Podcast Pub Crawl in Saigon - 7 Craft Beer Bars in 1 Day

"Vietnam is a massive beer drinking country. Per capita it's top ten ." - Mischa Smith

In this special episode of the Vietnam podcast, host Niall takes listeners on an epic craft beer crawl through Ho Chi Minh City. Joined by a rotating cast of friends and beer industry insiders, Niall visits his seven favorite craft beer bars in Saigon over the course of 8 hours. The crawl begins at Two Guys Belgian Fries in Thanh My Loi and winds its way through popular spots like Mixtape, Brick and Barrel, Pasteur Street Craft Beer, Heart of Darkness, Seven Bridges, before ending at Malt. 

Along the way, Niall and his companions sample a wide variety of local craft beers while discussing the evolution of Vietnam's craft beer scene. They dive into topics like the challenges facing breweries post-COVID, efforts to win over more local customers, and debates over pricing and free water policies. The episode offers an inside look at Saigon's thriving craft beer culture through conversations with brewery owners, beer experts, and enthusiastic drinkers.

Key Takeaways:

• Vietnam has a strong beer drinking culture, but the craft beer industry is still working to convert more locals from mass-market lagers
• Many craft breweries are recovering post-COVID, though some have closed and the market was likely oversaturated before the pandemic
• Pricing remains a challenge, with craft beers significantly more expensive than local lagers, though still cheaper than in countries like Australia
• Having a diverse tap list with guest beers from other local breweries is seen as important by some bar owners
• The craft beer scene has evolved rapidly in Saigon over the past 5-8 years, with many new breweries and bars opening

"I don't look at us anymore as a craft beer business. I look at us as an F&B business." - Seamus from Seven Bridges

Transcript

Pub Crawl Podcast

[00:00:00] 

Introduction to the Craft Beer Crawl

Niall: I recently shared my seven favorite craft beer bars in Saigon, and then I decided to put my money where my mouth is because a few people suggested it.

Gathering the Crew

Niall: And we're actually doing a craft beer crawl today I can't believe this amount of people came out.

Bearded Men and Craft Beer

Niall: we are very top heavy in bearded men.

Vietnam's Beer Culture

Mischa: Vietnam is a massive, uh, beer drinking

Niall: to 

Mischa: country.

Switching to Craft Beer

Mischa: it's been an evolution to get locals to switch over to craft beer.

Starting the Pub Crawl

Mischa: We're doing a pub crawl on a Saturday in Saigon.

Inspiring the Crowd

Mischa: I try to inspire people, that's all.

You're doing a fantastic job. Thanks, 

man. 

Recording Challenges

Niall: I'm finally recording. 

A Late Night Out

Niall: I had to go home to get the SD card because I was that prepared That's what happens when you stay out till 4. 30 in the morning, watching Scotland get absolutely gubbed by Germany 5 1. 

Welcome to the Podcast

Niall: Welcome to another [00:01:00] episode of a Vietnam podcast. This is a very, very different type of episode that we're doing.

Craft Beer Crawl Overview

Niall: I recently shared my seven favorite craft beer bars in Saigon, and then I decided to put my money where my mouth is because a few people suggested it. And we're actually doing a craft beer crawl today of the seven places that I suggested. 

First Stop: Two Guys Belgian Fries

Niall: So we're starting here in Two Guys Belgian Fries in Thanh My Loi.

Surprising Turnout

Niall: I can't believe this amount of people came out. 

Introducing the Participants

Niall: So we have with us, uh, Jack, Misha, Tucker, Adri,

it was just

And Seamus. Uh, I thought it was just gonna be me and Adri, so this is actually awesome. 

Not Just a Sausage Fest

Niall: And it's not a complete Sausage Fest, which is pretty incredible as well. We have two females with us, so that's amazing. 

Beard Talk

Niall: But we are very top heavy in bearded men.

There's a lot of beards here, which is normal for Craft Beer as well. And I'm not gonna lie, if I could grow a beard, I would probably have one as well. 

Jack's Perspective

Niall: What about you, Jack? 

Jack: I'm not rocking the beard, but, you know, I'm, uh, enjoying the beers, having a good time, looking forward to, uh, all the stops today. 

Niall: If you [00:02:00] could grow a beard, would you grow one?

Jack: Ah, tough question. Uh, I'm gonna go with yes. 

Starting with Blondes

Niall: little bit tired, a little bit hungover, uh, but we're getting started on the blondes, which is what I suggested, then we got some duvels, we're gonna be recording throughout the day, I'm gonna hand it over to Jack and Misha, and you guys can tell us what your thoughts are on the day and the craft beer scene in Saigon. of

Craft Beer Industry Post-Lockdown

Mischa: interesting time for the craft beer industry in Vietnam. Obviously,

Obviously, uh, coming

coming out of lockdown, things were pretty tough all over for everyone. We're still feeling the effects, frankly.

yeah. What is

Jack: nice to see. 

Well, 

Mischa: that's it. 

Breweries Full Steam Ahead

Mischa: Like, yeah, a lot of breweries are, uh, full steam ahead.

Let's go. Let's keep building. obviously, pour one out for Fur Brew. 

Closure of Fur Brew

Mischa: Uh, I think they were the first big, uh, closure, unfortunately. Unfortunately, because Thomas Bilgrim's a lovely guy, and he was an [00:03:00] asset to the community. Um, but if that was the best decision for them to close down, and he's obviously moved back to Denmark now, and I still see him on social media with a great big smile on his face, so, you know, I hope he's happy.

And I hope we don't have too many more breweries closing down. 

Market Saturation Pre-Covid

Mischa: Um, but yeah, it was, obviously, I think, uh, everyone in the industry would agree that, uh, Uh, pre Covid, it was getting a little bloated. There was way too many local breweries for a country of this size. And frankly, and sadly, I'm surprised that more breweries haven't closed.

could give her one,

Already. It's not as much 

Jack: the, uh,

country of the size as much as the market that doesn't exist here yet. 

Mischa: Yeah, yeah, no, that's a great point. 

Vietnam's Beer Drinking Culture

Mischa: Obviously, those of us who live here know that Vietnam is a massive, uh, beer drinking

Niall: to be quiet.

