We Taste Test & Rank Cambodia's Big 5 Beers (Angkor Beer, Cambodia Beer, Hanuman, Vattanac, Ganzberg) & A Brief History Of Asia's New Land Of Opportunity For Aspiring Brewers
When German-born Bernd Kirsch arrived in Cambodia in late 2010, Cambodian drinking culture was nothing short of eye-opening to the Bavarian-trained brewer.
Like everywhere else, barley beer belongs to a whole sociable world in Phnom Penh: wedding parties, European-style beer gardens, karaoke bars and meals by the street. Cool evenings are often spent on raised bamboo platforms with grilled beef, pickled cucumber and boxes of lukewarm beer and buckets of ice. The Cambodians really like adding ice to warm beer.
This habit wasn’t inspiring to Kirsh initially, but after a decade working here, the German brewer himself became an accustomed ice beer drinker. Refrigeration isn’t widely available in Cambodia, and often times ice cubes were the quick way to cool the beer. And with this tropical heat, it made all the more sense to chill and lengthen your beer with ice. After all, Kirsh noticed, Cambodians have a slightly lighter palate than Europeans. “For the Cambodian market, you need a clean beer with a little less hops than in Germany,” he told The Phnom Penh Post.
A Khmer wedding table with Angkor beers and lots of ice (Source: Reed About Beer blogger)
It would surprise an outsider to find out that there is, in fact, a great deal of development and competition around the pint glass in this relatively quiet Southeast Asian nation bordering Thailand and Vietnam. Kirsch had come to work in a country that was increasingly making beer an important part of its gatherings, with an appetite for a refreshing lager alongside a fondness for strong, dark stout.
Kirsch’s arrival coincided with a surge in excitement around beer in Cambodia. Eyeing his Bavarian brewing expertise, a local company contracted Kirsch to get a brewing operation up and running at Ganzberg Brewery, Phnom Penh. Elsewhere, other Cambodian businesses too were heavily investing, building breweries of their own. Khmer Beverages, the owner of Cambodia Beer, also engaged German engineering specialist Ziemann Holvrieka to construct its brewery.
Behind these newer Cambodian beer breweries, there stands an older story of a culture of celebrations with rice wine from earthen jars, colonial ice-and-beer businesses, and that of a country building, losing and rebuilding its brewing industry after the 1991 peace.
Luck, Protection and a Shared Jar of Rice Wine
When beer became a regular presence at Cambodian celebrations, it entered a culture already well practiced at drinking together. In the Cambodian Cardamom highlands, alcohol has been part of a ritual that closely connects family with ancestral spirits.
Bamboo straws in a shared ceremonial wine jar (Source: Greg McCann ∕ Mongabay)
Using sticky rice, a starter and a fermentation period that could go up to 6 months, Cambodians traditionally made something known as sraa peang or jar wine. Three generations of relatives would squat around a large two-feet tall jar, rub its rim with long bamboo straws, and call on spirits for luck and protection before they partook of this sweet, lightly alcoholic rice wine.
It is unclear exactly how old this practice is. Fascinatingly, Cambodian anthropologists have in recent years identified carved reliefs of the 12th Century Bayon temple depicting people drinking wine from jars this exact same way over eight centuries ago.
Bayon Temple relief (Source: Dudva ∕ Wikimedia Commons)
There is something wonderfully direct about this picture. A jar of wine itself made everyone gather for a drink for over 800 years in the Angkorian world. The communal tradition of enjoying jar wine continues today in the indigenous communities of north-eastern provinces of Mondulkiri and Ratanakiri, where we can still have a glimpse into this age-old drinking tradition.
Rice wine is deeply integral in the traditions of lowland Khmer society too, especially during Khmer New Year, weddings and other celebration. Celebrations call for a drink to bring people together – often with homemade rice wine.
It is against this backdrop that beer would then enter a society with well-established reasons to gather around alcohol in celebration The first commercial barley beers in Cambodia, however, was intended for a completely different audience.
The French Ice Connection
A BGI advertisement.
The first barley beer to be produced in Cambodia was brewed by Brasseries & Glacières de l’Indochine (“Breweries and Iceworks of Indochina”) or BGI, owned by French entrepreneur Victor Larue.
Larue originally started an ice production business based out of Saigon around 1906. Under colonial French rule, his business grew into a network of ice works across French Indochina, including an iceworks in Phnom Penh. The company then expanded into the beer brewing business, producing brands such as Bière Larue which continues to be sold in Vietnam today.
