Beer Taste Challenge
A few years ago there was very little choice in the Thai Beer market. Now a large variety of domestically brewed and imported beers are available. To help you decide which beer to drink we summoned a panel of four experts in the fields of meteorology, scuba diving, juggling and chess - who all know a thing or two about beer or, to conduct a tasting.
Ten different beers, all brewed in Thailand, were selected for our taste challenge. Each was tasted blind by our panel, who considered the various attributes of each candidate before awarding a mark out of ten.
The Candidates
The following beers were chosen for tasting; Archa, Beer Thai, Cheers Beer, Beer Leo, San Miguel, Kloster, Tiger Beer, Beer Chang, Singha Beer and Heineken. This is a broad range of the beers available in Thailand, ranging from economy beers like Chang, Leo and Archa to premier brands such as Heineken, Singha and Kloster. We excluded light beers on principle.
The Testing
1 - Beer Leo - 6%
This is Boon Rawd breweries economy beer brand.
Comments: "Good beery aroma", "Strong, distinct taste", "Metally..weird aftertaste", "Drinkable but not preferable", "could induce pain the next morning"
Score: 19
2 - Kloster - 6%
Boon Rawd has four beers in our selection of 10. This is, apparently, their "international premium lager beer"
Comments: "Smells horrid", "Sharp taste, makes you jerk back", "No alcohol taste, no beer taste", "No taste", "Tastes like diluted chemical works run-off"
Score: 11
3 - Cheers Beer - 5.6%
This is the economy beer of Thai Asia Pacific Brewery Ltd. Who also produce Tiger and Heineken beers
Comments: "Flowery aftertaste", "Not too bad, could drink more", "Inoffensive", "Average to say the best"
Score: 22
4 - Singha Beer - 6%
Boon Rawd was founded in 1933 and is Thailand's oldest producer of beer. They brew at three breweries in Thailand and Singha is their flagship product.
Comments: "Clean smelling", "Good honest ale", "Best so far", "Nice smooth taste, I'm in", "Sweet, decent nose"
Score: 26
5 - San Miguel - 5%
A recent addition to the Thai beer market San Miguel is a beer originating in the Philippines. Maybe it tastes good over there.
Comments: "Sweet smell", Cloudy", "Bad", "Sadistically drinkable", "It's giving me a headache"
Score: 11
6 - Beer Archa - 5.4%
This economy beer launched a couple of years ago is produced by Thai Beverages.
Comments: "Smells a bit like a wet dog", "Full bodied but not too rich", "Clean drinking", "thick tasting..could drink more"
Score: 25
7 - Tiger Beer - 5%
Tiger is a popular international beer that originates in Singapore and is brewed in Thailand Nonthaburi, just North of Bangkok.
Comments: "All day no worries", "Clean, crisp straight lager", "Very good, nice cool taste"
Score: 32
8 - Beer Thai - 6.5%
This beer is Boon Rawd's candidate in the strong economical end of the domestic beer market. It is the strongest beer we tested being a not accidental 0.1% stronger than its main competitor Chang.
Comments: "Sugary battery acid taste", "Gets harder to drink, tastes like brake fluid", "Sweet and off tasting", "Dreadful"
Score: 10
9 - Heineken - 5%
Hailing from Amsterdam in Holland Heineken is one of the world's largest beer brands. It is brewed under license in Thailand by Thai Asia Pacific Brewery Ltd.
Comments: "Sweet, clean and smooth", "Sweet and tasty", "It's Heineken"
Score: 30.5
10 - Beer Chang - 6.4%
Chang has been around for a good few years now. It was the original economy beer and is Thailand's best selling beer.
Comments: "Nice taste", "Wouldn't want to cane it", "better than most"
Score: 24
| The Results | ||
| 1st | Tiger | 32 |
| 2nd | Heineken | 30.5 |
| 3rd | Singha | 26 |
| 4th | Archa | 25 |
| 5th | Chang | 24 |
| 6th | Cheers | 22 |
| 7th | Leo | 19 |
| 8th= | Kloster | 11 |
| 8th= | San Miguel | 11 |
| 10th | Thai | 10 |
Tiger beer was the clear winner scoring 32 points out of a possible 40. Although only a mid-priced beer it managed to beat off premium opposition like Heineken and Kloster. Heineken and Singha were both well-liked and performed well. These were followed by Archa, Chang (Thailand's best selling beer), Cheers and Leo. The panel found all of these beers to be, if not perfect, at least drinkable. Then there was quite a large gap before the last three beers which the panel felt they would be quite happy never to encounter again.