Mischa: country.

like, per capita. I think it's top ten still, like, I always bring this up, [00:04:00] you know, in Korea they drink soju, in China they drink baijiu, in Vietnam they drink beer. Like, they have local rice wines here, but it's a beer drinking culture and community. 

Craft Beer Evolution

Mischa: but yeah, obviously craft beer is more expensive, it's on the higher end, so it's, you know, it's been an evolution to get locals to switch over to craft beer.

Local Craft Beer Scene

Mischa: But it is also heartening to go to a lot of local craft breweries and seeing how many Vietnamese customers they have. It's not just tourists and expats anymore. So, the market is returning to a good level. 

Tourism and Craft Beer

Mischa: And that's even without tourism really coming back yet. So I think all of us are excited. Uh,

that

bullish that this thing's still gonna go really well, but obviously having a more robust, uh, tourist economy, which Vietnam has historically been very dependent on, will go a long way towards, uh, buoying the success of a lot of local craft breweries.

Yep, fair 

Jack: enough.

Mischa: Now 

Jack: But yeah, 

Mischa: [00:05:00] sorry, I feel like I've been, uh, I've been a little, uh, uh

Um, analytical and methodical.

Let's have some fun. 

Pub Crawl Fun

Mischa: We're doing a f*****g pub crawl on a Saturday in Saigon. Starting out here in Tan My Loi because, uh, this is the closest place to where Niall lives. 

Moving to D1

Mischa: Uh, but we're going to D1 soon. We got a lot of great stops planned, and yeah, I'm looking forward to the day. 

Podcast Progress

Mischa: I can't wait to see how this podcast is going.

four stops from now. 

Jack: Absolutely. 

Ordering Another Beer

Jack: I think I might, uh, go ahead and take this opportunity to order another 10 percent Triple Hop Duvel. Yes! Thanks for the inspiration, Mischa 

Mischa: I try to inspire people, that's all. You're doing a fantastic job. Thanks, man. 

Inspiring Craft Beer Enthusiasm

Mischa: I feel like, at the end of the day, that's the biggest part of my job, is to inspire people to drink more craft beer.

Finishing Stop Number One

Niall: we're finishing up at stop number one. I don't know if I actually explained all the

Next Stops Overview

Niall: places that we're going to go to in the beginning. So we're going to go

to we're starting off at Two Guys

[00:06:00] Belgian

Fries. And I could hear Misha

dissing, 

my choices. It was absolutely because I live around the corner from 

it.

They do 

have craft beer. I can't remember who makes 

it. 

They have their own blonde and their own black. and we come here pretty often.

It's pretty nice view on the canal as lots of people like to call it a river, but it is a canal. 

Mixtape and Free Beer

Niall: We're going to go from here to mixtape because I get a free beer every time I go there. Cause I want free beer for a year. The beer is also good as well.

Brick and Barrel

Niall: Then we're going to go around the corner to brick and barrel. 

Pasteur Street

Niall: We're going to get one of those buggies and we're going to go to Pasteur street on, and I can never remember.

Is it Le tanton Lee Tu Trunk. 

And then we're going to go down to Heart of Darkness.

Heart of Darkness

Niall: Hopefully they'll give us some free water, but We'll see how that goes. Um, I mean, it's not just Heart of Darkness. I give them shit for it, but I don't even think you get free water

here. I'm not sure. 

Seven Bridges

Niall: Uh, then we're going to go to, we're going to go to Seven Bridges on Hai Bai Trunk. 

Final Stop: Malt

Niall: And then we're going to finish [00:07:00] at Malt. That is the plan. 

Hearing from the Ladies

Niall: And But as I mentioned, we have a lot of builds here today, but I want to hear from the ladies. So we have two ladies with us right now. 

Thao's Experience

Niall: We have Adri and Thao.

So I'm going to pass it over to these two.

What 

Adrie: Thao, what did you think about the fries that you had? the loaded fries. The food is so good 

Thao: and the beers is also so tasty. The people here is So, friendly, so interesting to talk with everyone. 

Adrie: Tell us about when you arrived.

Bullying into Beer

Adrie: You were bullied into drinking. 

2 Sequence: comment when I posted like a 

Adrie: What I drank? 

2 Sequence: It was like, this 

Adrie: yeah.

you were bullied into drinking a beer, because you were drinking coffee before. 

Thao: I'm so Vietnamese, to be honest. So when I come here, I order coffee, and the people like, uh, were teasing at me, so I ordered a 

beer. So they say The

book brawl started. 

Adrie: Those people were, uh, Misha and Alex. I presume. 

Thao: Yeah, 

Adrie: And did, did Jack also bully You or was it mainly Misha? All of them. Oh, 

all of them. Okay. All of course, they all bullied her 

into, into ordering a beer. 

Thao: [00:08:00] What beer did you have? 

Raspberry Beer

Thao: This is like a raspberry beer. Yeah. This is not very strong. it's

suitable for woman. Would you order it again? 

2 Sequence: then the same thing 

Thao: I think I'm gonna order again. 

2 Sequence: uh, what they tell you, Ambulance 

Thao: And what do you think 

Exploring Thanh My Loi

Thao: about this area? This area is So, interesting. It's very greenery, and it has a river. It's very windy and very cool. and it's just like very vibrant. Lots of businesses around. 

Recommending the Area

Adrie: Would you recommend people that, live far away from Tan My Loi to come visit us more often? I think they should.

They should move 

Thao: here, to be honest. It's a very good place. This is so good place to. move to. This place 

is a foreigner, I think. Yeah, you should move here. I think this is a little bit far away from the center, but this is so good to stay here. 

Adrie: you don't have to move, you can just come visit us. come out here, have some fries and beers. We try to tell our friends to come 

to Tan My Loi more often, but they're like so far away. It's not really far, right? And it's worth the effort, [00:09:00] I think Take it from Tao because she's a, tour guide. 

2 Sequence: a 

Thao: should come here to visit. Also, uh, to hang out around. This is also a very good area. It takes around only 15 minutes to get here. Yeah, so I'm gonna come back. I think. 

