If indeed Chang beer did harbor illegal drugs I'm sure Thailand's finest would detect it in their random urine tests taken while raiding bars. So I'll be bold and say not plausible.

I really liked the Chang export & draught but after having a promotion for a while they seem to have disappeared off the supermarket shelves.

Chang have stopped making Export and draught

Stopped Chang Light too.

That's one I've not heard. As a Chang drinker I should be permanently high.

There is a persistent rumour that it does contain formaldehyde as a preservative, but it's just that, a rumour.

http://www.beer-faq.com/formaldehyde-beer/

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!

I think formaldehyde it could be. I turn 82 tomorrow, drink Chang and my friends remark that I am the best preserved corpse they have seen.

Its all OK except for Cheers and Leo.Chang is my choice at 5.5% all others are 5.0%

Why would percentage alcohol even be a factor in which beer you like?

If that's what you are after, drink moonshine.

Its all OK except for Cheers and Leo.Chang is my choice at 5.5% all others are 5.0%

Why would percentage alcohol even be a factor in which beer you like?

If that's what you are after, drink moonshine.

There is more to a drink than the actual taste.

A wine connoisseur might prefer one brew because 'it has more bite to it'.

I am not sure there are many people, who enjoy a drink whilst socialising, who would drink an alcohol free concoction all evening.

This is one of the oldest saws on the Thai calendar. I remember first hearing the formaldehyde one about beer Sing in the old, squat bottles that have now disappeared; that was in about 1988, I'm sure old-timers heard it even earlier. As for amphetamines....

It's all part of the rich Thai urban legend industry, like the katoey who was married to the Italian for four years before the latter discovered the truth....

Oh, wait - that one turned out to be true.

Yeah, I heard the story about the formaldehyde in Singh back in 1971. Don't know how far back it went. Nothing to it. Actually, I quite liked Singh. In the large bottles. Were they a full liter?

That's one I've not heard. As a Chang drinker I should be permanently high.

There is a persistent rumour that it does contain formaldehyde as a preservative, but it's just that, a rumour.

http://www.beer-faq.com/formaldehyde-beer/

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!

I smell moron. The poster's getting the two things mixed up. He hears one long word and then another and thinks they're the same. Good job he's not been round any poor people's houses with the corrugated roofs or he'd be thinking corrugated was in the beer. Tell me I'm wrong.

Cheers RED can at 6% tastes fine, and has a kick, but needs to be ice cold, not 7/11 chilled

Rice and chemicals.....forget hops, barley or wheat....

Horse@@@@.

Why would it have wheat, it's not a Belgian wit.

Beer is 75-85% barley malt with the remaining percentage adjuncts, such as roast barley, wheat, rice, rye malt, crystal malt, toasted malts.

It's a long list.

Even porters and stouts are only a small percentage of the darker roast malts as adjuncts. They are still mostly pale barley malt.

Chang's adjunct is rice. So what? Many fine beers have rice as an adjunct.

If you can't taste the hops in Chang, you know bugger all about beer.

There is very little point in putting chemicals in beer especially preservatives. Hops is a natural preservative and Chang is pasteurized anyways.

Some breweries do put head whiteners and head retention chemicals in, but I have no idea if Chang does.

If you know dick about beer, why spout crap?

I don't know what "dick all" means, but you're not meant to put all that stuff in beer at all, which is why in many beer festivals all that stuff's banned and there's not allowed to be any more than five ingredients. Then, you go on about pasteurisation, with your big, ignoramus head, that only gets away with it as you're in a country where they don't know what you're talking about.

I don't suffer morons well at the best of times, but when they think they're cleverer than everyone, I quite simply lose my temper, and I know this is just the tip of the iceberg with you.

That's one I've not heard. As a Chang drinker I should be permanently high.

There is a persistent rumour that it does contain formaldehyde as a preservative, but it's just that, a rumour.

http://www.beer-faq.com/formaldehyde-beer/

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!

Not specific to Chang...but formaldehyde is commonly used in massed produced beer in an extraction process. If the residual traces are below a low percentage they are considered non present because undetectable. However if the volume of beer consumption is high then it is possible that low percentage may have the potential to have its own additional toxic effects.

A brand of the most popular beer in a SEA country that is not Thailand is also rumoured to have high than safe formaldehyde traces. Tourists there who present to a doctor commonly complaining of a sudden onset of an itchy rash are often advised to lessen or stop drinking that beer. And if it returns after 2 weeks or more ........regret the failure to use condoms !

