Illicit craft brewers risk arrest under restrictive alcohol laws

Naamcial’s craft beers often have distinctly Thai flavours, as he experiments with native produce, boiling the pulp of jackfruit and mango to mix into different concoctions. Yet his homemade products are forbidden.

- Rebecca Ratcliffe and Navaon Siradapuvado

Talking to the Guardian under a pseudonym, Naamcial said he would like to operate a legal brewery, but Thailand’s laws around alcohol production make this ambition almost impossible for newcomers. Current laws restrict brewing licences to manufacturers that have capital of 10 million baht ( $300,000), while brewpubs must produce at least 100,000 litres a year and only serve their beer on their premises. The legislation effectively blocks new, small breweries from opening, and tips the market firmly in favour of two powerful companies – Thai Beverage, which produces Chang beer, and Boon Rawd Brewery, which produces Singha and Leo.

In an attempt to loosen these companies’ grip on the Thai beer market, an MP for the opposition Move Forward party, Taopiphop Limjittrakorn, has proposed a draft law on excise tax, which is under consideration by the cabinet. Changing the law would boost the economy, he said. Furthermore, if the law passed, it would mark a symbolic change: “It will let ordinary people do the same business as rich people do.”

In 2017, before he entered politics, Taopiphop was arrested for brewing craft beer at home. He was fined $150 for brewing without a permit, and a further $15 for owning brewing yeast.