Biere Larue bottling line in Hanoi (Source: Les entreprises coloniales francaises)
The move into beer brewing was a shrewd decision born out of technical synergy and a captive market. Brewing lager requires cold steady temperatures (typically 7–13°C) during fermentation and months of cold storage (a process called "lagering"). When the French arrived in the sweltering, humid climate of Indochina, it was physically impossible to brew European lager without artificial cooling technology.
Larue ice-making empire held a near-total monopoly of the French Indochinese market, and they were the only people in possession of refrigeration machinery – the exact same equipment needed to cool large brewing vats and keep beer cool for long periods of time in the tropics.
Besides production, a brewery would also need a reliable way to keep the product chilled from the factory to the consumer’s glass – what might be described as “cold chain” logistics today. Larue’s ice factories already possessed the distribution network of ice wagons necessary to transport ice or other cold goods to colonial hotels, social clubs or military barracks.
After Larue’s brewing business flourished in Saigon, a web of breweries were built, including in Phnom Penh where BGI’s main consumers were “heat-stressed expatriates”. The majority of locals had yet to develop a taste for hoppy European-style beer.
Angkor Beer
After independence in 1953, the next major brewery project would take the story south, to Kampong Som, Sihanouk’s new port town. There, in the 1960s, the Cambodian government commissioned a brewery of its own. According Carlsberg Group, its current owner, the location was chosen for its clear spring water. This became known as Angkor Beer Factory . The brewery’s first run was short-lived as the following decade brought civil war.
Cambrew's Angkor Brewery on the hillside at Sihanoukville (Source: Dmitry Makeev ∕ Wikimedia Commons)
In 1991 – the same year that the peace accords were reached – the factory was restored and put back into production by a consortium of investors including prominent Malaysian billionaire Goh Nan Kioh in the new owner, Cambrew (in turn owned by Carlsberg Group).
Angkor Beer’s modern flagship red label carries an illustration of the Angkor Wat temple and the slogan “My Country, My Beer”- a proposition that resonated with the Cambodian populace as the country reopened. It is brewed as a pale lager at 5% ABV, with water, malted barley, maize and hops.
Cambrew brewery gate the home of Angkor Beer (Source: Reed About Beer blogger)
Within two years of launching its first product, 1994 became a pivotal year of brewing, selling and finding new drinkers for the brewery. In April of that year, demand was so intense that its beer was sold out, prompting Cambrew to expand production.
That same year, the brewery refined its recipe and introduced the first draft beer in Cambodia on a commercial scale, introducing this style of serving fresh beer from a tap to many Cambodians for the first time. Cambrew would regularly open its Sihanoukville bar to locals on Wednesday afternoons, serving free Angkor draught to the community. The brewery also offered to clean its customers’ draught lines weekly without charge.
Cambrew also launched the Angkor Extra Stout- – which quickly became the local favourite alternative to the flagship lager. This is brewed with similar ingredients but with the addition of roasted barley and caramel and comes in at a substantial 8% ABV.
Angkor beer with glass mug (Source: VasenkaPhotography ∕ Wikimedia Commons)
Cambodia Beer
Not to be left behind by the successes of Cambrew, Cambodian business families began building substantial breweries of their own. In 2009, the homegrown conglomerate Chip Mong Group engaged German brewing-engineering specialist Ziemann Holvrieka to construct its brewery.
Executive Director Peter Leang at the Cambodia Beer canning line (Source: Khmer Times ∕ Siv Channa)
Khmer Brewery was formally inaugurated in 2012 with its flagship, Cambodia Beer, a pilsener bottled at 5% ABV. The brewery describes its ingredients in some detail. Malt made from two-row spring barley is imported from Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany and milled at the brewery. The brewery specifies yeast from Germany alongside hops. Water is drawn from the brewery’s purification plant.
The then young brewery quickly earned the recognition of fellow brewers at competitions and in the marketplace.
Responding to the local preference for lighter brews, Khmer Brewery’s Cambodia range also came to include a new Cambodia Lite at a lighter strength of 4% ABV made in the style of an American Light Lager. The product uses ultrafiltration to clean up the malt profile, reducing the body and heavy sweetness for a cleaner profile that appeals in the hot tropical weather.
