, fresh, draft beer.

Two and a half years in Asia have provided me with a very high degree of respect for the institution that is the pub.

Strolling through the incredibly overpopulated and overstressed city of London I found a number of old haunts all of which to boasted seemingly infinite arrays of brews, both domestic and international.

But it was in the West Country and Southern Coast that I encountered the most enjoyable beer purveyors with pubs giving prominence to local and regional beers that are actually brewed rather than mass-manufactured in some chemical factory as so often is the case in Asia.

The British pub experience goes beyond beer with surroundings going a long way to enhance and create atmosphere - there is something amazingly pleasurable about supping on a pint of bitter in a beer garden on a summer’s day or bringing in the New Year with a pub full of your beshtest friends.

Arriving in Bangkok on business a week after leaving the UK I found myself popping into a British themed bar on Sukhumvit for the sake of comparison.

While the beer on offer could not even come close to the real thing I have to admit that the atmosphere was great and the bar was packed with all the usual suspects, characters, criminals, oddballs and alcoholics that you would find in your local boozer in the UK.

Guinness in England

This is a photo of one of my favourite beers in the world, a brew that is best enjoyed as physically close to Ireland as possible.

In this case I was on the southern coast of England but compared to the imported kegs available in Asia the difference in taste and quality is really noticeable.

Nothing makes me happier than to be able to walk into a pub and have the choice of two types of draft Guinness – regular and extra cold.

I found myself going with extra cold each time and savoured every last drop of every pint I consumed.

In the UK there are no year old imported cans or the super strong bottles of Malaysian brewed Foreign Extra on offer - just good, fresh Guinness on draft.

I sometimes consider moving back to the UK on the basis of the beer alone but memories of the insane levels of taxation, traffic, laws, regulations and all the other crap always manage to bring me back to my senses.

I do miss the beer though…………..

Bangkok's Best Beer

AbsolutelyBangkok.com has rounded up the city's best beers and the article gives a good overview of what is available - they were also kind enough to give this blog a mention : )

http://absolutelybangkok.com/?p=10

Pint - Glass or Plastic?

This is the question that should never be asked in any self-respecting pub or bar anywhere. But I found it to be the standard in a lot of pubs I visited in the UK recently.

If it was a weekend night or if you were sitting outside in the beer garden then you were given no choice but to drink your brew from a plastic pint “glass”.

A glass pint has a major benefit over the plastic equivalent – it keeps the beer cool.

Admittedly it also can be used as a dangerous weapon ala “Trainspotting” but most people that drink Best Bitter or Guinness would not risk wasting any of their beer just to glass somebody – such time would be much better spent going to the bar and ordering another brew.

Beer served in a plastic pint just feels wrong.

Oettinger – Original German Beer

At last I have managed to find an “Original German Beer” in Asia. No longer must I degrade my stomach and liver with Park Lager or Mittweida for I can now consume the ever so slightly better tasting Oettinger.

Rocking in at 5.4% the beer is drinkable enough but ultimately fails the “Do I care enough to ever buy another can test”.

For once I actually believe this to be a genuine German brew but I have always preferred the alcoholic offerings of Belgium or Britain and never thought Deutsche Uber Alles was ever on the beer table in Europe, Asia or anywhere else.

Mittweida – The Thai-German-Philipino Brew

Like many people I have often found myself wondering what a German style beer brewed in Thailand by a Philipino beer monopoly would taste like?

It turns out the answer is that such a beer tastes as bad as it sounds.

Mittweida is certainly one step up from the similarly “German” branded one sip wonder that is Park Lager but it fails to impress on any much greater substantially higher level of taste, although I did manage to finish an entire can of the beer.

Made by San Miguel in it’s Thai brewery this is a hard beer to come across and seems to have a small production and distribution base that is largely concentrated in random parts of Thailand, Cambodia and wherever the hell else they can offload the stuff.

The can claims Mittweida beer was established in 1874.

Maybe it was but I do not think any beer lover would be bothered enough to challenge this historical factoid – this time would be much better spent finding a Beer Lao to wash away any memory of this strangest of brews.

Park Lager – Another one sip wonder

With some beers in Asia you can tell by the first whiff that they are no good.

Even with the open can some way from my nose I could smell that things were not right with Park Lager.

Promoted on the can as a German brew made with finest hops and barley malt I found neither ingredient to be present in this beer.

I took one sip and was immediately filled with regret.

The brown liquid that claimed to be beer was nothing more than toilet cleaner in a can.

My mouth and stomach could give my brain no reason to continue consumption, especially since my fridge was filled with a number of superior and incredibly well-chilled brews.

Park Lager is a beer that deserves to be poured into the nearest toilet bowl, which is exactly what I did with my first and last can of the brew.

Vietnam gets hammered on Carlsberg

The Vietnamese are leading the alcoholic way in terms of Carlsberg consumption creating a large rise in revenue for the company according to this article - http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=61b57ecb-d66b-4930-b62b-e97ae13b839b&k=36903

Growth for the brew in all of Asia combined topped 29% in a single year - apart from in Thailand of course where it has not been available for a long, long time.

