2015年11月16日星期一

Life | Phases/stages of Leaving a City You Used to Love

Written by Tracy Wang May 22, 2015
edited version 14.06.2015

To leave or not to leave is always a dilemma. Much the same as Schrodinger Cat, you won’t know until you leave.


We are used to leave things behind, be it something, a habit, a person or sometimes even a city.
When a friend recently left Beijing after living here for 5 years, I thought about the different stages he went through and compared them with my own experience a year ago. I was about to take a job assignment for Shanghai.

From the start here are the stages of leaving as I see them.

First of all happiness! Of course there are many little annoyances that come with living in a city, and Beijing has its own footprint of these:
1)      Traffic: It always feels like you are experiencing bad luck when traveling in a taxi, especially when passing through well-known and notorious traffic jam hotspots like Sanlitun. You have to deal with your own frustration. Best remember the tips your mediation teacher gave you. Always keep the cab driver happy and sane, so he doesn’t make any suicidal maneuvers and drive straight into a bridge support.

2)      Pollution: Anyone staying 5 or more years in Beijing has noticed that the air pollution has gotten worse. It’s become a daily ritual for many to check the PM 2.5 levels first thing in the morning on their phone app.

3)      Culture: Like me, it’s the charming traditional culture of China which makes many people come to Beijing. Except it’s an illusion and now more of a fading memory. Many hutongs continue to be torn down. Once tranquil hutongs, like Nanluoguxiang, have now turned into endless shop fronts for cheap snacks and trinkets, with vulgar noisy bars every few meters accommodating the thousands of tourists that herd in groups through the alleys. Are globalization, economic growth, increased personal wealth and tourism strong enough reasons to blame for this loss of culture over the past decade? It's hard to say, but it’s disappointing for both those who live here and tourists visiting the city.

4)      People: There too many people crowded into Beijing. It feels like someone is always stepping into your path to block you or spit in front of you. Someone said living in Beijing is like video games from the 90s. I feel the same especially when you are in the sidewalk and there’s some tricycles horning at you from God-knows nowhere.

You realize that it is never easy to live in this city. Beijing has sandstorms in spring which make you raise your clenched fist at the heavy yellow-grey clouds, swearing that you will soon escape the city. Then a chance suddenly appears in front of you to finally leave this hellhole and you think; “Hell yeah, I’m out of here!” You begin telling everyone you know, making sure all are aware that you will soon depart the grey pollution.

Not long after that initial happiness, sadness will sneakily start growing in your heart. “Oh, I lived for so many years, there are also a lot of things that I love”: the easy life, the cheap drinks in a dark hutong bar, the friends who accompanied you on travels and hikes, visits to good bookstores you found after hours of searching, visiting every new restaurant you heard of … your foodie and drinking buddies, the freaks that wake you up in the early morning and drag you to Xinyuanli Market. You know every corner of Gulou and Sanlitun and every short cut connecting them.

That’s when you start to struggle and it’s dawning on you that all your friends, dearest and not so dear, are here in Beijing. Do you really want to leave them all behind and move to a new place? Will you make new friends there? Where will be the cool places and bars to make them? Will you understand the crazy dialect? Will you be bored to death with loneliness?

During this phase you might cry a lot about the upcoming departure. You’ll be frail and emotional and panic about the new life you are going to face. The packed up boxes in your flat equate to years of rich and happy memories, and you wonder how could you move them to another city? That’s insane.
Finding myself at exactly the moment, everything packed up and my friends ready to wish me farewell, I visited my prospective future home of Shanghai on a business trip. I started to see the city in a different perspective as a future resident; “Is this what I want? Is this the place I want to move to?”

Visiting a city for fun is one thing, but living there is totally different. You need to look for a new apartment, choose a district to live in, talk to the landlord see if s/he can receive packages for you. You have to access public transport and find supermarkets. After the visit I returned to Beijing with even more bittersweet feelings.