Ganzberg Beer
While Khmer Brewery was being built, another Cambodian brewing project had brought a German brewmaster himself to the country. Bernd Kirsch arrived in late 2010 to get Ganzberg Brewery up and running. The experienced German brewer first began his brewing apprenticeship in Cologne and qualified as a brewmaster back in 1994. He has had experiences opening a brewery with an inn in Hanover, with consultancy work that took him to breweries across Europe, Asia and South America.
Master Brewer Bernd Kirsch at the Ganzberg canning line in 2013 (Source: Connor Kirsch ∕ Wikimedia Commons)
At Ganzberg, his “German expertise” became central to the beer’s public identity. Its makers presented it as “German Premium Beer”, emphasising a German brewmaster’s original recipe and ingredients including hops from Bavaria’s Hallertau region. Ganzberg’s flagship pale lager comes in at 5% ABV.
Eager to convince the public of its authenticity, Ganzberg invited reporters from The Phnom Penh Post into its brewery for a tour with brewmaster Kirsch himself. He explained in detail the importance of chemistry and microbiology at the brewery, including using the right yeast for fermentation and ensuring persistent hygiene standards to keep unwanted microorganisms out. Patience is required as well. His brewing process takes up to about four weeks. This meant that if he were to change something in production, he would have to wait the same period before he could assess it.
German brewers working in the Ganzberg lab (Source: Ganzberg)
For all the German brewing authenticity emphasised by Ganzberg, the brewery remains guided by local Cambodian taste preferences. As alluded earlier, Kirsch has commented on how locals prefer a cleaner brew with lower hop bitterness than he would use for the German market. And while he was initially not fond of the local habit of putting ice into beer –it dilutes and makes assessing the beer more difficult – he has become accommodating about drinking beer over ice himself in Cambodia.
This observation about using ice might also explain several breweries’ dual strategy of producing a slightly maltier flagship product, along with a lighter lager that has a lower ABV to appeal to those with a lighter palate. Around 2016, the Ganzberg Snow light lager was released, which comes in at 3.9% ABV. The campaign manager explicitly described the stated aim of the product to give Khmer drinkers something that fits with “their way of drinking”.
Ganzberg became a regional sponsor for Arsenal Football Club in 2019 (Source: Inside World Football)
Meanwhile for Kirsch, the Cambodian beer boom for him lasted much longer than his original engagement for a 6-month brewery-building project. He was asked to stay another year, then another. And so he kept extending his time in Cambodia and spent close to six years at Ganzberg Brewery.
Kirsch’s work eventually connected him with another major brewing venture of the country. He left Ganzberg in 2016 and eventually Master Brewer at Hanuman Beverages, the producer of Hanuman Beer. Cambodia’s next wave of breweries would give the German brewer another canvas to apply what he had learned.
Hanuman Black and Lager
Khieu Sarsileap had watched Cambodia’s beverage industry grow for years before decided to found a company herself. A scion of the wealthy and influential Khieu family, after completing a university degree in Australia, Sarsileap returned to Cambodia and became the founder and chairwoman of Hanuman Beverages.
Brewing was unfamiliar territory for her, but her interest was sparked by the impressive boom led by Angkor Beer and Cambodia Beer. “It was a dream of mine to be part of it,” she told a journalist.
Famed boxer Manny Pacquiao signing on as Hanuman's brand ambassador. He is beside founder and chairwoman Khieu Sarsileap (Source: Hanuman Beverages)
Hanuman Brewery took shape in Kandal province, outside Phnom Penh. In the spirit of selecting a resonant name, the company reached into Cambodian folklore and came up with Hanuman – named after the monkey god in the Khmer adaptation of the Hindu epic poem Ramayana.
Sarsileap wanted Hanuman Beer to establish itself in the premium segment. She consulted Ziemann Holvrieka on recipe development, and enlisted the help of the experienced Bernd Kirsch - eventually appointing him as Hanuman’s brewmaster. At the commissioning of the brewery in 2021, nine Buddhist monks were invited to bless the brewing vessels by tossing hops into them.
The brewery’s first product, Hanuman Premium Lager, a pale lager at 4.9% ABV was the brainchild of Kirsch. The Bavarian brewer already had experience developing clean-tasting beers suited to Cambodian drinkers. The pale lager is thus brewed with malt, hops and a small amount of rice that helps brewers achieve a clean, crisp profile. After brewing, the beer also passes through a membrane filtration system that separates residual yeast and undissolved material from the beer to achieve an even cleaner profile. Practically, the process also helps to increase the product’s shelf life.
