Craftier Than Before: An Inside Look Into Bangkok’s Exploding Craft Beer Scene
As I write this article, I’m sitting at a first floor café in the same building that hosted a craft beer festival six days ago—and I can still see the splintered plastic cups with the event’s logo printed on the side littering the ground. While I could easily write a different article about how sad it is to see plastic garbage cluttering the space of an otherwise developed area, this article will be about something a little more uplifting: Bangkok’s exploding craft beer scene.
Despite frequenting the trendy new beer bars like Mikkeller and Wishbeer, I hadn’t heard anything about Hopsession’s 2016 Craft Beer Festival until one of Facebook’s omnipotent algorithms suggested it to me. I RSVPed yes and expected to be let down.
Other than a handful of these new, and overpriced, craft beer bars, the only beer available in Thailand is the unending rivalry between the unexciting Chang and the tasteless Leo. Both are usually served on ice because the more you kill the flavor, the better off you’ll be. They’re both famous for sponsoring gigantic parties and raves hawking their heavily discounted fizzy water, and I prepared myself to find as much at Hopsession’s event.
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