Adrie: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. We'll make it the new Tha Dien. You don't have to go to Tha Dien where it's too busy with people. 

Thao: No need Tha 

Adrie: Dien, no need An Phu no need District 7. Just need Thanh My Loi. You heard it. here first 

Moving to the Next Place

Thao: We're gonna go to the next place.

Yeah, and we're gonna show you more, Dien. B is also, uh, the experiences of that place. 

Niall: All right, we're getting the bills here.

We're moving on. We're going to be doing, I'm on drink number two. I've got Seamus with me here from Seven Bridges, which was one of my recommended bars. 

Seven Bridges Brewing Company

Niall: Started out in Da Nang and it's called Seven Bridges. You can explain the name and the background of Seven Bridges and how it

got to Saigon.

Seamus: Seven Bridges Brewing Company.

Naming Seven Bridges

Seamus: Uh, the name came [00:10:00] from one. of our investors, who was making a presentation to Da Nang 

said, oh, blah, blah, blah, Uh, Da Nang, the home of Seven Bridges, or founder, CEO, kind of

looked up and went, That's not right. There's more than seven bridges in Da Nang. However, it's a great name for a company. 

And, uh, yeah, that's, uh, that's how the name of Seven Bridges, uh,

2 Sequence: Uh,

Seamus: happen.

Uh, in terms of, uh, how 

we,

2 Sequence: Uh, 

Expanding Locations

Seamus: Um, we opened in Tap Room in Da Nang in 2017 2019, we opened a location in Hanoi. Uh, 2020, we opened in An Bang and Hoi An, which is no longer there. And then in 21, we opened our first location in Le Tan Ton, uh, 

Just as the fourth wave of COVID broke out, so, instead of opening in July, uh, we opened in December.

Uh, we've had [00:11:00] that since. We had that for about coming up to two years And then we opened up our second location, which is on, uh, dong Zoo in uh, Saigon. so about a couple of hundred meters from where we currently are. And yeah, that's it. 

Niall: Now you can tell You speak Northern

Vietnamese?

Learning Vietnamese

Niall: 'cause you said Dong Zoo and I would call it Donu. 

Seamus: Uh, I used to live in Wang Bin Province for seven years where I've learned My Vietnamese. So I speak a very. 

2 Sequence: on, 

Seamus: Terrible dialect of Hue Vietnamese that, uh, very few Vietnamese can understand. However, the, same bunch of foreigners that speak this terrible dialect of Vietnamese that? I speak understand me perfectly. 

2 Sequence: your How 

Seamus: Now I love, how many

bridges are 

there in Da Nang?

2 Sequence: It's 

Seamus: Major bridges? 

2 Sequence: literally yeah. 

Seamus: Eleven, maybe twelve. 

Niall: So

I didn't realize this. Seven Bridges, I thought called Seven Bridges, because of Seven Bridges

in Da Nang. There's actually like a living. 

Seven Million Bikes

Niall: Well, and then yeah, we have, and then our name is Seven Million Bikes. Which I've been telling [00:12:00] people for years. I read this article where there was 7. 4 million motorbikes at the time and 

then I found it. Well, it 

was 7.

3 million at the time, so I was a little bit

off.

but the thing from the beginning people said to me was, oh, what happens when there's 8 million bikes?

Are you going to change the name? And I was like, no, the 

name,

like is 

set. It's not going to change every year.

Jack: A tribe called Quest had a, uh,

uh, song,

8 Million Stories, about, uh, 8 million stories of people that lived in New York City. And then New York City got bigger and kind of evolved to like 9 million people. And, uh, but they, they're not gonna, they're not gonna change that.

it's 8 million stories, that's how it is, it's like, yeah. 

Niall: And you're not gonna rebrand to eleven in Bridges, are

you? 

Seamus: Uh, No, 

the name will 

stick, Seven

is a lucky number in Vietnamese culture as well. Um, things will change, things will evolve. the name the name stays the

same. 

Paying the Bills

Niall: Alright, we're going to pay our bills here, we're

Moving to the Second Location

Niall: going to move on to our second 

location. We will see you soon. 

Cheers!

Niall: Cheers!

2 Sequence: soon. 

Thao: Biscuits! What is [00:13:00] in your 

bag? 

Adrie: Most importantly, she has snacks. Okay, we should give her one. That would be mean not to. She

has a collar for later when her backpack gets too heavy. She's got a poo bag 

for 

when she does 

Niall: Number Number 

Adrie: two,

And 

the other thing that's 

not currently in the bag, but it's on the floor is a water bowl,

so that She can get water at each of the bar. stops. So I told her today, if

she's gonna be the mascot,

she's gotta bring all her own things. She needs to be self sufficient.

And she said,

okay, mom.

I'm coming. And if you go back to season 

one, you'll hear 

this one snoring 

in the 

background. 

Niall: We are in our second bar out of seven today. We are in Mixtape Drinks. I know there's no head on this, it's because it's been sitting out for a while. I haven't had a drink yet. This is the Peaches and Cream, which is my favorite. It's an IPA.

are in Aircon

now, so [00:14:00] it's a bit cooler. We're surviving. Tao, how are you doing? 

Thao: I'm doing well. It's all good. 

Niall: Tao, uh, she said she's doing well, but she's not doing that well because she forgot her iPad in the last bar and we had to bring it with us. 

Thao: You see, I just brought it.

Adrie: I just brought

Niall: She's not even drinking and she forgot her iPad, so I'm scared to think what will happen when she starts drinking.

we've got a new member with the group now and Tao looked at him and he probably, cause he looks like every other white guy, cause I've realized all white guys look the same and she's like, he's new, right? And she's like, yeah, yeah, he's new. So Ollie, welcome. Ollie. Oli. Oli.

Oli.

Hello.

Welcome to the, the pub crawl. Thank you for joining us and Chad as well, owner here at Mixtape. 