Hanuman's high-tech brewhouse control room (Source: Ziemann Holvrieka)
Yeast management is another important element of ensuring consistent quality. Hanuman installed specialised yeast cultivation equipment within the brewery, allowing Kirsch and his team to cultivate the ideal yeast strains and provide the microbiological care required to make their ideal beer.
A few months after the initial launch, the brewery introduced Hanuman Black. Here, Sarsileap’s vision became clearer.
Angkor Beer’s stout had proven that Cambodia already had an appetite for dark beer. Sarsileap saw an opportunity to introduce a premium dark beer designed around easy drinking. Hanuman Black is brewed as a Dunkel – a German dark lager. At 5.3% ABV, it is only a little stronger than the flagship pale lager. This is brewed with regular malt, specially roasted malt, and hops. The brewery claims that it gets its colour entirely from the dark malt, with no use of caramel or colouring, and that the carbonation of the beer derives naturally from the beer conditioning process (rather than via artificial carbonation equipment).
“Our aim is that Cambodians prefer domestic products to imported products,” Kirsch explained proudly. Apart from its popularity in the domestic market, these beers have begun to be exported to drinkers beyond Cambodia.
Hanuman Premium Lager (Source: Hanuman Beverages)
Vattanac Brewery
Another more recent entrant into the major brands of Cambodian beers is Vattanac Brewery, though by the time its Vattanac Premium Beer was launched, the founding Sam Ang family had already been in Cambodia’s beer business for over thirty years.
(Source: VLB Berlin)
The Sam Ang family started a successful beer importation and distribution business back in 1988, during a timely window of opportunity before Angkor’s relaunch and before the influx of international beer brands during the UN peacekeeping years of Cambodia. In 1994 the family briefly partnered with Heineken’s Asia Pacific Breweries to establish Cambodia Brewery Ltd (not to be confused with Khmer Brewery which produces Cambodia Beer) – producing beers familiar in Singapore and Malaysia like Tiger Beer, ABC Extra Stout and Anchor Beer. Eventually the Sam Ang family relinquished their stake to Heineken in 2014.
The Sam Ang family decided to return to brewing in 2020, constructing their new Vattanac Brewery in Phnom Penh’s Chbar Ampov district. Executive Director Sam Ang Vattanac (yes, he is named Vattanac) who was appointed to lead the company proclaimed their goal to produce “a national beer that will be at the top of its category”.
Vattanac brewhouse kettles (Source: Ziemann Holvrieka)
Helping oversee the brewery’s launch was Singaporean brewmaster Edwin Yang. Once Ziemann had been engaged to design, deliver and commission the brewery, Edwin recalled, the next challenge was to secure reliable sources of quality ingredients. The brewery established relationships with Adelaide’s Coopers Brewery – which supplied Australian malt, and from Dutch maltster The Swaen. The also brewery worked with German hop merchants BarthHaas to develop custom hop formulations for a more aromatic beer. Finally, Edwin emphasised that the brewery uses an all-malt recipe without adjuncts like rice.
In 2021, the brewery released two beers: the flagship Vattanac Premium is described as an “all malt” pale lager, along with a lighter pilsner positioned for easy drinking – the Krud Beer – both of which coming in at 5% ABV.
This was followed the following year by the Dragon Premium Dark Beer, a 6% ABV dark beer made with – according to Edwin – a specific medium-roasted grade of malt chosen to obtain a coffee-like character (as opposed to heavy barbecue notes from dark roasting).
The Sam Ang family’s relationship with beer has come a long way since distribution in the late 1980s, with now its own brewery and an all-malt flagship to be proud of.
Becoming Southeast Asia’s craft beer brewery
Alongside these ambitious brewery projects, a craft beer scene has certainly been brewing in the smaller breweries and brewpubs of Phnom Penh, right under our noses. In fact, one of the people involved was our familiar German brewmaster, Bernd Kirsch.
Bernd Kirsch at Two Birds (Source: Khmer Times ∕ Tep Sony)
While Kirsch continues serving as brewmaster and consultant at Hanuman since 2018, he retains the freedom and time to pursue his personal businesses and craft brewing projects. His Cambodian brewing life has become a family affair: in 2019, Kirsch and his son founded their own craft beer brewery Two Birds Craft Beer – a regular appearance in guides to Phnom Penh’s growing craft-beer scene. Kirsch’s craft venture focuses on bridging German traditional brewing techniques with regional preferences. He has, after all, been brewing in Cambodia for a decade and now has a nose and sense for local taste preferences – instinctively matching lighter lagers with simpler dishes and stout with desserts.
