Guest post/article by Chris Kermis, currently a YouTuber (@Chris Kermis) that has regularly visited Bangkok over a number of years. He came back for a visit and to explore and see the changes in craft beer. In the post, he talks about some of the things he remembers about the beer scene just a few years ago, and some of the places he remembers drinking at.
“When I look back on my earliest adventures into discovering Thailand’s locally brewed beer world, I always land on the years 2017 and 2018.
Those were the glory days of the underground scene, when the craft beer culture in Bangkok felt truly raw and alive. Brewing was illegal, but that didn’t stop many. In fact, it seemed to make the whole thing more exciting—you had to be willing to explore, to chase rumors across the city, to knock on the doors of places you’d never heard of. And if you did, the rewards were unforgettable.
One of my earliest introductions came at Chitbeer on Koh Kret. Today, it’s firmly on the map, a tourist destination that draws weekend visitors looking for something different. But back then, it felt almost secretive. Chitbeer was the heartbeat of the underground brewing community. I remember being struck by how welcoming everyone was—local brewers buzzing with curiosity, eager to chat, share, and swap bottles. As a visiting foreigner, I wasn’t treated as an outsider at all. Instead, I was given beers left and right until my bag was clinking on the way home, heavy with the generosity of people who just wanted me to experience what they were making.
The scene in Bangkok was really spread far and wide across the city in tiny venues you had to seek out.
DogStep was one of my favorites—a bar so small you could easily miss it if you didn’t know where to look. It specialized in underground brews, and every night there felt like you’d stumbled into a secret club.
Then there was Haram, where the fridge was always full of affordable, brilliant bottles from local brewers.
Getting to these places wasn’t always easy — sometimes it meant long rides way past any BTS or MRT stop, confusing directions and wrong turns—but that was part of the fun. Each discovery felt like uncovering another layer of a hidden city.
There were also unforgettable names that defined the early wave of Bangkok’s beer bars. Baan Bangkok went through two very different iterations, each one pushing the scene forward in its own way. Let The Boy Die also went through 2 iterations of bars, with Let The Boy Die 2 now being the location of Haze – home to Puma Brewery and Baan Bangkok Brewery. Watching those shifts happen in real time gave me the sense that the underground wasn’t just about rebellion—it was about growth, about people figuring out how to keep brewing alive against the odds.
Another of my most memorable “firsts” came when I stumbled upon the original Fat Cow in Lat Phrao. At the time, it was just another dot on my map of discoveries, but it quickly became more than that. Over the years, it has grown into a real local hangout for me, the kind of place that feels woven into my own Bangkok story. I place of community and friends, as well as some damn fine beer!
Of course, not everything survived. DogStep and Haram are long gone. So are countless other small bars and breweries that made that era so vibrant.
Government crackdowns, fines, and raids forced many to shut their doors. The beer scene that followed was dominated by expensive imported bottles, and while some Thai brewers found workarounds by brewing abroad and importing back, it never quite carried the same thrill. The freshness, the community, the sense of discovery—it was hard to recreate that with a neatly labeled import.
Still, the story isn’t over. In recent years, I’ve seen new life in the form of brewpubs, with places like United Peoples Brewery showing that Thai brewing can evolve into something sustainable without losing its spark. It’s not the same as those chaotic early years, but maybe it doesn’t have to be. Maybe the next chapter will be different but just as memorable in its own way.
For me, though, those underground days will always hold a special place. They weren’t just about beer—they were about people, about passion, and about feeling like you’d found something rare and fleeting. And maybe that’s why I still chase it today: hoping that with each new bar, each new brewer, a little of that magic from 2017 and 2018 might return, reinvented for a new generation of beer lovers in Thailand.”