Grand President Mini Market

[monochaser]

Well Jack, out of the 100 brands those liquor stores carry, 80 will be imported brands. The US domestic brands are not the key, it's the selection and variety

[autonomous_unit]

Just wanted to gloat that I wandered into a BigC we've never frequented, and was excited to find a 12-pack of 0.5 liter Erdinger Weisse bottles. Bought them at 99 baht/each and am happy to report that the first one tasted fine... no apparent harm from its long journey and storage.

But, I assume this to be a fluke. It was the only real beer on the shelves.The last time I saw these bottles out around the river was in late 2004, when I naively thought Tops would always have a few on the shelf for me to take, after having success for about two months. I still do not understand the stock management philosophy here...

[monochaser]

Actually AU, I was in the new Tops on Soi 3 (Nana Square) and they had a few German imports in there and I believe that brand was among them. I never pay much mund to German stuff as I never liked the taste. They had German Warsteiner I noticed, the real imported stuff with the import tax stamp on it. Other than that they had the usual 101 baht corona and nothing else. wait did i say nothing? they had

Tiger

Sing

Heine

Leo

Chang

?Cheers

Wow what a grand selection

[ProfessorFart]

Weren't you having a pop at people only in Thailand for the beer the other week Monochaser?

[monochaser]

The beer situation is the worst in the world, that hasn't changed

[Thaipwriter]

Did somebody hold a gun to your head and say you have to stay here and drink the local brew?

Why not export yourself to freshbeerland and live happily ever after?

[monochaser]

I'll be back there at some point, you can be sure of that

[raro]

Could you arrange this "point" in the not so distant future?

[autonomous_unit]

What size were the bottles? I am in Nonthaburi and was talking about the Tops at Central Pinklao, which is already a hike (we used to live right near there). I loathe traffic jams and look at trips to CBD about like a fur trapper would consider going into town... for his annual resupply, season permitting. But maybe it is worth it, if I can stock up.

They had the 500ml bottles of Erdinger in 2004 for ~90 THB/ea, then it all disappeared, and now they have several varieties of German beer but only in those tiny little 330ml bottles for ~80 THB/ea. That's why I was happy to find 500ml wheat beer again. In the absence, I'd taken to drinking Red Horse... at least it has a little flavor.

Does anyone know if Tawandaeng will sell kegs or growlers? Maybe I can convince my wife I need a CO2 rig in my refrigerator at home, for health reasons...

[lampard10]

Just wanted to gloat that I wandered into a BigC we've never frequented, and was excited to find a 12-pack of 0.5 liter Erdinger Weisse bottles. Bought them at 99 baht/each and am happy to report that the first one tasted fine... no apparent harm from its long journey and storage.

But, I assume this to be a fluke. It was the only real beer on the shelves.The last time I saw these bottles out around the river was in late 2004, when I naively thought Tops would always have a few on the shelf for me to take, after having success for about two months. I still do not understand the stock management philosophy here...

Plenty of places stock Erdinger Weissen,Erdinger Dunkel Weissen & Erdinger Champ weissen beer. You havn't been reading your posts properly have you?

[autonomous_unit]

... You havn't been reading your posts properly have you?

Probably not... I don't even know what the proper way is... What have I done wrong this time?

Are you talking shops or pubs? I thought the list posted earlier was for a pub, but I am talking about where to get beer for the fridge at home.

As I mentioned, I do not frequent the central business district, and in general just crane my neck when we pass through the beer aisle of any supermarket we visit out in Nonthaburi and vicinity. So far, the supplies seem very random, such that I never find a steady supply at any one place. But, I admit I haven't scoured the land, nor have I ever gone on a dedicated beer-finding mission.

[griser]

I live in nonthaburi as well and at the local Tesco-Lotus they happen to sell Warsteiner (probably spelled that wrong) at 60 baht a bottle. Goes down really smooth too ;-)

Greg

[visarunner]

Along Sukhumvit there are many shops with a grand selection of beers.

Foodland ,various Villa Markets.

Enjoy the original German beers ,they taste so good.

[jackr]

Could you arrange this "point" in the not so distant future?

He's alright... just a bit lonely I guess

[lampard10]

Are you talking shops or pubs? I thought the list posted earlier was for a pub, but I am talking about where to get beer for the fridge at home.

Yes for a pub..............................but I must go to Supermarkets to buy it myself.

Outlets that sell Erdingen

Carrefours

Tops

Best

Friendship

+ a lot of beer wholesalers

OK I shop for my beer in Pattaya, but I would think there is a greater selection in the BKK area.

And monchaser, your name suits you to a tee. I will beg to differ though. I think that the number of beers readily available in Thailand ( OK you can't go shuffling out in your pyjamas to a 7/11 and expect to find 1,357 different beers all brewed yesterday, as you obviously can in the States) exceeds most countries in the beer drinking world. A word of advice though. You must go out and look for them. Thai beers do not have legs.

Edited June 7, 2006 by lampard10

[Jai Dee]

Thai beers do not have legs.

Ahhh.... but have you seen the legs on some of those beer girls?

mutters under breath... hubba hubba...