Mischa: So, Niall, the only problem with, uh, some of the people that we've invited today is that, the last stop, our good friend Alex Tucker is very, uh, camera shy. And, I've been asking Oli to do a beer review for the [00:15:00] last

last 12

years, and, uh, he refuses every time. So, I don't know if we're gonna get anything out of him for the podcast.

but yeah, you, you set it up. We're at stop number two. Mixtape Brewing, District One, Saigon. founder, owner, operator Chad Mitchell has joined. Uh, we've all got mixtape beers except for me. I've got, the Misha, which is a chocolate If a bar names a drink after you, I feel it's incumbent upon you to try it when you get to the bar. Cheers, guys. Mop Hai Ba? Hai Ba? Hai Ba? Hey Oli, do you wanna, do you wanna jump on the podcast, say hello, plug your shit?

It's a hard no?

So, basically the premise is that, uh, we're Niall's favorite craft beer bars in Saigon. He did a pod about the bars. And now we're doing a follow up pod, actually visiting all the bars in one day. We're going to get to all them. Don't worry. Um, we believe in ourselves. Some people are coming for [00:16:00] one stop.

Some people are going to be on board for all seven. Uh, and if you're really lucky, I've got a surprise eighth stop planned.

be a 

Niall: huge stop. I

Mischa: I haven't told anyone about it yet. 

Niall: So, we're in the second bar still still in Mixtape Drinks, I'm here with Tao. so I make a I make a podcast called Vietnam is Awesome as well, I work with Vietnam is

Awesome team and Tao now works with them as well.

so where did we meet? last week? and What 

did We do

Thao: Three weeks ago, we met in Chinatown. It's like in the Chinese.

market. We discovered the places and the temples, also tried the Chinese food. Yeah, it was a great time together. and 

Niall: What is it that You do generally? You work together? You have your own 

business here. 

Thao: Yeah, I have a travel agent in Saigon.

This is around, uh, Two years

old, but Before

that, 

I still worked in the tourism before. This is totally around nine years in tourism. 

Niall: Nice. [00:17:00] And I don't think you know this yet, but I'm going to have you on as a guest on Season 11.

We're in, we're doing Season 10 right now, which is incredible. We started in 2019,

Just in my front room

with Biscuit. And now we have a studio and we record wherever we are with all this equipment that we have, which is pretty cool, but I'm definitely going to have you on in season 11. But I have an important question to ask you right now. What does it feel like 

to be surrounded by so many white guys with beards? 

Thao: a 

little bit, um, interesting, because this is like the first time, uh, having beards with lots of white people. of people. And and this is like the first time It's very different from the Vietnamese cultures, for us we drink lots of beers for, at the same time, for example, one hour we drink about 10 beers, but in your culture it's like, one hour, you drink only one beer and then you chit chat, it's so different. 

Niall: be so different. So, So, you know, been here obviously quite a while, and I've been asked a few times by vietnamese guys, they say, Oh, so how many beers can [00:18:00] you drink? And I always got confused by that question. I'd be like, because I never really count that much, you know? And like you said, we would go to a festival, or we'd do a pub crawl,

where you drink like, all day. So I'd be like, I don't know, like, like 10 of you? And they'd be like, And they'd be like, oh my god, 10 beers? so many, and I'd be like, is that a lot? But I didn't realize, even until recently, that when they're asking how many beers can you drink, they mean within like one or two hours, right? They don't mean like, how many do you drink in 12 hours, because Vietnamese culture is so different. Whereas we Like, so when I spoke to Thao last week, and I said, I'll come to this pub crawl that we're doing, based on the podcast, and blah, blah, blah, and she's like, your culture is so different, to ours because we would never do it. And it would be very, Unusual for a Vietnamese person to be like, let's go to all these Niall bars. We're going to have one beer in every Niall bar. and go down the whole of Wangsa and try and get from one end of Wangsa to the other.

Whereas in the British culture or Western culture, we're like, let's try and drink as much as we can over a day. distance, [00:19:00] and we've got to keep moving and we've got to do it in different places. so how's the experience going so far? 

Thao: I really like the idea now, which is, um, Because, um, I heard a lot from Scottish guests, Our Scottish guests, told us about, um, Bobcrawl in their culture. This is like the whole street and they gonna move from this bar to another bar. But in Vietnam, it's like the streets are very far away and the bar is quite far away. So we need to move to this place or another

place. another place, like, let's see. It's It's quite a, it's quite a very cool idea to do

this. 

Niall: Yeah. Well, so 

we're going to finish up our drinks here at Mixtapes and we're going to move on to bar number three, which is Brick and Barrel. So we'll check in with you there. Thank you very much, Tao. 

Thao: Thank you for having us. Great. We've kind of lost some people, gained some people. We've picked up a Lopez sister. We got another Lopez sister, my wife, right behind the camera. Thank you very much, Adri, for doing the [00:20:00] camera. And then I got Chad Mitchell with me. We've lost Misha right now, but We've lost Tao somewhere. We've still got Seamus is here.

Niall: Jack's somewhere. They're all gonna show up. Don't worry We're gonna pick up more and we're gonna and Ollie's here as well. Obviously what so we're in stop number only number three We're at Brick and Barrel. And thanks to Ollie. We have I have the Steelsman Dark Horse, which is a brown ale Which um, you don't really get many brown ales in Vietnam at all and I only know about this beer because we interviewed Wayne You on Beer Stories with Misha back in the day.

So I'm quite excited for the Brown Ale. And then what do you have? 

Chad: Uh, Overmorrow Sunset from Hanoi.

because they're on the microphone. And

Ale with Grisette. 

Niall: What is it? I mean, so I like my craft beer, but I've talked about this with Misha before. I have my craft beer. What did I say to him? I'm a craft beer fan, but not a craft beer snob, so I don't actually know what, what is, what is a farmhouse ale mean?

Chad: Uh, it's an older style of ale from Belgium, or France, Belgium, whatever region. Um, [00:21:00] it's just a seasonal, like a saison, but the farmhouse is like using traditional local ingredients. So it's got, um, peppercorn in this one, uh, and it's, uh, just like a farmhouse, but using Belgian, Belgian yeast. 

Niall: It's 5%, it's a saison, not normally stronger than 5%.

Means 5. 