But then you start to accept the fact that you will move, and you have to make a list. You pack the things you want to keep, (you’ll hate yourself because you can’t just stuff everything in one suitcase and go), return the library/shopping mall/membership cards, visit the bars or restaurants you like, go to the museums and galleries and all the cool places you are going to miss. Then you need to meet the people you want to say goodbye to before leaving, and even schedule your farewell party. Then shoot, you find you are really running out of time.

In the end, you finally make the decision (or pretend that you do) by comforting yourself with thoughts of the new experiences and friends you will make. During the endless farewell meals/parties/meetups, the goodbyes are getting more and more annoying. You are getting tired of the crying people, and try to avoid any more emotional scenes. After returning beer kegs, books, plants and furniture, you feel you’re a new, free person. With renewed hope and a thirst for adventure you can’t wait to leave.

Having been through all of that I was ready to move without any reluctance. Then, just as I had experienced every one of the stages of leaving a city, my job transfer was cancelled just three days before my departure.
Was the whole thing a nightmare? I felt like I’d been cast in a dramatic version of the Truman Show. Trust me, there were more than a thousand versions of ‘really, what if’ going through my mind at that time. In the end I had no choice but to stay. Heck, Beijing, I still love you.

All the best with your new life, Craig. Now I have to wipe away the tears.


Cheers :)

2015年9月28日星期一

Life | 生活点滴

(photograph:Tracy @ jiaodaokou, Beijing)

一个城市华灯初上时最美。

路灯昏黄,天空蓝中泛着白,两只金毛在我身边追跑打闹;一个大爷坐在长椅上抽着烟来着来去过往;旁边的国营老店天兴居卖着今天酱的肘子和各种熟食,路过的人们不自觉地停下脚步看看是否能给家中饭桌上添个菜;而对面永和豆浆中都是下了班的职人,每个人要一份套餐,对着落地玻璃窗疲倦又慵懒地看着外面…一切都祥和美好。这里是北京。

2015年9月27日星期日

Beer | 给精酿小白的五分钟速成手册

精酿小白的五分钟速成手册

撰文/王晨熙

前方高能预警,本篇是针对精酿小白的集中辅导,充满简单粗暴的概括定论,资深酒客请绕行。

目前精酿啤酒渐渐成为城中潮而时髦的话题,精酿酒吧也渐渐爬满了城中或显眼或静谧的角落。当平时跟你喝大绿棒撸串的酒友,突然有一天邪魅地问你是否要试试精酿啤酒?当你平日以来只喝香槟的高大上女上司突然有一天宣称她喜欢兰比克啤酒,当你看到连火锅店和串串香都放了满墙的进口啤酒,当你发现每周去的大众超市开始卖各国进口啤酒了,你是否感觉到需要抓紧补习的惊慌感?来来来,让王老师给你补一课吧。

首先我们来了解一下啤酒的悠久历史,据说最早苏美尔人就在喝啤酒了,在公元前3000年,啤酒技术已经很成熟了,当时酿造啤酒的都是女性。也有历史学家称金字塔的建造和啤酒也分不开,因为当时劳工每天的工资就是啤酒,不过当时的啤酒并没有啤酒花的加入。在一两个世纪之前,由于欧洲的水源很差,由于啤酒花的防腐作用,让啤酒成为仅有的安全又廉价的水源之一,所以被称为“液体面包”。之后经过酿造技术的变革,各个国家的啤酒开始百花齐放。先说德国,1516年,巴伐利亚地区开始实行《啤酒纯酿法》(Rheinheitsgebot),即在酿造过程中只可以使用水、麦芽和酒花,后来才允许使用酵母。法律限制了人们的想象力和创造力,使德国的啤酒趋同性很强。作为小白,你首先要了解的是啤酒大国比利时,他们的酿酒历史悠久(大约5000年),小小的国家有近180家酒厂,包括6家闻名于世的修道院酒厂(世界共有11家)。曾有啤酒专家说美国是能喝到最好啤酒的国家,尤其是废除禁酒令之后,美国的啤酒经济得到迅猛发展百花齐放。现在美国已经有近2000家酿酒厂,并创造了众多美式的啤酒风格。

