Happy Friday all.
Moving along with the country stat attacks and continuing our journey in Asia, we have reached sunny, hot, and very humid Thailand in South East Asia.
Thailand is right next to China on the Most Difficult Countries to Drink list. According to it, 4,168 beer lovers have rated a beer from the place that was once known as Siam.
Thailand is a major tourist destination for Europeans and Asians alike as it is blessed with good weather , tropical natural beauty , and low prices (from a European point of view at least). Thailand is known for its Buddhist temples, unique cuisine, tropical fruit , rubber industry, monarchy and that law about not insulting the king , numerous military coups (the latest being in 2014) , three-wheeled taxis , being the place that Red Bull originated from, and so on. It is also the only country in the region that was never colonised by the Europeans.
As for beer , well Bangkok, or Krung Thep Maha Nakhon as it is known in the native Thai (and that isn’t even the full version of it), is the city with the most breweries on Ratebeer (131), but at the same time, domestic craft beer is illegal/underground in Thailand due to legislation that favours the country’s mega breweries:
Current laws restrict brewing licences to manufacturers that have capital of 10 million baht (£230,000), while brewpubs must produce at least 100,000 litres a year and only serve their beer on their premises. The legislation effectively blocks new, small breweries from opening, and tips the market firmly in favour of two powerful companies – Thai Beverage, which produces Chang beer, and Boon Rawd Brewery, which produces Singha and Leo.
More on that here.
The RateBeer database contains 184 active breweries, 1 meadery, 1 cidery, and 2 sake producers. The threshold for entering the Thai top 50 is veeeery low — the 50th spot is occupied by forum regular @beardedavenger with 15 rates.
At present, our biggest rater here is @jmgreenuk with an impressive 1,085 ratings, and who is based in the region. The rest of the top 10 is made up of raters from Europe, North America, and Australia:
Name | Count | % country | |
---|---|---|---|
1 | jmgreenuk | 1085 | 71% |
2 | deanso | 441 | 29% |
3 | kermis | 267 | 17% |
4 | Stew41 | 115 | 7% |
5 | omhper | 111 | 7% |
6 | trapped | 71 | 5% |
7 | martin00sr | 70 | 5% |
8 | mcberko | 55 | 4% |
9 | the_beergery | 48 | 3% |
10 | solidfunk | 48 | 3% |
Sadly, the local user base is a different story altogether, with only two active users, @medkung and @abstractic:
Name | Ratings | |
---|---|---|
1 | medkung | 142 |
2 | numalee13 | 113 |
3 | CyborgX | 109 |
4 | WareHavUBean | 102 |
4 | abstractic | 102 |
6 | athanawat | 40 |
7 | Nachanont | 22 |
8 | peradon_charoenchainetr | 17 |
9 | Gregon | 15 |
10 | BpaiHorngnam | 14 |