Ob and Art Ungsriwong are just trying to make Thai craft beer.

Devanom is a story that's as colourful as the country it comes from, Thailand. In many ways, it is a love letter to the country itself, from two brothers, so incredibly passionate about creating a beer that Thailand can truly call its own. And it is this philosophical underpinning that has driven Nattachai “Ob” and Teerapat “Art” Ungsriwong to reinvent the wheel and make it Thai. 

For those following Thailand's craft beer scene, you'll know that the Southeast Asian country, often affectionately known as the Land of Smiles, hasn't always been particularly friendly to aspiring beer brewers. The landscape is dominated by two major macro lager producers, and yet in between the cracks is an incredibly vibrant community of craft beer lovers. To get around local regulations that hinder breweries from getting their foot in the door, many brewers have found that it is much more economical instead to produce beers in nearby Cambodia, to as far flung as Australia, and then have their craft beers exported back to Thailand for drinking. And while that might sound far too tedious, you'd be amazed at just how many undeterred craft brewers have done exactly that.

The same hop varietal expresses vastly different flavour profiles when grown in differing climates.

And whilst that is heartening, Ob and Art have other considerations in mind - for them, it is not enough to simply label a craft beer "Thai" simply because local ingredients are used or that it is crafted by a person of Thai heritage. Ultimately, local Thai ingredients such as holy basil, Sriracha sauce or lemongrass are free to be used by brewers even in the West - would a Sriracha flavoured IPA made in the US qualify as a "Thai" beer? Perhaps Thai-inspired would be more accurate. And as far as the beer being made by a local goes, for the brothers, if the beer is made with foreign ingredients and in the same standard recipe of say a Stout, again, how would that qualify as a "Thai" beer? It would at best be a really awesome Stout made by a Thai person, where a blind tasting would convey nothing "Thai" about it.

For Ob and Art, a true "Thai" beer has to made from local ingredients at ambient temperature. After all, Westerners have done exactly that, with their beer styles accepted globally as the benchmark - and hence a Thai beer must reflect its provenance and terroir.

With every ingredient needed to make craft beer imported, if at least one item can be grown locally, it would prove to be the first real step towards making an authentic Thai craft beer.

“If you ask me, a true Thai-style beer is a beer brewed in this climate. For example, when Germany makes beer, it is brewed at room temperature. The idea is that I think that anything that can be made at the room temperature of that country is truly the style of that country... If you ask me now, I think there aren’t any [craft beers in a Thai style]. Beer with a Thai flavor doesn’t have to be Thai. Other countries like New Zealand, Australia, or even Europe don’t have their own flavors... Just add Thai basil, holy basil, Sriracha sauce, lemongrass, and Thai chilies and say it’s ‘Thai style’. I don’t think that’s right because Westerners have tried adding everything." says the Ungsriwong brothers.

To that end, Ob and Art have even gone as far as to establish Thailand's first ever hops farm back in 2016, just two years after attending a formative masterclass on brewing craft beer, conducted by local pioneer Wichit Saiklao (who is behind Chit Beer). Within a year, the brothers were already growing as many as 26 different varietals of hop flowers. With most ingredients needed for beer-making in Thailand having to be imported, it might be reasonable to assume that growing hops locally would help to manage costs, but the brothers emphasise that it's ultimately about locality - for them, if even one ingredient is of Thai origin, that would be the true starting point for a "Thai" craft beer.

Life is multi-chromatic for the Ungsriwong brothers. 

It's hard then to imagine that Ob and Art weren't always making beer - the brothers come from an IT background, having worked at their own startup for years, with it eventually being acquired by a major local telecommunications group. Nevertheless the brothers would eventually decide to shutter their company as they felt that the market had become far too saturated. 

“We want people who drink it to be happy. The word Devanom is like a blessing for people to receive happiness from drinking our products. So the symbol is a clasped hand to give a blessing,” says Ob.

And so thankfully enough, as the brothers' IT days were just about over, the world of craft brewing was just beginning to open up. The brothers were already beer lovers, and had long felt that the options available locally were insufficient, and thus had toyed with the idea to start homebrewing. When the first craft beer masterclass had opened up slots - the brothers knew they had to show up.

It's a story familiar to all aspiring Thai brewers - drive up to nearby Cambodia 6-hours away by car, brew your beer, stay the night, import your beers back into Thailand.

Having learnt the basics, they started ordering equipment, along with consuming obsessively everything they could find on beer brewing. When it came time to start making their own beer, they had decided to start with establishing the basics - they would recreate existing well-known beer styles, hoping to master the fundamentals before they would get creative with their own recipes. This was probably a good call as they would quickly excel in local competitions such as Beer Camp: Fight Club, where they swept awards for Best Wheat Beer and Best IPA in 2016. 

Encouraged, the brothers decided to apply for a license to produce their own craft beer - and as with many of their peers, quickly found that it was incredibly difficult. And thus, like many aspiring craft brewers in Thailand, they would regularly make 6-hour long trips to Cambodia to produce their beers - it was not only taxing but the brothers felt that it did not produce the same freshness. A fateful trip to a Hong Kong beer festival saw them exposed to mead, said to be the oldest alcoholic drink in the history of mankind, and is made by fermenting honey instead of barley. Unlike beer, the regulations on brewing mead was much more open and thus they begin to set up their first brewery to brew mead. They would also begin to brew Sato, which is a local fermented rice-based alcoholic drink. Whilst this was happening in Thailand, Ob would continue to regularly brew and import their craft beers back into Thailand.

What the brothers hope will ignite a groundswell for the Thai craft beer story.

By 2022, under amended regulations, the brothers began to apply for a larger scale license to brew, which eventually led to the setting up of their second brewing facility. With the almost decade-long effort by the brothers, Devanom has grown to achieving a cult status amongst craft beer fans in Thailand, recognising them as being incredibly passionate and demonstrating great resilience in pushing for a more open local craft beer scene. They're nevertheless most known for their hop farm which they hope can not only supply local brewers with something that is distinctively Thai, but that it might spur aspiring brewers on, who are able to learn more about craft brewing.

“It has always been impossible to make beer from fresh hops in Thailand as we need to use imported dry hops from abroad in pellets,... Now brewers are keen to make fresh-hop or wet-hop beer, which is brewed using fresh hop flowers. This farm allows us to make it right here. It will add fresh taste in the beer.” says Ob.

A dream a decade in the making.

Whilst Devanom's hops varietals are imported from the US northwest coast, the brothers have observed that grown in a different climate, the hops express a different flavour. "Hops get their character from where they’re grown, so we knew that hops grown in Thailand would be unique... For example, Mt. Hood hops have a  herbal profile in the US, but when grown here in hot, humid conditions they become more citrusy."

This commitment to the craft has certainly been no pure joyride. "In 2015, I started growing hops. I ordered them from overseas to grow for fun. I thought it wouldn’t be that difficult to grow, but when I actually started growing them, it was quite difficult (laughs). I first tried to grow hops in our bedroom by running the air-conditioning 24/7 before deciding last year to test growing them outside. It worked! That’s when we decided to expand to a farm and now have plans to sell hops in the future,... So I’ve been growing them continuously to have this raw material in Thailand for almost 10 years now,.. " says Ob.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot