Beer Story: Red Truck Red Ale

Red truck and city's brick wall become an American amber ale

A red truck and brick wall; a normal scene in Chiang Mai’s old city area.

The “Red Truck” is our first beer. Like most of the craft brewer newbies, our first kind of beer is IPA due to its distinctive character. The intense aroma and bitterness from hops led us to the world of craft beers. The concept of our beer is to represent our point of view by our beer. One of our common memories is riding a red truck along the brick wall of the old city of Chiang Mai. We thought that the red truck label would be suited best with a reddish IPA.

Our very first version Chiang Mai Beer: Red Truck IPA back in 2014. During that time Thai craft beer was still and underground scene due to a Thailand’s prohibitive laws.

With that concept, we use caramel malt to add amber color to the beer. For aroma, we use a combination of hops that gives tropical fruit note. The finished beer has medium body with slightly sweet finish balanced with mild bitterness. Its aroma remind us of lychee which is our favorite fruit grown mostly in Chiang Mai and adjacent provinces.

Our first debut in Chrismas 2015. The ugly stamp on the beer cap indicates “Tax paid” which make us legit for the first time.

After launching our beers in 2015, we found that the strong bitterness of our IPA is not suite well with locals and new craft beer drinkers’ palate. Thus, we lowered the bitterness of the beer which made it to be a red ale rather than an IPA. After the adjustment, we receive compliments from our customers. The Red Truck Red Ale also won a title “Country’s winner” in World Beer Award in 2017 and also a bronze medal in “Asia Beer Championship” in 2018.