Yes, alcohol % matters...

At 5% you might as well drink water.

This pic is of Rochefort, Belgian trappist.

I have no pic of the expiry date, but trappist beers have a shelf life of 3 years!

I think it has something to do with the sanitary bottling chemicals.

see Chang Fresh from Factory Cam https://youtu.be/aF3c93luf94?t=42

I did hear that all beer in LoS contain variable strengths of beer by %. i.e. supposed to be 3.5 and its 7 etc... Carlsberg once partners with Chang pulled out of Thailand for some time

read this old thread on TV

http://www.thaivisa.com/forum/topic/485860-carlsberg/

Even big players have probs doing business here...not just some bloke owning a bar/Go Go etc....

Carlsberg were kicked out.

Mead is the way forward. Made some for the Thai family this year and they loved it. Like rice wine but better.

And before the holier brigade come on, yes it's illegal, but I don't care.

Crossy, on 06 Dec 2015 - 09:20, said:

That's one I've not heard. As a Chang drinker I should be permanently high.

There is a persistent rumour that it does contain formaldehyde as a preservative, but it's just that, a rumour.

http://www.beer-faq.com/formaldehyde-beer/

Wheeeeeeeeeeee!!

there is a way to test for this, I was shown this in India where in the past the cheap beers were full of it. fill a glass half full with water then put the neck of the beer bottle in to the water (upside down of course). if there's preservative it will drop to the bottom of the glass as it's denser than water & beer. the really shitty beers like black label etc used to have nearly half a glass of preservative in a pint bottle. once I was shown this trick I always poured away the preservative but it still didn't stop the chemical hangover, the last time I went back to the UK I got drunk on John Smith's & woke crying in the morning due to the hangover from hell. this is one area I would love the EU to enforce a law, the purity laws some European countries have.

as far as what the expats I drink with drink, it seems to be mostly Leo & Singha with Heineken & San Miguel next. there is an urban myth going around in Rayong that Chang classic will often exceed 10% alcohol and has been measured at over 12% and I find it too strong at the standard 7.5%. I really liked the Chang export & draught but after having a promotion for a while they seem to have disappeared off the supermarket shelves.

7.5%? Those are days gone by. Have you checked the label lately. Not anywhere near 7.5%.

Chang Beer - like all beers -- is an Energy Drink With Vitamins.

I tell this to my Thai Wife and her family.

It is high in energy and vitamins and important to the health of all men.

Gatorade & PowerAde = Athletes.

Chang & Leo Beer = "Older Men" Who Need Vitamins & Energy.

It's better than "Boost".

This is my "Story".

It's accepted.

I'm sticking with it.

Grain (mostly malted barley but also other grains)

Hops (grown in many different varieties)

Yeast (responsible for fermentation; based on style-specific strains)

Water (accounts for up to 95 percent of beers content)

Cheers RED can at 6% tastes fine, and has a kick, but needs to be ice cold, not 7/11 chilled

The first one I tried tasted quite good, but now it tastes and smells like wet bread.

Bless....they talk about Chang back in the old days. If you have been here a while you can easily remember when there was no Chang or Leo. Nothing except Singh.

Rice and chemicals.....forget hops, barley or wheat....

Note: No Hops, Barley, Wheat ? REALLY.

I'm sure you only drink imported beer; not any Thai beer.

Bless....they talk about Chang back in the old days. If you have been here a while you can easily remember when there was no Chang or Leo. Nothing except Singh.

How long ago are you talking about ? 40 years ago ?

Bless....they talk about Chang back in the old days. If you have been here a while you can easily remember when there was no Chang or Leo. Nothing except Singh.

How long ago are you talking about ? 40 years ago ?

20.

Its all OK except for Cheers and Leo.Chang is my choice at 5.5% all others are 5.0%

Why would percentage alcohol even be a factor in which beer you like?

If that's what you are after, drink moonshine.

There is more to a drink than the actual taste.

A wine connoisseur might prefer one brew because 'it has more bite to it'.

I am not sure there are many people, who enjoy a drink whilst socialising, who would drink an alcohol free concoction all evening.

For me, beer is all about flavour.

Different beer styles call for varying alcohol content.

One beer at 6% isn't necessarily a better tasting beer than one at 5% was my point.

