Boon Rawd: Singha: Reserve (Thailand: Premium Lager: 5.3% ABV)
Visual: Clear yellow gold. A centimeter of white bubbled head. Some small bubbled carbonation in the body.
Nose: Caramel. Malt biscuit. Popcorn hop character. Light brown bread.
Body: Malty. Gentle toffee. Gentle chalk. Robust bitterness. Light dry honey. Slightly sticky. Savoury cream.
Finish: Robust bitter hop character. Clean. Lightly peppery. Dry honey sheen. Savoury cream and chives. Bready.
Conclusion: Ok, not just trying Singha in its home country, but in fact the reserve version of the beer. Afterwards I googled to see what the difference apart from a small increase in abv was between this and standard, seems this has a longer maturation, always a good thing in a lager.
So, what were the differences to my taste-buds at the time, not knowing that? Well first impression are of a stickier beer than you would normally expect for the Thailand climate, a heavier beer than the standard Singha. It is still generally crisp, but with a dry honey clinging character and general sweet stickiness.
Against that is an impressive clean, peppery bitterness which makes up the beer’s core and mean that the sticky character often gets pushed to the back. Between that is a bready style with a slight savoury cream character – lots of little touches to make sure the dry stickiness doesn’t become too forceful. Because of that, thankfully, the stickiness doesn’t make the hops cling too long and become leaden and annoying, outstaying their welcome.
I’m not 100% sold, while well used the savoury cream like note is the part that makes it feel less welcoming as a lager, however I do like its hop delivery of solid bitterness. Nothing too special but a nice bitter kick.
Comparing to the standard Singha I had after – the standard version was still nicely bitter but not as intense, more easy drinking and gentle texture. Still slight peppery and fluffy popcorn hop feel, so a similar style. The reserve is the better beer, but the standard has a better texture for easy drinking in the heat.
Background: Ok, I had no idea the brewery for Singha was “Boon Rawd” until I googled it, they kept that one quiet. I always thought it was just the Singha brewery. Deciding to do notes on this came out on a conversation on the flight in, where we were discussing the best known beer from Thailand. I instantly thought “Singha” as to me that has always been the Thailand beer – the person I was talking to said Chang. So I googled and it seems Singha was the original main beer and still holds the lead, Chang was introduced by a big group called “Thaibev” who aim to take the top spot. Anyway with this is mind I saw Singha Reserve available while sitting in in a restaurant just a few streets off from the super touristy road of Khao San Road, and decided, what the heck, lets do notes on a Singha I had not seen in the UK to see how it does. I then tried standard Singha afterwards to have it fresh in my mind to compare the two.