Chad: 5%. 5%. Nice and light. Easy. And by the way, this is a French strain of yeast, by the way. You know, close enough to Belgium, but yes. It's a what? French strain of yeast. 

Niall: Again, a beer fan, not a beer snob. What the fuck does a French strain of yeast mean? 

Chad: The yeast originated in France. 

Niall: There you go. The yeast originated in France.

Well, cheers. 

Chad: I'm not a beer snob, but I'm also a beer fan. And I'm kind of leaning more towards the beer fan these days. And just enjoying it again. You know? Cheers. 

Niall: That is delicious. That, this reminds me of Australia. This taste of Australia to me. Because I think Coopers have a brown ale. 

Chad: Yeah, Coopers does I think too.

And um, Lots of brown owls, like back in like the late 90s and stuff, I think there's a lot of brown owls in the craft beer scene. Especially in the beginning. Sorry, my [00:22:00] voice is a little gone today because I've been talking so much lately. Me, I know I talk a lot, but I've been talking especially a lot.

Niall: Don't worry, it sounds sexy. So, the question I have for you, so we were in Mixtape, we didn't get a chance to talk because you were at the other end of the table. Um, Mixtape, by the name, is obviously based on music. Tell us a little bit, I mentioned it on my, when I did my review of my podcast. Seven Favorite Craft Beer Places, talked about mixtape, and I think, so I'm like a really bad podcaster, I think even on the podcast, I was like, I really should review this stuff before, but I don't really, like, have time or the energy to actually review stuff, or like, re, not review, sorry, research stuff before I do a podcast, and I just kind of talk off the top of my head, and sometimes I talk absolute nonsense, and it's normally Adrie, my beautiful wife there, who then listens to it and goes, you were talking absolute rubbish, most people don't know I'm talking rubbish, but she knows I'm talking rubbish, she's like, that, that didn't happen that way, This didn't happen.

We didn't do that, but nobody, nobody else knows that, knows that. But going back to my point, talking about mixtape, obviously very based on music, which I love, um, in [00:23:00] terms of the titles and even the strength of the alcohol. So you have the new one, which is a hazy drink. And I think it's like 6. 777. So tell us a little bit about where you get the names from the style, the percentages of the beer.

How does that all tie in? 

Chad: Well. I grew up in Northern California, uh, in a town called Santa Rosa, where Russian river got started, which is like one of the world's most famous breweries now. Um, and I was really, uh, a groupie. I hung out with a lot of, you know, friends, bands. I pretended I was in the scene, you know, pretended to play a guitar and just, you know, look the part, total poser.

But, uh, we always would go to like craft beer bars, like Lagunitas as well. Um, and they would always like, kind of like, it was always very intertwined for me cause I didn't really like beer at all, but we'd always go to craft breweries because they would support the local music scene.

Adrie: So 

Chad: it just

things are very close to my heart, you know, and I care more about music.

I used to write for, uh, music, uh, events and stuff in San Francisco. And so, like, it was like, okay, I love music, but I'm kind of a groupie. I love, I, I love craft beer, but I'm also [00:24:00] kind of a groupie. Like, I learned how to become a brewer. I'm a decent brewer. But, you know, still not my, like, my background's in tech, actually, for work.

So, anyways. Put the two together, I was like, you know what, I love both these things so much, and this is like my homage to it. And the best way I can share, like back in the day, you shared your love of music by giving a mixtape to somebody. So that was the goal, you know, like this is my sharing my art, my love of both things.

Um, but yeah, so all the beers, yeah. 

Niall: They're talking about mixtape. So there was a podcast about a year ago that did a limited release of their podcast only on a mixtape and it kind of blew up. It went viral. It was like this really cool thing that they did only for like a select group of fans. They only made a hundred mixtapes.

The only way you could listen to that episode was, and I wouldn't even know how you would play a cassette these days. 

Chad: Well, that's the weird thing about uh, last Six, seven years ago I went home to the States and everybody I knew was getting cassette decks and putting them in their cars again and I'm like, why?

Because they're on the music scene, because all the bands now, like, you go to [00:25:00] their show and they're like, this album can only be listened to on cassette. And they would release it only on cassette. It became a really trendy thing and it's actually still continuing to grow very extremely. Totally Northern California.

Um, yeah, so, anyways, but, uh, with mixtape is like,

um,

Also, like, the cassettes are getting popular. Everyone asked me when I launched here, they said, Is anyone going to know what a mixtape is? And I said, Does it matter?

Like, it's just a brand name, but also, if they do know, that would be even cooler. Oh, Misha's arrived. Guess 

Niall: who's back? 

Chad: Oh, don't sing Backstreet Boys to Misha, please. 

Mischa: so, uh, here we are, I think we've already set the stage. This is stop three. On the pub crawl, we're at Brick and Barrel, uh, 171 Calumet Street. Uh, we're upstairs in the back room. Uh, by the time you hear this, Brick and Barrel might not exist anymore at this location. They're, they're looking for a new one.

Which makes me a little, uh, sad. Nostalgia is my [00:26:00] second worst vice after, uh, alcoholism. Um, and I, I've got a lot of good memories of this place. I'm gonna miss it. Uh, I'm sad to see it go. Uh, but here we are. This is a proper, uh, craft beer bar. They do awesome burgers, pizzas, chicken wings. Uh, good craft beer selection.

Not as many as they used to. They cut out some of the dead weight. Um, no shade at any big beer company that's, uh, Recently taken over distribution for a local craft beer company that used to be awesome. Uh, none whatsoever. Um, so, uh, it is roll call. We still have most of the same crew, uh, depending on how much gets cut.

Uh, we also have an extra Lopez sister, which we're all really excited about. Uh, and Seamus Goff from Seven Bridges is still here. And this has become a bit of a Seven Bridges stronghold here at Brick and Barrel. I have a roadie that I'm finishing up, and [00:27:00] once I finish that I'm going to get the High Van Hays IPA from Seven Bridges.

I think everyone in the industry who doesn't work at Seven Bridges, that's their favorite Seven Bridges beer. Nice, big, hoppy, hazy beer. Uh, you can't go wrong. Here we

are, Ollie's back behind the bar where he belongs. Felt really weird to have him sitting at a table with us, trying to be a customer. It's not his normal state of being.

be

back on soon. 

