Lager, lager, everywhere, nor any drop to drink

Well, you knew it was coming...the inevitable beer blog entry. Although there's no real ale in Phnom Penh, there are some half decent beers, so I decided to make an attempt to review the best of the local brews. My approach was to go out and buy one of every beer readily available here (from one of our local supermarkets "Pencil" which is good for buying beer and things made out of plastic but not much else), Em & I then sat down one afternoon and tasted them. I should say that some Western beers are easy to find here as well (Guiness, Heineken, Budweiser etc) but I haven't included them below.

The Largers

...a lot of them isn't there ? Some of these are from neighbouring countries (Thailand, Singapore, Laos) but are readily available in Phnom Penh so i've included them. Rather than providing tasting notes for all of these, i'm going to select some heroes and villains. First the villains, although i've had them both outside of Cambodia i'd have to say that Tiger & Singha didn't stack up well at all, lacking in flavour and with a really bad chemical aftertaste. The stand-outs were Chang, Anchor, Beer Lao, Leo & Angkor ("my country, my beer"). Chang (Thailand) and Anchor (Cambodia) in particular are crisp, clean, refreshing lagers with a slight hop flavour and noticeable bitterness. Chang won a gold medal at the Australian International Beer Awards a few years back apparently and I think it's well deserved. Angkor is very much the local brew here, widely available on tap in bars around town. Whilst it's not quite up to the standards of Chang & Anchor it's still very drinkable. Beer Lao (Laos) and Leo (Thailand) are also decent and worth a look. I had great difficulty ordering Anchor until I realised that they actually pronounce it with a soft ch (like much), presumably to differentiate it from Angkor which sounds the same in a noisy bar.

And now for something completely different...

There are 4 key ingredients for most beer ; water, barley, hops, yeast. This basic recipe is the result of centuries of experimentation by those trying to brew a tastier drop. So, i'm a little sceptical about anything that excludes one (or in this case two) of these ingredients. Khmer Palm Beer (Cambodia) uses palm sugar for it's fermentables and flavouring. Whilst it is great that this beer is made from locally sourced ingredients (barley & hops don't grow in the tropics), I honestly can't find anything to recommend it. A large part of the sugar must be unfermentable as it is very sweet, similar to an alcopop. It also doesn't keep well, lacking the preservative qualities of hops, so a bad bottle is a very frequent occurrence. At worst it can taste sour and sulphurous, like bad eggs.

The Stouts

There seems to be a strong tradition of stout drinking in tropical climates and there are three stouts readily available here at the moment. I'm not certain why they all clock in at 8%, it would be nice to see something at the lower end of the alcohol range for this style (4-6%). Stouts obviously are popular with the locals as you'll frequently see slabs of Black Panther at roadside bars. ABC (Singapore) has a coffee / chocolate aroma and pours with a creamy brown head. However, the roasted malt and coffee flavours are dominated by a strong 'burnt' flavour and noticeable alcohol. Black Panther (Cambodia) lacks in aroma and has poor head retention, it also has a noticeable unpleasant after-taste, not recommended. The pick of these for us was the Angkor Extra Stout (Cambodia) which has a coffee aroma, roasted malt and coffee flavours with a noticeable hop bitterness, and a good creamy head. With the abundance of lagers here, it's wonderful to find some beers with such strong character.


It's not quite Real Ale but it's not bad...

Finally, i've found this little gem is available in quite a few bars and at least a couple of bottle shops in Phnom Penh. Beer Lao Dark Lager (Laos) is something like a Vienna Lager or a Munich Dunkel. The alcohol isn't too noticeable at 6.5%, it has a lovely dark bronze colour with a frothy white head. Although there isn't any noticeable hop flavour, and only a slight bitterness it has a lovely malty flavour and a light-medium mouthfeel. As a real ale drinker, this has become my drop of choice in Phnom Penh.

So, that's it, the world of Phnom Penh beer in one blog post. Apparently, there are currently two "micro-breweries" in Phnom Penh which I haven't visited yet but will be sure to report here when I do !