As the year comes to an end, the world sees a wide variety of “best of the year” lists, and for the international beer community, he editors of Craft Beer & Brewing make some lists of their top beers, and it is great to see Samata make 2025 Best Beer List (editor’s choice) by editor Joe Stange.
-Editor’s Notes:
I really thought I had already posted about 2024 and 2023, but apparently not. Info on those years’ Thai beers follow below.
Craft Beer & Brewing is a US-based online and print magazine that talks beer and and brewing. Editor Joe Stange had been living in Bangkok, and so has been able to bring more attention to some great Thai craft beer.
Mango Sticky Rice by Samata Makes 2025 Best Beer List
- Craft Beer & Brewing, Winter 2025
- Joe Stange, Editor
- Online Article by Joe Stange
Samata Mango Sticky Rice (Bangkok, Thailand) “I am a fruit-beer enjoyer—writing about them has helped me to appreciate the art—and this was easily my favorite of the past year. There’s a particular point of ripeness you want with the Nam Dok Mai mango, and Samata’s Khun Chote—the Bret Kollmann Baker of Thailand—manages to capture it perfectly in this beer, adding a creamy coconut-milk drizzle and light touch of salt. It’s as hard to stop sipping this beer as it is to stop eating one of the world’s great dishes when it’s in peak form, and you’re shoveling it into your mouth with a plastic fork on a street corner, wondering how life could possibly get any better.”
– CBB Editor, Joe Stange
- Samata Brewing, Bangkok Thailand
- Samata's Facebook Post
“– Samata Brewing Facebook Post
Previous Thai Best Beer Listings
Sandport Thai-Sai IPA made 2024 best beer list
- Craft Beer & Brewing, Winter 2024
- Joe Stange, Editor
- Craft Beeer & Brewing Link
- Sandport Brewing FB
Sandport Tha-Sai IPA (Nonthaburi, Thailand) “Some legal changes last year opened the door to more brewpubs in Thailand, and now we’re learning more about what studious, flavor-obsessed Thai brewers can do when they get professional kit. One of my favorites has been United Peoples, where head brewer Khun Toon is making some bright, sharp-edged, West Coasty IPAs under his Sandport brand. Tha-Sai is clean, citrus-forward, avoiding modern overripeness while getting every one of those 40 IBUs into its snappy bitterness—so, I’m not at all surprised that he just picked up gold and silver medals at the 2024 Asia Beer Championships.”
2023 : Haplab Watermelon Chile Ale
- Craft Beer & Brewing, Winter 2023
- Joe Stange, Editor
- Craft Beeer & Brewing Link
- HapLab Brewing FB
Haplab Watermelon Chile Ale (Bangkok) “You know I have to drop a Thai beer in here, and this semi-clandestine nanobrew was one the most entertaining things I drank all year. I can never resist ordering a chile beer—the Carolina Reaper here was subtle, just a lingering tingle for accent—but the joy was in the watermelon. It delivered toothsome aroma and flavor without being a sour, or an IPA, or a slushy; instead, it found balance with a bitterish blonde-ale base. I went back for more.”
2022 : Namton’s Ideal of IPA
- Craft Beer & Brewing, Winter 2022
- Joe Stange, Editor
- Craft Beeer & Brewing Link
Namton’s Ideal of IPA (Tha Kham, Thailand)
“A confluence of flavor and moment: chilling on a Chiang Mai terrace while tuk tuks, songthaews, and fellow tourists cruised by, my attention grabbed by a bitter West Coast–like drop smacking of pine and canned mandarin slices—yet drinking as easily as any pils. Congrats to the first Thai craft beer to get a mention here, and well deserved.”