Thanks a lot Chang!

333 Beer – the popular brew from Vietnam

333, or “Ba Ba Ba” as it is known in Vietnam, is a pretty decent rice lager that has found export success in a number of countries including France, Australia, Singapore, Hong Kong and even America.

The brew has managed to endure over a century of regional conflict and turmoil having first been produced in 1893 and becoming popularly known as Beer 33 at the turn of the century.

After the Communist takeover/liberation/oppression of Vietnam in the seventies the beer was renamed Beer 333 - the name change was allegedly an attempt to shake off the beer’s colonial past but truth be told nobody knows if this is the real reason or not.

Brewed with Australian ingredients and German technology the beer is quite tasty - in comparison it can be seen as a step up from Beer Lao in terms of strength of flavour and alcohol (5.3%).

The beer’s website boasts proudly of its quality control and filtration systems as well as the brewery’s focus on using a supply of pure, clean water that is heavily filtered to eliminate any impurities that could contaminant the taste of the finished product.

Beer Saigon (the brewery owner) even employs beer testers who drink samples from every batch produced to ensure that all beer leaving the brewery is up to the highest of standards.

Beer 333 is an enjoyable tipple that I found to be a refreshing change from some of Asia’s bland, insipid and often disgusting chemi-brews.

Highly recommended.

Best Beers for not getting Hangovers

1) Anchor – I can drink this brew all night and still wake up feeling rosy the next day providing I get enough post-boozing sleep.

2) Beer Lao – The lack of hangover from this beer is probably attributable to the ice I drink with it or the fact I chill it for at least twenty four hours before having a sip.

3) Heineken – This is a beer that serves as a textbook example of the benefits of quality control. Best out of a bottle rather than a can for freshness.

4) Carlsberg – I have drunk a lot of this in Malaysia and it has never caused me pain, although there was a business meeting or two that I probably would have performed better at had I not been drinking this brew until the early hours.

5) Most Non Thai Beers – Strangely enough most non-Thai beers do not give me hangovers. Maybe it is something to do with………………… (well you know the rest)

Bangkok Bob's updated guide to Bars and Pubs

Bangkok Bob has updated his guide to Bars and Pubs in the City of Angels and now lists some of the best places to go, "When you are tired of being molested by semi naked go-go girls" and need a, "bit of peace and quiet."

Some of better known bars on the list include The Barbican, the Londoner, the Irish X Change and Gullivers.

For the complete run down go to: http://www.bangkokbob.net/bars_pubs.htm

Worst Beers for Hangovers

These are the beers that have given me the worst hangovers whilst living in Asia:

1) Chang – On my first night in Thailand I drank about 5 or 6 large bottles of this brew without having any dinner or water to re-hydrate. Needless to say my first morning in Thailand was spent in the very near vicinity of my hotel toilet. Every time I drink this beer in any quantity I always wake up around 5am suffering from mind-blowing headaches, hallucinations and a very dodgy stomach. Some people swear by it but I swear at it.

2) Tiger – Tiger is a beer that I quite enjoy to drink, especially on draught. However every time I indulge in this beer I find myself with a hangover of varying proportions the next morning. The scale of the hangover is relatively mild but incredibly annoying as Tiger is one of a small number of decent tasting beers that are widely available throughout the region.

3) Singha – The few times that I have been able to drink a large enough volume of this beer I have always arose the next day feeling like complete shite. I don’t like the taste of the brew and only drink the stuff if it is offered to me free of charge.

4) Cheers Beer – I have never EVER drank enough of this “beer” to have been able to achieve a state of hangover but it is so foul that I am certain it must be a headache inducing and stomach churning experience.

5) Most Thai Beers – Nearly without exception most Thai brewed beers seem to be very good at giving hellish hangovers. Maybe it is something to do with the low quality brewing process, ingredients, distribution etc etc…………

Millions of cans of beer disappear at Thai border!

A report published recently by the Economic Institute of Cambodia revealed that tens of millions of cans of beers had disappeared at the Thai border as they were being imported into Cambodia.

The report, which was jointly sponsored by Cambrew and Cambodia Brewery, noted the discrepancies between Thai export numbers (high) and Cambodian import figures (low) and estimated the total loss of tax revenue for the Cambodian Government at over 22 million dollars, or around 3% of total tax revenue.

The beer with the highest discrepancies was Thai brewed Asahi which is the cheapest foreign brand in the Cambodia and a strong competitor to Angkor and Anchor.

The EIC claims that 29% of the country’s beer market is made up of smuggled beer blaming, "Weak governance and law enforcement” and urging the powers that be to, "take energetic measures to combat 'contraband' beer, especially along the Thai border."

However the country’s Prime Minister Samdech Hun Sen has refused to accept the report stating that it was a waste of money and was aimed at slurring the good name and reputation of his government.

Interestingly taxes have now been raised on the beers brewed domestically by the reports backers so revenue should increase even if smuggling continues.