Across the capital, the craft scene was giving drinkers more opportunities to encounter locally brewed craft beer. Hanuman Beverages, too, had earlier opened a microbrewery and brewpub in Phnom Penh’s BKK1 neighbourhood in 2019.
For aspiring craft brewers located elsewhere in Southeast Asia, Phnom Penh’s developing scene held another important purpose: Cambodia offers somewhere to make the craft beers they had always dreamt of making, but could not do so in their home countries.
Among them was John Wei, founder of Singapore’s Brewlander who relied on Cambodia’s Kingdom Breweries earlier on in his brewing career. John wanted to turn his brewing into a business, but the startup capital simply would not stretch to the brewery they envisaged to be built in an expensive country like Singapore. What they needed first was access to somebody else’s equipment.
Unlike contract breweries in Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Belgium, Cambodia’s Kingdom Breweries permitted John to personally take part in making his own beers. It also offered high quality brewing facilities complete with European-made brewing equipment, a laboratory and bottling line. It also helped that Phnom Penh was close enough for the Singaporean to fly over at short notice, and shipments of the finished beer only took about two days to reach Singapore. Brewlander eventually attained sufficient scale to build its own brewery in Singapore.
John Wei of Singapore's Brewlander (Source: Brewlander)
The Nikkei Asian Review described Kingdom Brewery to be making beers for about a dozen outside companies from Singapore, Thailand, Hong Kong and the Philippines. Roughly half its output contracted by other businesses.
Over towards the Thai border, another Cambodian brewery was answering a similar need.
For many years, aspiring craft brewers in Thailand faced difficult licensing restrictions that favoured large breweries. This led many founders to consider Cambodia as a legal route to produce their own beer.
Stone Head's head brewer Sermsak Tangsiripatpron in Koh Kong (Source: Jack Board ∕ CNA)
Stone Head Brewery is one such example. Founded in Koh Kong, Cambodia, near the southernmost international border crossing between the two countries of Hat Lek, the brewery made it possible for its Thai founders to brew on the Cambodian side of the border and send the finished beer back to Thailand in refrigerated containers. Before long, other brewers were asking Stone Head to make beer for them.
Cambodia is especially important for aspiring Thai craft brewers. It supplied the equipment and production capacity needed to turn their plans into commercial beer just across the border. The finished bottles could carry a Thai identity.
Stone Head beer in cold storage (Source: Jack Board ∕ CNA)
While Thailand did later relax some of its minimum production-capacity requirements from 2022 to 2025, Cambodian breweries had already played a part in getting a generation of regional craft ventures started and remains an important regional hub.
As the craft scene continues to expand, Cambodia now has two connected roles in the region’s growing interest in craft beer: a place where people could explore an increasingly vibrant range of locally brewed beer, and a place with the capabilities for international craft brewers experiment, brew, bottle and establish their craft beer brands.
Meanwhile, the larger Cambodian producers continue pursuing regional and international drinkers. In 2026, Hanuman Beverages announced an expansion covering the United States, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand.
Phnom Penh skyline from Monivong Bridge (Source: Kiensvay ∕ Wikimedia Commons)
A curious beer lover has good reason to pay attention to Cambodia and its drinking scene. For a country whose modern brewing industry was built in the 1990s, it has created an impressive range of possibilities created within a few decades.
We now have before us an entire lineup assembled from Cambodia’s major commercial beer brands. Here are our notes and thoughts after tasting them!
Beer Review: Angkor Beer Lager, 5% ABV
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Bright clear amber with very lively bubbles and a dense, fluffy head.
Aroma: Aromatic, malt-forward and quite sweet-smelling even from afar. It opens on a bunch of florals including honeysuckle, a rich maltiness, honey and maltose candy, building up a cereal and barley sweetness along with some toast and fresh baked cornbread. There’s the zestiness of fresh orange peels, sweetness of tinned peaches and apricot, a touch of dried mango and a pear cider-like tart fruitiness. Some sweet dairy cream adds a warm roundness. There’s also some fresh citrus pith bitterness that hints at the restrained hop structure.