那么,什么是啤酒?最简单说来主要是水、酵母、麦芽和啤酒花的“神奇”结合,当然现代还会出现小麦、各种香料,甚至可以加入任何意想不到的食品原料。 你要推翻“啤酒就是跟水一样,酒精度3-4度” 的误解。虽然我们是简单粗暴的课堂,但是内容也不能太粗糙,靠颜色划分的黑啤白啤黄啤就极其粗暴且没有任何科学依据,顶多识别色盲有点用处(这是胡咧咧了)。可能因为中国人心中根深蒂固的“德国酒最好”的印象过于深刻,现在我们要一改心中的执念,从头再来(现在进精酿酒吧就开口要德国黑啤会被人嘲笑的好么?)。

啤酒的种类其实很多,根据全美啤酒节(The Great American Beer Festival)比赛上的划分,就有92个啤酒分类,涵盖了下面的145种啤酒风格。这么多,怎么记呢?其实啤酒从大类上可以分两种,拉格(lager)和艾尔(ale),有什么区别呢?发酵方法的区别。(如图)简单来说,拉格则是底部发酵,艾尔是顶部发酵;通常说来拉格发酵温度较低,麦香浓郁,酒精度相对低;而艾尔发酵的温度较高,会有更多花香果香,酒精度也略高。除了这两种之外,还有野生酵母发酵和混合发酵的啤酒。


举例子细说,我们普通市面上的绿棒子是淡色拉格,也有很多人称之为工业拉格,以区分精酿啤酒的定义。工业生产过程中为了降低成本,也会加入大米、玉米等谷物,代表品牌是百威、雪花、青岛、燕京等。拉格的其他精酿小类有皮尔森Pilsner(比如BitburgerKönig PilsenerPilsner Urquell),博克Bock (Ayinger Celebrator),德国深色啤酒Schwarzbier(传说中的“黑啤”)(Köstritzer Schwarzbier)等等。
之后说艾尔, 首先是淡色艾尔PA,会比拉格有更多的果香以及烤面包味,比如Firestone Walker PASierra Nevada PA。提到艾尔就不能不提印度淡色艾尔IPA,据说18世纪为了海上航行,酿酒师们不得不大量加入啤酒花来保证啤酒不会腐败,之后由于酒花气味浓烈被更多的人接受,风靡世界。可以尝试Stone IPA, Dogfish Head 60 Minute IPA等。棕色艾尔Brown Ale,比淡色艾尔多了烘烤味,酒花没有那么重,显色呈现琥珀色,比如Newcastle Brown AleSamuel Adams Brown Ale。之后说波特Porter和从中发展出来的世涛Stout,都使用了烟熏麦芽来带给啤酒更浓郁的口感和更深的颜色,颜色是棕色到黑色,苦度低到中高,非常适合搭配烧烤和烟熏食品。著名的健力士Guinness就属于干型世涛,还可以尝试8 wired iStoutFuller’s London PorterLeft Hand Milk Stout, Rogue Shakespeare Stout, North Coast Old No.38等。

最后唠叨几个必须要提到的风格,顶部发酵的小麦啤酒wheat beer/weizen/weisse,主要使用小麦酿造,用部分大麦平衡口感,颜色从淡色到深金黄。泡沫顺滑,质地紧凑。比如福佳Hoegaarden WitCelis White等。修道院艾尔Trappist/修道院风格艾尔Abbey,目前销售量最大的是智美Chimay,分红标、白标和蓝标。如果有幸能够尝到修道院啤酒的登顶之作限量版Westvleteren12号的话,人生会是圆满的。塞森Saison,也叫季节啤酒。据说源于比利时的法语区,是农家酿酒坊为了农场工人酿造的,这种风格的酵母能够忍受很高的发酵温度(32度以上),颜色金黄或呈琥珀色,口感干爽,带有复杂的麦芽、啤酒花和橙味。可以尝试比利时的Saison Dupont,还有美国North Coast Le Merle也很惊艳。