One of the finest beers ever is Guinness and it's very low in alcohol and high in taste.

I never suggested socializing with non-alcoholic beverages, that was your invention.

Rice and chemicals.....forget hops, barley or wheat....

Horse@@@@.

Why would it have wheat, it's not a Belgian wit.

Beer is 75-85% barley malt with the remaining percentage adjuncts, such as roast barley, wheat, rice, rye malt, crystal malt, toasted malts.

It's a long list.

Even porters and stouts are only a small percentage of the darker roast malts as adjuncts. They are still mostly pale barley malt.

Chang's adjunct is rice. So what? Many fine beers have rice as an adjunct.

If you can't taste the hops in Chang, you know bugger all about beer.

There is very little point in putting chemicals in beer especially preservatives. Hops is a natural preservative and Chang is pasteurized anyways.

Some breweries do put head whiteners and head retention chemicals in, but I have no idea if Chang does.

If you know dick about beer, why spout crap?

I don't know what "dick all" means, but you're not meant to put all that stuff in beer at all, which is why in many beer festivals all that stuff's banned and there's not allowed to be any more than five ingredients. Then, you go on about pasteurisation, with your big, ignoramus head, that only gets away with it as you're in a country where they don't know what you're talking about.

I don't suffer morons well at the best of times, but when they think they're cleverer than everyone, I quite simply lose my temper, and I know this is just the tip of the iceberg with you.

I think you may have misread what I wrote.

I was specifically suggesting that chemical additives were unnecessary.

With most beers being pasteurized and hops being a natural preservative, any preservative is unnecessary.

I don't know what you mean by "all that stuff" but the different roasts of barley and wheat, rye, or rice adjuncts are necessary for different beer styles.It is how beer is made.

I was just saying a small percent of rice in certain styles is perfectly normal even though it would be not allowed in a Real Ale Festival.

There was no need for you to resort to name calling and I apologize if I came across as being cleverer than everyone else.

Brewing beer is one of the things that I do know about as I've been brewing for 30 years.

I don't talk about stuff I don't know

Beer lao! Very nice and easy to drink (not so fizzy)

And it actually has a good taste. My preference. Now in your neighborhood market!

Bless....they talk about Chang back in the old days. If you have been here a while you can easily remember when there was no Chang or Leo. Nothing except Singh.

How long ago are you talking about ? 40 years ago ?

Sounds like it would have had agent orange in at the time he's talking about. Is there any danger of addressing the initial post question, please?

Bless....they talk about Chang back in the old days. If you have been here a while you can easily remember when there was no Chang or Leo. Nothing except Singh.[

Don't forget Kloster it was my favorite

Bless....they talk about Chang back in the old days. If you have been here a while you can easily remember when there was no Chang or Leo. Nothing except Singh.

How long ago are you talking about ? 40 years ago ?

Sounds like it would have had agent orange in at the time he's talking about. Is there any danger of addressing the initial post question, please?

If I was able to answer my own question , I wouldnt have needed to ask it

Cheers RED can at 6% tastes fine, and has a kick, but needs to be ice cold, not 7/11 chilled

The first one I tried tasted quite good, but now it tastes and smells like wet bread.

Check the production date. After only 3months many massed produced cheap beers start to decompose regardless. Really old beer often has a smell like stale cabbage when first opened.

I don't think it's plausible that it contains amphetamines, though perhaps it could contain other stimulants that are legal (pure speculation on my part). I refuse to drink Chang so I don't know.

I think all the Asian beers are very 'chemical' in their nature. If you drink a German or Belgian (and others) type beer it is a completely different experience. I wish they had craft/micro brewery beers near me, as the imports have horrific tax rates, but I'd be willing to pay double, and probably drink half as much to have that comfortable social effect without getting silly, and wake up feeling great, than going the cheap route and doing so much damage to the body.

Dont know where your at but up in Udon we have Udon tap more than a hundred Belgian, white and craft beers from around the world plus all your better known beers as well. Me I love a Murphys stout but the dirty rotten junta have spoiled that for me as "widget" cans are no longer allowed to be imported to Thailand due to their being an "explosive" device contained in the can and they cant be arsed to xray them all apparently. Still there are quite a few joints around selling great beers and small craft stuff from all over the place. Out of the price range of a lot of those that drink here though going on the perpetual moaning of some in regard to alcohol volume compared to price