Taste: Remarkably substantial and rounded. It has a medium-plus body, built around a malty and lightly toasty profile. It opens with rich malt sweetness and cereal malt up front with just-as-immediate grapefruit and orange zest freshness. A very faint yeastiness develops, alongside bread crumbs, dried apricot and a light touch of vanilla. The texture remains smooth on the tongue with a cooling freshness rather than any zesty prickle. Dryness gradually builds along with subtle grassy, herbal notes. Some coriander seeds along with a very light pepperiness that hints at an aromatic spicy, Weissbier-like quality.
Finish: Very clean and fairly short with a light yeasty sweetness. Fading notes of honey, a touch of Marmite, and sourdough-like yeastiness. Soft toasted malt fades before a drying phase takes over - peaking with pepper, grassy coriander, and a tingly citrus zest –lingering much longer through the retronasal impression.
My Thoughts
This is a solid, flavourful, commercial lager that’s very malt-driven and quite fruity, but still overall clean and approachable. There’s a noticeable yeasty character, adding a bit of satisfying weight and heft. And despite the medium body, and relatively substantial fruit, malt and yeasty character, there is a balancing dryness to keep it from feeling heavy, leading into a long, lingering retronasal freshness and snap. A very reliable drink that still gave me a delightfully aromatic first impression.
Score: 7.5/10
Beer Review: Angkor Beer Extra Stout, 8% ABV
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Nearly jet black with a fluffy white foam that settles into a coffee crema.
Aroma: Semi-sweet, very dark chocolatey with roasted malt impressions, caramel and a molasses-like depth along with dried fruit. It opens like a rich and decadent iced Vietnamese Robusta milk coffee, Kopiko candy, some bittersweet dark cocoa interlaced with hints of Medjool dates. As it develops, it becomes a bit creamier and more syrupy, almost liquorice and Pei Pa Koa-like (Chinese loquat syrup), underpinned by a clean green tea-like dryness. With time, it settles into coffee cake, Black Forest cake with a little icing, and some chocolate-covered cherries.
Taste: Medium plus, with a texture really smooth, creamy and velvety. It has that same Vietnamese Robusta coffee feel with controlled bittersweetness, some caramel and molasses in the background. As it opens, we get coffee cake, roasted grain, cassia bark and nutmeg show up. Acidity wasn’t top of mind - there’s just enough background acidity to keep things balanced.
Finish: Long and coffee-led, fading through Kopiko candy and molasses, dark chocolate shavings and coffee cake. Late in the finish there’s a liquorice-like herbaceousness, a soft vanilla bourbon tea-like sweetness, and the faintest Marmite-like yeasty savoury.
My Thoughts
This was deceptively easy to drink! It is really well balanced between dark malt and Robusta-like bitterness on one side and just enough caramel and dried fruit sweetness on the other. In fact, the sweetness is really well judged, making this something that resembles milk coffee without going into the cloying territory.
It feels like sitting in a Vietnamese cafe with a thick iced Robusta that has layers, but still remains straightforwardly easy to enjoy. Judging by the standards of commercial breweries across Southeast Asia, I daresay this would seriously appeal to any lover of commercial porters or stouts.
Score: 8/10
Beer Review: Cambodia Beer, 5% ABV
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Deep translucent gold, with lively effervescence and a fluffy white head.
Aroma: Very aromatic, bright fresh, with the sweetness of the malt nicely countered by the brighter citrus and grassy hop influences. It opens with a combination of crystal malt sweetness and a bright hoppy lift, accompanied by indistinct fresh white florals. There is a clear toasted malt-forward quality throughout. There’s also a developing influence of grapefruit pulp, light apricots and a touch of yuzu. A clean, lightly yeasty character gradually emerges underneath, followed by gratings of grapefruit zest, fresh pithy bitterness malt.
Taste: Fairly full-bodied, rounded and surprisingly weighty in texture. Opens with a rounded, malt-forward character, led by honeyed crystal malt together with a lighter clean toasted malt note and a touch of orange zest. Some fresh white-floral hoppiness making a reappearance. Despite the substantial body, the effervescence and a clean dryness begin asserting themselves around the mid-palate, giving the beer a fresh lift and keeping the rounded malt character balanced and highly drinkable. Towards the back of the throat, we gradually see a lightly yeasty, bready quality.
Finish: Medium-plus in length, clean and lightly drying. The toasted malt character continues firmly through the finish, accompanied by a soft sourdough bread-like yeastiness at the back of the throat. We continue to see some lightly caramelised pastry-crust notes, together with a touch of coriander seed spice. Toasty malt notes remain quite robust and persistent, along with a gentle cleansing dryness.