啤酒风格太多,知识也浩瀚如大海,这里恕王老师无法列举得尽善尽美。喝而优则自己动手的资深酒客们,已经开始钻研自酿啤酒并参加家酿大赛了,个中学问太多,待我下次细数一二吧。

声明:以上所列举的啤酒大多数在酒吧和啤酒店都能找得到,跟本人没有任何经济利益关系。

小知识:
世界上目前有11家修道院酿酒厂,其中6家在比利时,2家在荷兰,其余奥地利、意大利和美国各一家。
修道院啤酒:1)酒厂需要在修道院内;2)僧侣需要参与到生产中;3)销售所得必须用于修道院运营和社会活动中。

以下是11家修道院啤酒品牌
比利时:Rochefort         罗斯福,Westmalle西麦尔, Westvleteren/St Sixtus威斯特佛兰德伦, Chimay智美,Orval金谷,Achel阿诗
荷兰: La Trappe
奥地利:Stift Engelszell
美国:St. Joseph’s Abbey
荷兰:Zundert       

意大利:Tre Fontane Abbey

本文在《创意世界creativity》2015年07期 总第79期发表。

2015年9月19日星期六

Beer & Movie | 50 shades of gray

2015-3-31

(pic is from http://thedailyeats.de/fifty-shades-grey-das-bier-zum-buch-und-film/)

Downloaded, watched it, and don’t understand why people don’t just go for a porn? No one will deny that the novel was badly written, it was a fan fiction. How come this kind of books has developed another two series?

A super rich billionaire loves an innocent girl, super Mary Sue. Besides in S&M world, he shouldn’t ignore when she says the safe word, which is super unprofessional.
Being a dominate doesn’t mean to ignore the partner’s life.

Crap movie. First part was like, see how handsome I am, see how rich I am. See how people respect me, now you fall in love with me? I have to warn you, I am a bad bad boy, now sign the contract. No? sex. Now be my slave, whip whip. Oops I break your heart? Over.

Pairing with beer:
(pic is from http://www.harboe.com/en/brands-and-products/product/30)


This movie should go with Bear Beer Extra Strong 12%. This beer is full bodied, with full strength and strong strike of alcohol. After the second one-if you can survive from the second bombards-it tastes like syrup.
Or pick one from Oranjeboom 12-16 family which are also from Germany.

Get me drunk ASAP, so I don’t have to go through this.
Or get her drunk ASAP, and switch off the damn TV. Let’s do it.

(pic is from http://www.oranjeboom1671.com/en/products/)

While a Scottish brewery called Innis & Gunn released a beer infused ginseng, ginkgo blioba and damiana with 50 different varieties of hops to stimulate sexual desires. They only produced 200 bottles for £30 a 330ml bottle.

“We had a lot of fun making this beer, doing things that have never been done before in brewing, much like couples all over Britain will be doing behind closed doors once they’ve seen the film,” said Innis & Gunn CEO Dougal Sharp.
Like people are not hyper sexual enough. 

http://thedailyeats.de/fifty-shades-grey-das-bier-zum-buch-und-film/

Beer & Wine | 啤酒爱好者的APP推荐(亲测)

撰文/王晨熙

身为刚刚接触精酿啤酒的人,站在上百种啤酒的大冰柜面前,却不知道从何下手?
每次去酒局,喝了很多酒,宿醉一场起来,却不记得喝了哪些?
知道自己有很多酒很想喝,但到了酒吧却一点都想不起来?
喜欢品酒的人,却苦于没有自己的品鉴手册进行横纵对比?
下面介绍的这几款当中,总会有你想找的!