[autonomous_unit]

See, that's the problem... I want to just think, "mmmm, beer" and have one leap up into my hand. I'm not accustomed to having to travel to find it, and certainly not having to travel more than 2-3 miles. What are roads for, if not to bring beer-laden trucks directly to me?

But, I actually thought I was providing a counter-example to monochaser's plight... if I (with all my beer acquiring deficencies) can still get a nice wheat beer in the suburbs, it must not be so dire afterall.

[ProfessorFart]

Hop into a cab and head to Foodland at IT place in Laksi Autonomous Unit. They're sure to have a decent range of wallop there.

[monochaser]

Foodland has a huge selection of about 5 imports. one of the finest beer selections in all of Thailand, land of variety. and they will have:

tiger

leo

sing

heine

chang

the spice of life

I was just in suk foodland last night and the had:

a few bottles of corona (outdated and 101 bt ea)

some outdated guiness cans (200 baht ea)

that erdinger stuff 95 bt

about 2 bottles of year old miller lite theyve been trying to get rid of for 10 months 95bt

some nasty indian beer called king fisher 69 bt

grolsch 4get price but over 100 bt and dated product

That was all she wrote at foodland. foodland is the best market I have found for western related food products (aint saying much) and it has close to the top best selection in beer and that means 6 imports and the FF above. famous five

it's funny, foodland used to carry Bud for 80 baht 3 years ago but tax rates on imports were jacked 25% and they started selling at 99 bt but sales stopped due to outrageous price. product was discontinued less than a year after price increase. I'm not sure what thailand gets out of protecting the local brews. it's not like any of their population is going to go around buying up bud for 80 bt

Edited June 7, 2006 by monochaser

[monochaser]

Well I took a trip to the finest, most diverse import selection in all of Thailand and will report back now. It was found at Tops supermarket on Sukhimvit:

Imported Beers Carried:

1. Warsteiner Bottle---Born on date Jan '06 (stale)

2. german brand #2 (forget the name) dated Jan ;06 (stale)

3. german brand #3 Jan '06 stale

4. Corona cant read the code (102 baht, US 30 baht)

5. Bud bottle born on date Feb 6 2006 (stale, would be pulled from USA shelves as shelf life is 105 days) (105 baht USA 20 baht)

6. Miller Lite ---this one takes the cake for freshness, born on date a whopping 375 days old. made June 5 2005!! 100 baht, USA 15 baht

7. Cooper's Ale---85 baht-------this was the cheapest and freshest import. it is fresh b/c coopers recently made a push into Thailand. tried one and it's really really nasty stuff but better than all thai stuff (not saying much)

8. Kingfisher----super duper nasty tasting stuff but again better than thai stuff

thats all she wrote/////

oh they had

1.tiger

2.sing

3. heine

4. leo

5. chang

shocking they had those 5

so 13 brands (8 imports) is the best thailand can do and all imports were certifiably stale. I'll be flying out for a few days and bringing back anything, I mean anything that aint thai brewed. what a joy that will be. I tell you this much, I wont be heading into Lampard's place and ordering up any of his stale imports for 140 baht. god help any1 who does.

[Alonso's Army]

Well I took a trip to the finest, most diverse import selection in all of Thailand and will report back now. It was found at Tops supermarket on Sukhimvit:

Imported Beers Carried:

1. Warsteiner Bottle---Born on date Jan '06 (stale)

2. german brand #2 (forget the name) dated Jan ;06 (stale)

3. german brand #3 Jan '06 stale

4. Corona cant read the code (102 baht, US 30 baht)

5. Bud bottle born on date Feb 6 2006 (stale, would be pulled from USA shelves as shelf life is 105 days) (105 baht USA 20 baht)

6. Miller Lite ---this one takes the cake for freshness, born on date a whopping 375 days old. made June 5 2005!! 100 baht, USA 15 baht

7. Cooper's Ale---85 baht-------this was the cheapest and freshest import. it is fresh b/c coopers recently made a push into Thailand. tried one and it's really really nasty stuff but better than all thai stuff (not saying much)

8. Kingfisher----super duper nasty tasting stuff but again better than thai stuff

thats all she wrote/////

oh they had

1.tiger

2.sing

3. heine

4. leo

5. chang

shocking they had those 5

so 13 brands (8 imports) is the best thailand can do and all imports were certifiably stale. I'll be flying out for a few days and bringing back anything, I mean anything that aint thai brewed. what a joy that will be. I tell you this much, I wont be heading into Lampard's place and ordering up any of his stale imports for 140 baht. god help any1 who does.

How come noone has mentioned Asahi beer?

[TokyoT]

How come noone has mentioned Asahi beer?

The Asahi available in Thailand is crap.

Used to drink Asahi all the time in Japan. First time I had one in Thailand I about spit it all over myself. The bar staff had brought it to me with one of those cooler wraps to help keep it cold, and I had to pull it out to see if they had brought me the wrong stuff. Nope – bottle said Asahi, but certainly does not taste like the Asahi from Japan.

Asahi here is even in green rather than dark brown bottles – what’s up with that?

A real disappointment, as the Japanese tend to be real sticklers for quality and quality control issues.