My Thoughts
This is a thoroughly enjoyable and surprisingly substantial commercial lager. It is distinctly malt-forward and sits very much on the rounder rather than drier side, with a full, weighty body driven by robust toasted malt flavours.
Cambodia Beer has recently released a new design for its flagship beer.
The malt character carries through the entire beer really well, from the nose, right into the palate and the finish, where the toastiness develops into lightly caramelised pastry crust alongside that soft yeastiness. There is a sense of depth and persistence than one might not have expected from a straightforward commercial lager.
Yet there is still just enough of the dryness, that lively effervescence and fresh white-floral lift to keep all of that richness in balance to make it refreshing and accessible.
This combination of malt richness, fresh lift and robust toastiness gives this enough substance to stand up to more strongly flavoured or spicy Southeast Asian dishes.
Score: 8/10
Beer Review: Hanuman Lager, 4.9% ABV
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Bright yellow-gold, lively effervescence, and a dense persistent head.
Aroma: Quite hoppy and floral, with bright citrus and a clear lemon oil tone. It opens on very pretty jasmine florals, together with a cantaloupe sweetness and sweet citrus. There’s honey, a light maltose note, and a moderate crystal malt sweetness– the maltiness bringing in sweet barley and a light cracker-like character, with a gentle sweet yeastiness sitting underneath. There’s also a touch of dried mango while hops develop a light lemon thyme herbal edge.
Taste: Medium plus in body, with a noticeably citrusy profile, toasted malt, clear yeastiness, and a firm dryness throughout. It opens on honey, toasted malt, and toffee, lifted by orange peels. From there, it develops more toasted cereal tones with that cracker malt quality on the nose, a light touch of corn sweetness, a gentle nuttiness, and a lightly roasted malt character. Very quickly, a firm dryness and zestiness cuts through on the mid-palate. The lively effervescence seems to contribute a distinct tingle on the tip of the tongue.
The malty profile then evolves into toasted bread, light sourdough-like yeastiness, and increasingly pronounced bread crust tones. We also find a touch of dried apricot and orange jelly cups with a lightly floral, hoppy bitterness running through.
Finish: Very clean, very long and distinctly toasty. It continues with persistent toasted cereal and distinctive bread crust notes, alongside dry citrus zest and citrus pith bitterness. It continues with the backbone of dryness carrying through, with the tingly dry sensation right there. There’s also a persistent toasty, bready character with growing yeastiness towards the end.
My Thoughts
This is a rather robust and layered commercial lager that stays very approachable and balanced. For all its malt richness and toastiness, this still seems to leaning slightly towards a more citrusy rather than malty style. A lot of lift is given by the bright citrus and firm effervescence, with that combination of citrus, carbonation, and dryness forming a backbone that cuts right through the beer – making it well-suited to richer or oilier foods. The toasted character is also quite persistent, with depths of cereal and bread crust notes, and even a light corn-like sweetness.
Score: 7.5/10
Beer Review: Hanuman Black Lager, 5.3% ABV
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Nearly jet black, with a persistent thin layer of dense foam.
Aroma: Sweet and firmly roasty, with a distinctly bittersweet caramelised malt character. It opens on Robusta milk coffee, coffee grounds, roasted malt and roasted granola nuts and cereal. There is a light touch of Manuka honey, molasses and toffee, alongside a darker note of caramel glaze over burnt meat. Some dried dates, some roasted honey-coated walnuts.
Taste: Medium-plus body, with a creamy, rounded mouthfeel. It opens on semi-sweet Robusta black coffee and roasted malt, with a light citrus lift and a gentle dryness cutting through the roast. A thread of molasses and dried dates through the mid-palate.
As it sits, drier cinnamon and nutmeg spices begin to emerge towards the back of the palate. Some lighter notes of coffee cake and toasted cereal. The acidity remains relatively low, but is still present enough to provide balance and freshness against the darker roasted flavours. Towards the finish, the palate turns towards dark cocoa powder and espresso.
Finish: Long, aromatic and firmly roasty, continuing the strong coffee character. Dark cocoa powder and espresso persist, followed by increasingly dry notes of toasted walnuts and granola. A soft thread of molasses and caramelised malt sweetness underneath.
My Thoughts
This is a fairly straightforward black lager with a distinctly stout-like depth of roast, but without having the weight or heaviness of a stout. There is comparatively little fruit here, apart from a touch of dried dates. Most of the sweetness comes from the roasted malt, molasses and darker caramelised character.