收费APP

Beer Buddy- Barcode Scanner

好多人心目中的No.1,是精酿啤酒权威网站之一的RateBeer.com公司开发的,在国外备受推崇。有超过30万种啤酒的资料库和超过百万的读者评价。棕黑色的背景,本身就看上去很权威。有扫码功能,点进去就有该啤酒名称、酒厂,还有大大的分数。其他信息还需要点开看。评分时,特意添加了美国权威啤酒评分机制,有香气、外观、口感、回味和总体评分。能够选择查看你喝过的啤酒档案,还能分享给朋友,推荐你的啤酒。能够搜索附近的酒吧、酒厂、餐馆等。还能在上面看到评分最高的前50种啤酒、季节最热门的前50、不同类别的前50、不同国家的前50等各种榜单。
(提示:这款软件界面有英文、中文、荷兰文、法文、德文、日文、韩文甚至越南文)
推荐指数:四颗星
价格:25


RateBeer

这款app也是RateBeer公司开发的,跟BeerBuddy比起来,我更倾向于这款RateBeer,因为更简洁,啤酒各项信息更加一目了然(处女向发作)。这款app的内容和网站的差不多。有啤酒描述、评分、酒精度、风格类型、产地、苦度,甚至还有卡路里。比网站多了扫码功能,你可以在啤酒下面自己打分,能签到,也能浏览世界各地人们的酒评,建立自己的啤酒资料库。同时也有签到功能(签自己和看朋友们在哪喝酒),寻找周围酒吧,按地址、距离寻找酒吧等功能。还有愿望清单,下次到酒吧,可以一键获取上次看了没喝的啤酒(太方便了)。这个app上面也有BeerBuddy的各种榜单。
推荐指数:四颗星
价格:25


免费APP


这款app是最权威的网站之一beeradvocate.com开发出来的,走的也是简洁风,白底的界面很清爽,跟网站内容一致。选择哪个啤酒之后,一目了然能看到啤酒的外观、网友评分、网站评分、描述等。还能直接打分以及一键选择是刚喝过还是想要喝。但是更严肃,因为无法自己把图传上去,所以朋友间的交互性也小了很多。
推荐指数:三星
价格:免费


这一个是免费app中的战斗机。该有的都有了:能点评啤酒,能打分数,能够添加微酿/家酿啤酒,号召一些酒友加进来之后,能够互相点赞叫好,能搜索附近酒吧、附近热门的啤酒。而且目前国内微酿酒厂的啤酒信息也很全。还能通过foursquare签到(不要变成变相查岗工具哦),能分享到twitterfacebook上面。在你喝够一定数量的某种类型啤酒的时候,还会给你发徽章,激励你继续喝喝喝(我会告诉你,我的徽章已经超140了么呵呵呵)。
而且在看到朋友们每天无线晒啤酒,peer pressure下,难保你不想赶紧冲到厨房打开一瓶冰啤酒,(小编每日的晒酒活动,就迫使了一个朋友买了手机….为了能拍照晒酒)。而且在你拿不准的情况下,也能搜索名称,看看评分如何,再决定购买。不过因为各人口味不同,同一款酒的评分差异还是很大。

安卓系统明显没有IOS系统顺畅,会出现闪退情况,并且页面也没有IOS友好(不明白为什么要费事开发两套系统)。

价格:免费



故名思意,“下一杯”就是要帮你解决下一杯喝啥的难听。这个app横跨两大品类:啤酒和葡萄酒。号称只要拍下酒标,就能出现评分和各种信息,比如产地、酒精度、糖度和卡路里等。在国外还是好评如潮的,因为面对整墙的啤酒和葡萄酒,还真是挺难选择的呢。而且只要五次打分,就能基于评分建立偏好资料库。这款app也不缺分享功能,喝完还是可以分享到各大社交媒体上的。
唯一不方便的是,IOS和安卓版都需要翻墙,因此减了半颗星,只好把这款神器推荐给东八区以外的读者们。
推荐指数:三星
价格:免费


