Days after alcohol sellers and brewers staged the Great Bangkok Keg Party, pouring kegs of spoiled craft brew down the drain in protest, a coalition of craft beer sellers today submitted a detailed proposal for how some of the city’s bars could safely reopen.
The Craft Beer Association on Friday afternoon proposed measures that include serving no more than two drinks per customer, restricting seating to 90 minutes and banning dancing. Toasts would even be forbidden, meaning no clinking under the proposed measures.
The association emphasized that the measures were developed specifically for craft beer bars to self-regulate and might not cover cocktail bars and pubs. However, the group hopes that, with official approval, other bars could use their proposal as a blueprint suit their needs.
“We felt the need to come together and form this association in order to represent ourselves, our ideals, and our hopes and dreams for elevating the drinking culture here in Thailand,” association member Artid Sivahansaphan said. “Instead we’ve been faced with court summons. … We felt it was our duty to assist and help guide protocols in hopes that this would allow craft beer bars to reopen again soon.”
Alcohol sales inside bars and restaurants have been banned in Bangkok and many neighboring provinces since early January after a second wave of COVID-19 infections started to sweep across Thailand in mid-December.
This story originally appeared in BK.
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