Niall: We're now on the, uh, Saigon pt, which is, uh, like buggy. We can, we can, We're now doing a half an hour sight sightseeing tour around Saigon. We're waiting on the others. If they don't hurry up, we're gonna fucking leave without them.

We've We've done three bars. How many drinks have we done? We've done about Probably two each. so we're probably up to about six drinks by now. So this podcast is, podcast is probably going to get interesting.

actually have to work later.[00:28:00] 

I'm on the Seven Bridges.

Thank you, Seamus. I'm on the Seven Bridges Dragon IPA.

Adrie: It's

Niall: It's only 4. 

8, 4. 8 percent, so in my mind it's going to sober me up because it's less than five percent. Anything less than five percent sobers you up.

a buggy 

Adrie: one with an and We have people 

Niall: in here.

Hey 

Adrie: biscuit 

Niall: and a And a biscuit. So that's nine people if you include biscuit. We're about to go on a sightseeing tour around Saigon. 

Adrie: right now?

Niall: Snatch. 

Adrie: Yeah, I know, I was going to say 

Niall: The podcast continues on, Sebastian's driving. 

Adrie: that. wrist, 

strap on.

Niall: You want me to put a strap on? Wow, yeah, 

I heard that, I heard the same thing. Smile!

Jack: Smile!

Adrie: my god. 

Niall: I don't 

smile, it gives me wrinkles, 

 I'm here with Dave Tenen. This is number four out of seven. We are now in Pasteur Street on Lee Tu Trung, which I [00:29:00] get very confused between.

Yeah, yeah, Lee Tan Ton and Lee Tu Trung. And we're right 

Dave: by Ben Tan Market. We're right by Ben Tan Market. It's a great location. 

Niall: And Dave is a craft beer lover. Beer aficionado, I would say. Tell us a bit about yourself, Dave. 

Dave: I like beer.

You sound like Brett Kavanaugh. Oh God. No, no, no. I like beer. I like beer.

That's not the vibe I'm going for. That's not the vibe I'm going for. I've worked in the food and beverage industry for a long time. I used to work at Beercraft. currently I'm helping Pizza4P's, uh, streamline their beverage operations. yeah. Tell us something more sexy 

Niall: than streamline their beverage operations.

Nah, 

Dave: nah, That's the job. That's it. There's nothing sexy about it. but I really enjoy it. trying to help the operation, [00:30:00] uh, the whole, the whole thing, you know? 

Niall: So we're going to seven craft beer bars today that I spoke about on the podcast. I'm going to do another one about more beer bars.

Craft Beer Bars, because I didn't cover them all. So the seven were two guys in, two guys Belgian fries in Tham My Loi, because it's my local. Then we went to Mixtape. Then we went to, uh, Brick and Barrel. Now we're at Pasteur Street. We're then going to do, Heart of Darkness, Seven Bridges, and then we're going to finish at Malt.

What do you think, tell us about craft beer in Saigon? Because I talked about how, for me, we got here eight years ago, and it was just blossoming. And then it kind of, like, grew really quickly and then plateaued and it's not really grown from there. But that's, I don't think it's so different. Like we lived in Wellington in New Zealand and it was really similar.

There was this like massive spike in craft beer bars and then just plateaued and there was not much more. What do you, what, what do you think about craft beer in Saigon or in Vietnam? 

Dave: Um, I mean, I, I was kind of here, uh, right, [00:31:00] right. Not at the very beginning, but, uh, at the beginning of the, the so called boom, I guess.

Um, I, I helped, uh, the beer craft guys start their, their flagship bar. Uh, we started out with 30 taps only and then, and, uh, upgrade only. Well, we upgrade after a few months, we upgraded to 50. Um, and I was in charge, I've helped Mark and Tim do that whole thing. What we've talked about before with Misha, when he 

Niall: was first here, like when he found Heineken on draft, it was a godsend.

It was like, Oh my God.

content, and like,

So you're being like almost, I don't mean this rudely. You're being like dismissive. Like, Oh, we are. 30 or 50 be, but that shows the how incredible the Beal scene is and well, was and is. 

Dave: Yeah. 

Niall: In Saigon and in Vietnam, that you had 30 taps, 

Dave: then went to 50 taps. Yeah. All Vietnam be, and uh, they were, we were having trouble, you know, keep keeping it.

trying to make sure that everyone was, uh, equally represented. Um, it wasn't a problem to [00:32:00] fill the 50 taps, it was a problem to make sure that it was, uh, fairly filled, you know? Um, and that, I, I went from being bar manager there to being the, basically the beverage manager of the whole, the whole restaurant group.

Um, and that's now kind of what I'm doing for Pizza Four P's, but a little bit, uh, more, I mean it's not just about alcohol at Four P's, it's, uh, about the whole, we do a lot of fruit juice, we do, like, our own kombucha, stuff like that. Well, 

Niall: it's something we, we, we do need to do a future episode and talk about Pizza 4 P's cause it's a cool.

It's Japanese pizza in Vietnam. 

Dave: Now worldwide. I don't know if I would be the best person to, to represent the company on that one. Just cause I've only been with them for a little over a year. I could talk about it 

Niall: all by myself cause it's so good. Sure, sure, sure. But, who wants a pizza episode? Adrian says pizza, pizza.

I love it, I love it. I did ask you a question before you arrived. If you could only eat one food for the rest of your life, what would it be? 

Dave: Like, probably Italian food, because that's what I grew up eating. My mom is, [00:33:00] uh, the But 

Niall: one specific food. So for me, it would be pizza. Like breakfast, lunch, dinner, I could eat pizza.

I know it's not the healthiest, but I could eat it all day, every day. One dish, if you could only eat one dish for the rest of your life, what would 

Dave: it be?

That's 

Niall: a

Dave: question. I don't know. If I ate pizza every day for For, I mean, even like when I, when I was working fully in operations at four Ps, I was eating pizza every day and I got sick of it.