当然,你还可以靠timeout或者foursquare寻找附近酒吧。


总结:本酒鬼这么多年尝试了很多软件,翻墙与不翻墙的都试过。软件当然还是花钱的更好用,平民app也能凑合使,只是用户体验和信息量的区别。只是所有的app大都是英文界面,英文捉急的人可能要费点功夫,不过,还有什么能挡住酒鬼呢?同时呼吁,这是商机啊!我们需要一款喝完能分享到国内社交平台的app,请加油开发啊!

2015年9月14日星期一

Beer & Wine | Ways to Become a Social Alcoholic

Tracy Wang 2015-6-1

Have you ever been in these scenarios as follows?
Stand in front of a super big freezer which filled up with hundreds or even thousands of beers/wines, but don’t know which one you are going to pick;
Drink tons of interesting beers/wines, but after you wake up with the hangover, you couldn’t name even one drink;
Want to learn more about the beverage in your hand, but don’t have the notebook to compare laterally or vertically; (say by varieties, or years)….
I’ve downloaded all of the apps below and also experienced a lot more crappy ones. There are several applications which can help you to be a better alcoholic, let’s drink socially, as Untapped says.

Beer Buddy- Barcode Scanner


























































This is the No.1 APP for many people, developed by RateBeer.com, and it has a lot of fans all over the world. With huge database of ratebeer.com and 300,000+ beers, and more than one million people’s comments, also has scoring mechanism of BJCP (Beer Judging Certificate Program), also a barcode scanner which makes it super easy for the shaky and drunk hands. You can check the beers you have before, the scores you give, also search for the bars or restaurants nearby.
It’s based on multiple languages, like English, Chinese, Japanese, French, German, Korean, and Viennese.
Price: RMB 25/$3.99
☆☆☆☆

RateBeer


















It’s also developed by ratebeer.com, but in a more simple way. It shares the same databasewith Beer Buddy, information looks identical with Beer Buddy too. I still don’t get the reason they have two identical applications.
Price: RMB 25/$3.99

Uh…Free ones…












I like this one not just because it’s a free app, but it’s more like an extension of beeradvocate.com. With the white background (the Beer Buddy is brown), everything seems clean and easy. Even though it’s seamless to send the reviews of the forum to your phone, there’s a weakness—it’s impossible to upload the beer you just drink to the app. What a disaster for social hipsters!
Price: Free
☆☆☆




















Whoa, this one is a supermodel among the rest of free apps. It has everything, to review, score, toast to others, search for bars or top beers, and even add the homebrew/microbrewery next door, say Boxing Cat Brewery, Slow Boat, The Great Leap, Jing A, Nbeer, Arrow Factory, Harvest, Mater Gao, Panda….you name it. And also check in with foursquare, share to twitter and Facebook. The most charming thing is that it will award you with badges, even though the last thing our drinkers need is stimulant. Once you start to use this app, upload the beer (filter the photo) and are ready to share it to all the platforms you use, under the peer pressure, your friend either join you or block you.
Btw, IOS version is way better and more user-friendly than the Android version, they look like different apps, and besides it always quits unexpectedly on Android phone….so the only way to deal with this would be…buy an iPhone just like my friend did.
Price: Free
☆☆☆

 

















This just released program can demystify beer and wine. Build a taste profile by rating drinks you’ve tasted, just like other apps can do. Well, just by scanning the label, it will provide all the information of this drink. Better to use at a supermarket. After five times of scoring, it will predict how much you’ll like the next glass. But obviously people from this company are too snobby to think there’s no such demand and the beers and wines in the U.S. or Europe can’t be sent to Asia, so they block it in Asia.
Price: Free
☆☆ (boo, snobs)


