Thailand’s first craft beer festival: the tipping point of the industry?

This weekend Thailand is holding its first ever craft beer festival. Of course small enclaves of beer geeks having been holding their own little festivals for nearly a decade, drinking smuggled brews from all over the world in secret, but this weekend marks the first time all the kingdom’s major craft importers have joined forces and collectively organized what will probably become the first of many festivals—hopefully.

The fact that there are enough importers to now to come together for a large-scale(if you can call it that) craft beer festival signals a shift from what used to be a supply driven market where one or two importers dictated what brews we enjoyed(and we’re glad they did!), to what possibly could be a demand-driven market where there’s enough room for more than a handful of distributors to bring in different brews from around the globe. This is surely a monumental occasion for Thailand’s craft beer community.

The festival will take place at Apoteka on Sukhumvit Soi 11 from 3:00-7:00 pm, and the word is that there will be over 50 different beer available. Entry to the fest is free, but you have two options for getting’ your drank on: you can buy a “Beer Geek” ticket that gives you a special glass, a commemorative T-shirt, and tickets for 4 beers, or you can opt to just buy beers individually at the festival. Most craft brews range from 180-240THB.

 [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”17815″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”850″,”style”:”display: block; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;”,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”600″}}]]

 [[{“type”:”media”,”view_mode”:”media_original”,”fid”:”17816″,”attributes”:{“alt”:””,”class”:”media-image”,”height”:”848″,”typeof”:”foaf:Image”,”width”:”600″}}]]

Event: Thailand Craft Beer Festival

Where: Apoteka Bangkok

Sukhumvit 11, Bangkok, Thailand 10110

Transport: BTS Nana

When: August 3, 3pm-7pm

Cost: Free admission, 4 beer promotion: THB1,000 presale, THB1,200 at the door

Pre-sale contact info: 

Beervana: K. Fhy, mobile: 0814966663, email: fhy@seekbeervana.com

Hopsession: K. Vaew, mobile: 0836077770, email: rutima.v@hopsession.biz 

Smiling Mad Dog: K. Kan, mobile: 0898015001, email: sales@smilingmaddog.com