Um, I don't know. That's a Does beer count? As a food

of

Niall: you wanted to. If you wanted to. I remember I asked this question, Arie's fault here last year, and everybody was like, I, I asked everyone else if Adrian could only eat one food, what would it be? And most people are like, oh, she'd say salad. She'd say salad.

And then she's like, no, definitely burritos. 

Dave: Burritos would be a good shout 'cause you got your breakfast. Burritos, then you could do like a spicy chicken burrito for lunch and then like you could do a vegetarian burrito. Yeah Yeah, burritos are a really good shout. Actually, you know what? I'd say get back.

I would [00:34:00] not even say burritos. I would say tacos

Niall: Um,

Dave: Because that's funny Fair. That's fair. I, I spent a little bit of time in, in Mexico City and in, uh, Cozumel and, uh, I pretty much, I think I ate tacos like twice a day while, while I was living there. So tacos would probably be my go-to Nice. Alright, sweet.

Alright, Dave, thank you so much 

Niall: Yeah. For being on this special episode of being Vietnam podcast. Thanks for having me to Now little 

Dave: we're, I'm going to the, um, I'm gonna the cocktail fest with Erica. So, and actually I've got a, I've got a call coming in from work, so I've gotta take that. Well, there you go.

Alright, take 

Niall: it easy. Thank you. We're now going to hand over to Misha Smith, I was hanging out with Misha on Monday night. We hang out quite often,

And one of the proudest moments of my life was when I was very, very drunk, and had quite a few

cocktails, and Misha was like, man, you don't

look drunk at all. That, that to me is

one of the proudest moments of my life. 

Mischa: Yeah,

you mentioned how drunk you were, and I, I honestly

said to you that you seemed like you were, you were holding it together [00:35:00] pretty well. You didn't, you didn't come off as,

Niall: in, but it's, you know, honestly, 

Mischa: like, crazy drunk, for sure. Like, I mean, you'd obviously, had a few drinks. Uh, the only thing that tipped you off about how How often you interrupted me in the flow of the conversation. But other than that, like, you weren't like slurring your words.

We Were having a conversation

It was fine. 

Niall: I'm a pretty good drunk, but we'll test that tonight, though, because, uh, we're only on stop four of seven.

What's been your favorite beer so far on our Ho Chi Minh beer crawl? 

Mischa: We're here at my old stomping grounds, uh, Pasteur Street Brewing Company, uh, Littu Trong, and, uh, I'm having a Pomelo IPA, and that was always my favorite beer when I worked at Pasteur Street, and it's still one of my favorite beers, uh, in Vietnam, and in my life. Uh, not Jasmine IPA, cause 

Niall: Pomelo's Probably my favorite, I've told you before. But I always thought Jasmine was like your 

Mischa: No, the Jasmine was the workhorse,

that's the one that.

uh, that was by far our best selling [00:36:00] flagship beer. Uh, but for me personally, uh, the Pomelo IPA was always my favorite. I just, I love the I've had, like, Grapefruit and Pomelo IPAs from other breweries.

Yeah. Just the way the

Niall: You know, like food 

Mischa: the citrus from the Grapefruit, uh, plays with the hops, it's It's it's just Chef's kiss. Well, 

Niall: I've told you this before, I think my favorite Pasto Street beer of all time, which they never make anymore, is the Mango Lager. Oh, not the Mango Lager, the Mango IPA, and why don't they make that?

Uh, mangoes are very expensive. Fuck you, mangoes. Fuck you. Be less expensive. It's expensive, and then I could enjoy your

delicious beer. some of them. There's the,

Mischa: Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, whenever,

uh, whenever we used to make a mango beer, it was like, oh,

this tastes delicious, and then we cost it out, it was like, oh, shit, we have to charge a lot for this just to,

to make any money on it at

all. 

Niall: world, and there's

Mischa: So the, yeah,

I don't, yeah,

yeah, it's, you [00:37:00] know, at the end of the day, at the end of the day, it's a business. It has to make money, it has to make sense, like, everyone wants to innovate and be creative and do different things.

But you can't take a loss on a beer because it's a company and you have bosses and shareholders and, and CFOs.

Shout out to, uh, to Man Tang.

Niall: So much water. Today 

Mischa: And what's, I can't believe we're only at bar number four. What's number five? Uh, next is, uh, down the street, same street, Lee Tu Trum, uh, Heart of Darkness Brewing Company. Alright, we'll see you at Heart of Darkness. And I feel, I, I, I feel like that's, uh, that's kinda like, like four, we still like, we're only just over half done, but I feel like once we bank five, then it's, it's kind of a no brainer to like, only two more after that, we got it. So yeah, the next one

is is, 

Niall: to be a race that's not

Mischa: the key is not the right, it's, Heart of Darkness is the

hinge of this pub crawl. And once we, once we [00:38:00] pass through the

hinge, then it's kind of smooth sailing from there on

out. 

Niall: me in my

Mischa: In my professional personal opinion. 

Niall: I'm looking forward to getting to Malt. It's one of my favorite bars as I talked about on the original podcast.

It's the OG craft beer bar for me. 

Mischa: Yeah. So let's

talk about that

more when we get there.

But 

Niall: when we get 

Mischa: obviously.

uh, yeah. Malt was, was one of my, it still is one of my favorite bars. I don't go nearly as often as I used to. Um, When I used to fly back into, uh, Saigon, I used to go from the airport straight to Malta.

And it was like, you always go back to the one you love, like, you know,

Niall: like,

Mischa: home sweet home. Like, there's a lot of reasons I love that bar. Let's, let's, uh, let's save that for later. For when we get there and, and really dig into that. 'cause it, it's, it's a special place in Saigon

and I, it.

I'm, I am kind of sad that I don't go there as often as I used to, but obviously that's, that's my own choice.

Niall: I

was there last year for the birthday party, which I think I said on the podcast, I thought was the 10th birthday [00:39:00] party, but I may be wrong 'cause you think it's not been open

for 10 years. Maybe it was their eighth birthday party, but I, I,

I know I was there for their birthday party. AJ was busy that night, so I was by myself and I got chatting to these two tourists who were from Switzerland.