Delectable

























This is my favorite wine app. Even though it’s a little slow to “read” the photo you upload (within 15 minutes), but its identifying ability is superb. It happens to me often—wandering at the shelves and swinging chaotically between two terrific wines, it’s time to scan those wines and get the reviews and tasting notes. You’ll make the decision soon. It is the most popular app among the “wine celebrities”—top sommeliers, winemakers and wine pros. You can follow some of them, and make a wish list. Whenever the important day is coming, you know what to do (wink, wink.)
Price: Free
☆☆☆☆


Vivino

 


Now there comes to the app for wines. This one is the No. 1 wine app for now. It gathers 9 million wine lovers. You take a photo of the label, then it pops up, you can get the reviews, rankings and pricing. After you taste it, you can review and rate it, then share to Facebook. Besides it’s faster than Delectable. Sometimes it’s depressed to see the price is twice of the average here in China. Shoot, I have to drink anyways, maybe that’s the dedication I give to the whole industry. Their website is also interesting and smart with cool topics.
Price: Free
☆☆☆


So as a wrap, I have to repeat that don’t drink and drive, and drink moderately. Wish I knew the real tips to get over hangover. Cheers. 



This article was also released in Precis issue 8 in 2015.
http://issuu.com/istech24/docs/precis_issue_eight_8_2015

2015年7月30日星期四

Beer Journal | Mikkeller Bangkok “Once a beer-lover, always a beer-lover.”

Mikkeller Bangkok
“Once a beer-lover, always a beer-lover.”

By Tracy Chenxi Wang

May, 2014

Right after I landed in the fascinating country of smiles and endless cilantro seasoned dishes, I headed directly to the legendary craft beer bar of this 18 million people megacity, the Mikkeller Bangkok. As the first and only Asian outlet of acclaimed Danish beer brewer Mikkel Borg Bjergsø’s Mikkeller, it opened on January 29th in 2014.
  


After getting away from the bustling main street, onto a tranquil soil, a yard of a small side street, I found it in a green residential area, the teal-colored sign of the Mikkeller Bangkok. Stepping on the lawn of a stylish functionalist house built in the 1960’s washed away all the irritation of the hot weather. There is a huge garden with a few tables on the patio outside. The interior is in a bright Scandinavian style with bright wooden floors and furniture, accomplished with a lot of white. The food menu only has a few items for now, but the management will add more, once the bar becomes busier.


Here I met with Jakob Mørkenborg Rasmussen from Denmark and his Canadian co-partner Mike MacDonald. They both share enthusiasm for beer and love being innovated. Jakob had been importing foreign beers and holding numerous tasting events that Mike, a self-described beer connoisseur, attended regularly. That’s how they met and became business partners. Jakob’s short full beard makes him look to me like a typical Dane. Mike smiles a lot and his outgoing funny ways make him the people’s person of the two. After travelling in South Asia for some years, Jakob felt a growing love for Thailand and moved there in 2004. His fascination for beers got matched by finding work at Carlsberg Thailand, giving him a deep insight of this industry and also the local drinking demographic.



“We really wanted to build something that we would go to every night.”
Most beer-lover would ask why with a lot of curiosity, why would a Danish legendary gypsy brewery locate in Bangkok?
“There are a lot of beer bars in Bangkok and Thais have a really strong beer drinking culture, but what most bars compete with is the amount of beer signage or who has the most number of taps, even though they are serving 50 pale light lager tasting very much like the other”, said by Jakob,

Since the market was dominated by domestic staple Singha, Chang and Leo, Jakob and Mike decided to open a bar to showcase beer of many styles on tap and bottled. “We want to serve beer with respect. My partner and I are both in this business not so much from a financial perspective but more so from a beer culture perspective. We wanted to bring in a different kind of quality than people are used to in this part of the world. The beers may be much pricier than the conventional brands, but we believe they offer a whole different experience in taste,” Mike MacDonald said. “We really wanted to build something that we would go to every night.”


