Pheebok: Sawasdee IPA (Thailand: IPA: 5.8% ABV)
Visual: Pale, only very lightly hazy lemon juice to clear yellow gold body. Large mounded white head.
Nose: Pineapple. Wheaty hop character. Crisp bitterness. Soft lemon.
Body: Pink grapefruit. Good bitterness and hop character. Soft lime sherbet. Pineapple. Generally tart and bitter. Mango. Dry and resinous.
Finish: Pink grapefruit. Bitter. Lime sorbet. Pineapple. Lightly resinous.
Conclusion: This feels like a west coast, and I would guess New Zealand hopped little cousin to the Away Gee IPA. Also don’t quote me on the NZ hopped thing, so many new hops are ruining my ability to guess, it just feels classic NZ hop flavours and aromas. It is a surprise to me that I therefore prefer the Away Gee IPA to this, which is in my beloved West Coast style. That however does not make this bad. No way in heck. I am still loving this.
It has a lovely pink grapefruit freshness showing throughout against a mostly dry, if slightly fluffy mouthfeel, with a solid dollar of hop resinous and bitter character to finish the job. Not the biggest bitterness but definitely enough and the tart, to dry, to bitter balance makes this dangerously easy to drink and enjoy. It is not the most complex, but does have some nice rounding mango and some varied lime notes, that polish up the main experience.
Frankly, if all Pheebok beers continue to be this good I will call them the stand out brewery discovery of the trip. While they do not deviate from the expected style for their beers, they deliver that style rock bloody solid, and for IPAs deliver them exactly in the way I like them – here bitter, tart backed, easy to drink and resinous.
I love it.
Background: So, I found this in Iconsiam mall in Bangkok. In her travels to Thailand, Diamanda Hagan had mentioned that Bangkok malls were next level, and I was unsure how good what is basically a shopping center could be, so I poked my head in. Ok this place was immense, entire bottom floor was food stuffs, and good quality stuff as well. From spiced bone back soup, the odd fruit that is durian, cheesecake pocky, miso caramel ice cream, much more, and this beer, I found tons. Then on the top floor was a horror walk-through for Halloween, based on the conjuring universe, and much more between. So I had a good time there. I had to say a tad longer than planned to pick this up as alcohol sales at most stores is limited to 11.00-14.00 and 17.00-24.00. I have to admit I was not complaining. Since Pheebok utterly rocked the last IPA I grabbed from them, when I saw this on the shelves I knew I had to try it. One thing I do like about a lot of Thailand beers is they have different images on each side of the can, a nice touch, and generally Thai language on one side, English on the other which did make me life a lot easier. Sawasdee is a standard greeting in Thailand, so hello IPA I guess.
