Beer Lao Now Available in the West

Cafe Society
1

I’m pleased to learn that Beer Lao is now available in parts of the US, the UK and Australia, as well as Japan. The Wall Street Journal recently featured it in a story here. The label on the can says Beerlao, and the newspaper story follows suit, but it usually appears as Beer Lao in the local press and is how I’m used to writing it.

Beer Lao is quite a decent brew. Myself, I still prefer my beloved Singha beer, but Beer Lao has a nice, milder taste and will not knock you on your ass if you’re drinking all night in the same way that Singha does. (That’s not to say you cannot get drunk on it, it’s just that it takes a lot more effort, and the hangover is a milder one than the killer Singha hangover.) It’s cheaper too and has been very well received in Thailand since appearing here several years ago. Of course I drank it exclusively in Laos; I’ll often order it in Thailand now if it’s available, and more and more local bars and restaurants are serving it. A few months ago a dark version appeared, which I have not tried yet myself, as I really like the original brew.

If you can find it where you are, I highly recommend you give it a try.

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I’ll keep my eyes open for it. I doubt it’ll make it into any of my local supermarkets, but they might have it at a specialty beer store I occasionally go to.

The SE Asian beer I liked the most was Kloster, though reading reviews of it on-line now I have to wonder whether I really liked it or not.

3

Kloster seems to have largely disappeared now. Still around but very limited. It used to be you had a choice between only Singha and Kloster, but I think the advent of Heineken and a lot of other beers pretty much knocked it out of the running. There’s quite a variety of beers here nowadays. I never did care for Kloster myself.