Speaking of the customers they want to attract, they hope to get people who are genuinely interested or curious about great tasting beer. “With most people not being able distinguish between two beers like a Mexican chili beer and Mikkeller American Dream, we want to educate the Thai beer drinking crowd what good craft beer really is. A part of that is having beer tastings with an educational scope as well offering beer tastings in our Imperial Tasting Room.” The staffs are also hardcore beer-lovers with passion. They are ready to educate the customers about craft beer culture, the stories behind the beers, and how to serve and enjoy craft beers. They want to provide a complexion of beer, service and atmosphere which will attract people. “Once a beer-lover, always a beer-lover”, Mike preached.

There is a reason why the bar is a bit away from the busy streets of Bangkok in a much quieter place, they explained, “A requirement from Mikkel was making this bar a destination and I think we have managed just that. It’s not a place you just drop by; you’ve probably made up your mind coming here, well before actually coming here. With the garden we’re able to offer plenty of outdoor seating, people love that.”

I happened travelling in Thailand during the period of political tensions; there was national curfew between midnight to 5am every day, which damaged tourists industry and local food and beverage industry a lot. Mike told me that this (policy) is one of their biggest obstacles for now. Thailand has a lot of festivals and “No Alcohol” days, which adds up to four to seven days a month the bar has to stay close. A sudden feeling of deep dark sadness, dampening my mood, soggy, miserable everything but what Thailand is, fell over me! Mike and Jakob rushed to the bar and poured me 2 pints of their finest each. It took me almost 5 minutes to down them and the world become bright again.


Talking about the theory that they run the bar, “quality is number one; we’re not competing with price. We’ll have no happy hours or discounted days.” They wouldn’t compete with the biggest selection of imported beers, or cheapest beers. “For example, the reason of people going to the wine bar is not because it has the biggest selection, but a unique selection. Another kind of customers go to the nearest bars, they don’t care what kind of beers they are drinking.” With the mission of providing the finest craft beers to the customers, Jakob started his own beer distributing company, Hopsession. Now he imports Danish beers from Nørrebro Bryghus and Bøgedal but also Mikkeller. They only want to build a different place where the customers can keep drinking with their friends. “Every time I came to Bangkok, I’d spend every night here, and I love the atmosphere here”, said an American Sam Craig who was on his business trip here. Since Mikkeller Bangkok was opened less than half a year, it already made it way on the list of Top 10 Best Beer Bar in Asia by CNN.


The bar quenches the thirst of craft beer lovers with a selection of 30 beers on tap, 20 of them are brewed by Mikkeller, and 10 of them are changing guest beers from other craft beer makers. A large selection of bottled beer completes the collection. There’s no cheap beer here, all beers on tap are in the range of 200-350 Baht (40-70)per glass, and bottled ones are 250-1500 Baht (50-300), on the street you find a local commercial beer for just 50 Baht (10).

There are four other venues among the world in total, other than Mikkeller Bangkok, there are two located in Copenhagen, the third is in San Francisco and the fourth is in Stockholm (opened in March of 2014).


Mikkeller Bangkok
Address: 26 Ekamai Soi 10 Yaek 2, Ekamai Road, Bangkok 10110, Thailand
Tel: +66 2 381 9891

Here is the list of Top 10 Best Beer Bars by CNN:
Mikkeller Bangkok (Bangkok, Thailand)
BrewDog Roppongi (Tokyo, Japan)
Goodbeer Faucets (Tokyo, Japan)
Smith Street Taps (Singapore)
BREW – Beers & Ciders (Bangkok, Thailand)
Brewerkz – Riverside Point (Singapore)
TAPS Beer Bar (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)
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This article was also publish on Precis magazine on issue seven. Free downloading here: http://issuu.com/istech24/docs/precis_issue_seven_4_30_2015