The overall profile is heavily roasted, coffee-led and malt-driven, very reminiscent of a dark, semi-sweet iced Robusta coffee. Yet there has been always enough dryness and restrained acidity to keep the beer composed, clean and balanced - never becoming cloying - which on hindsight makes sense given that this is ultimately a “black lager” rather than a porter or stout.
Unlike many other commercial dark beers that might completely overwhelm our senses, this even feels food-friendly enough to pair with lighter to moderately rich dishes.
Score: 7.5/10
Beer Review: Vattanac Premium All-Malt Beer, 5% ABV
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Apricot-amber, with lively effervescence and a thin persistent head.
Aroma: Wow! This is distinctively sweeter and richer in character, with sweet malt, cereal and apricot flesh at the core. It opens with bright tropical fruits, fresh mangoes apricots, green pineapple with a bright, lightly tart soapberry character. Some orange jelly cup sweetness. A crisp, almost floral freshness, alongside a sweet, gently spicy ginger note.
Richer cereal notes continue to emerge as it sits, together with cornbread and a green, aromatic grassy dimension with lemongrass oil and fresh hops, with a core of sweet and rich malty tones.
Taste: Full-bodied, remarkably rounded and substantial and with a thick, silky texture. The initial attack is particularly rich and layered, bringing together savoury malt, baked bread crust, lightly roasted malt bitterness with a just-as-present, firm and aromatic fresh-hop bitterness. All these different elements arrive simultaneously with great integration. From there, we see emerging notes of honey, caramel, with almonds, buttered toast, sweet biscuits and cracker malt sit naturally among baked pastry impressions.
There’s orange peel in the background, a grapefruit-like sweetness alongside a pithy bitterness. The effervescence is noticeable and nippy at first but smooths out very quickly into a rounded mouthfeel. At the same time, some nutty dryness begins to emerge seamlessly and becomes more apparent as the sweeter malt elements recede.
Finish: Long and distinctly nutty. Rich malt sweetness and roasted-malt taper away. A slightly bittersweet of caramelised baked bread crusts. The finish then settles into a long, dry, gently bitter hoppy tail lingering underneath the roasted malt.
My Thoughts
This is perhaps the richest and most flavourful malt-driven lager of the Cambodian beers we’ve tasted!
Where some lagers might express their richness through a more obvious yeastiness, here we see more savoury weight and toasted nuttiness. It has a very impressive complexity and integration. It is savoury, rich and densely flavoured, with disparate elements coming together at once. There is a strong sense of caramelised baked goods throughout, at times almost reminiscent of biting into a fresh Chinese mooncake, along with considerable fruity depth and complexity.
And while it has been sweet and full-flavoured, but it never becomes cloying. That richness is continually balanced by the ever-present caramelised, nearly bittersweet bread-crust character. The result is an immensely drinkable beer despite sitting firmly on the richer side – one feels substantial enough to enjoy entirely on its own.
Score: 9/10
Beer Review: Ganzberg Premium Pale Lager Beer, 5% ABV
Tasting Notes
Appearance: Bright deep gold with lively effervescence and a persistent fluffy head.
Aroma: Fresh and crisp, led by honey and white florals over a sweet crystal malt base. It opens with expressed citrus peel and citrus oils, turning towards slightly green orchard fruits – hints of green peaches and just-ripe golden apples. A developing bright malty sweetness that leans toward maltose candy. Some soft dried meadow herb tones its way in the back.
Taste: Lively, malt-driven with a clean yeastiness. It opens with fresh toasted malt, a gentle citrus lift before turning towards biscuits, bread crust, and then developing a light savoury bread dough and yeasty tone. A subtle cereal or grain character sits behind the toast rather than up front, and the slightly livelier bubbles lift the palate.
Finish: Clean and short. Light orange peels, bread crust and toasted malt dry out slightly and turn a touch more savoury. There’s a faint meadow herb bitterness in the background, along with a very clean spring water-like clarity.
My Thoughts
This is perhaps the most refreshing beer of the Cambodian lineup that would be equally enjoyable without being fully chilled – one that you least need to add ice to!
It is really crisp, with a clean malt-driven character with a very clean, almost spring water-like quality that makes it especially fresh and easy. You do get the distinctive notes of orchard fruits and citrusy hops, but the fruit-led sweetness is kept more restrained and subtle here, allowing the toast, bread, and gentle savoury yeastiness to show through.
Score: 7/10
@CharsiuCharlie