And it just was the best experience because they were loving it and they didn't know anything about it. And I was like, Oh yeah, no, this place has been here for so long, has so many different beers from all over Vietnam. Like this is a cool place and it was cool to be able to chat to tourists about it as well.

Mischa: Yeah. So again, we can talk about it more when we get there, but they were like kind of pioneers of, uh, being a craft beer bar that didn't make their own beers. Like they, uh, they opened. to serve Vietnamese craft beers from other breweries and just be a bar and, uh

Niall: Alright,

So, let's finish our free water, because it's free water here at Pasteur, which, as it should be at every single bar that sells alcohol, you should have free water.

Uh, and then we're going to finish our beers, and then we're going to head off to Heart of Darkness? Sounds pretty good. Alright, let's go.

[00:40:00] off to Knock

Mischa: to sign off here in the immortal words of Tom Brady, let's fucking go. 

Niall: we are at bar number 5. We are in the thick of it. As Misha said, we are at the Hinge Bar. We are number 5, the heart of darkness. If we can survive this bar, we can survive anything. 

Anything. Now I did criticize this bar on my podcast because they didn't give free water and our good friend Seamus here has pushed back and asked for some glasses of water.

The initial feedback, the initial request back was Uh, we, we sell bottles of water, but then Seamus

very politely said to them, Oh, we were here.

the other day, and we've just shown up. So they do give free glasses of water. So I have to take back everything I said about Heart of Darkness.

they do give free water.

It looks very small. But it's free and that is responsible. So I take back what I said. I was very harsh. I said it was immoral, [00:41:00] which it is immoral if you don't give free

water, but they do give water. So that is amazing. So cheers everybody. And we are at that stage of the night where we need water. Mok Hai Ba Yo. That was the lamest Mok Hai Ba Yo. Uh, I'm on the, AJ, what am I on? The Some Sorcerer hazy IPA. No. Oh, the hazy. IPA

Misha, you're gonna tell us what you're on, pass it around. What's everyone drinking right now?

Mischa: so I went with, uh, one of the newer modern classics from, uh, HOD.

the

not

the dream alone Pale Ale, but the dream Sensations Hazy Pale Ale. Very

good beer. Nice Hazy pale ale. Super hoppy.

Can't go wrong if you're a craft beer nerd.

not much, not much else to say about

that.

I just crushed a couple of sliders as well.

They were both very good. Shoutout to Michael Rose in the kitchen. 

Seamus: I am consuming [00:42:00] the pink pajamas, strawberry, and, fuquac pepper sour.

Niall: Me too.

Seamus: Cheers. Very different 

colors. Very, very different colors. 

Background: Can 

Seamus: I borrow your glass? 

That's definitely not a soup. Mine 

Background: tastes 

like a sour. I don't know about yours. Yeah, I 

Olli: like 

Niall: a sour. I don't know about yours. 

Seamus: think I might have to go back and check on 

this one. 

Niall: on this one. Getting there and um, What is your taste test? 

Seamus: Remember if you come to Heart of Darkness to politely ask the staff for free water.

Politely. 

Mischa: a sour beer. That's a beer that's got a bit 

Seamus: drinking pink pajamas. 

Niall: are you

Olli: drinking? Uh, I'm drinking the Riva IPA. It's quite smooth, quite [00:43:00] nice. Little bit hoppy, could be better, could be worse.

That's all I have to say.

Background: Oh, hello. Hello, baby. 

Olli: waiting. There 

Background: There you go. back to Niall. 

Olli: Niall.

Niall: So, I take back everything I said about Heart of Darkness. They've given us free water. One of the things I mentioned about was the price.

It is a little bit more expensive. One of the beers, I think, not all of them, but they vary in price. One of the beers I saw was 175, 000 dong for a pint,

which in Saigon is quite

expensive. I just did the math. It works out to about 11 Australian dollars for a pint, which when I was in Australia recently,

you'd expect to pay about 14 dollars a pint.

So it's still cheaper. So It's expensive for Saigon, but I do it. I think that Heart of Darkness is probably the best beer in Saigon. broad.

But that would be controversial. Uh, It's a cool place to hang out. It's dark. I don't know if everyone likes that. What do you guys

think of like the, the,

the aesthetic? of the [00:44:00] place?

Like, I think it's cool, and It's dark, and it's dingy, but it's not something I would come back to.

often. 

Mischa: Dingy's, uh, negative 

Niall: Not dingy.

sorry. not dingy. Dark. Dark is what I meant. 

Mischa: Yeah, 

it's called Heart of 

Darkness. 

It's, it's, I think it's on Brent. But I think 

Olli: it's everything, like, around afternoon, like, it's always like that dusk area where it's like, it's, like, it's even too bright or too dark, Like, it's like, then find the dimmer switch, and then, oh, it's nice now. One of those, you know?

Mischa: Yeah, were at uh, at the, uh, at the cocktail festival last night. I felt like suddenly the, the lights got a lot brighter. After they closed them, like, I know this move, they want us all to leave. Get out! oh, I know this move. And wasn't

like

it was a cocktail festival, so it wasn't like it wasn't dark throughout. but it,

I did notice at some point it's like, Oh, it's a lot brighter now, and everything's closing down, and they want us to get the Fuck out of [00:45:00] here. So yeah, no, I mean that's, that's, that's, that's a bar move

like

Niall: And so Heart of Darkness has been here,

we, I've been here eight years, I think it's been here about six years, is that right?

Five, six

years? Anyone? How long has Heart of Darkness been here? Harsher Darkness. May, November, 2016.

So eight years?

Uh, seven and a half.

Yeah. Shit, all right, so maybe been here nearly eight years since we got here. It's definitely one of my favorite bars. It's a cool place. Uh, it's definitely tourist prices, I think.

I think we have to do the, like, comparison 

Olli: like, comparison 

as well, like, it's like, is it too pricey, it's like, is it, is it 3. 30 mils, is it 70? like is it pint sizes? 5. 80 mils, like, actual size of the pint and the price of the beer. Like, that's what's missing with most of

the places. 

Niall: So,

I, I'm showing myself up here to be someone who's cheap, and Scottish, and [00:46:00] an alcoholic, but I do that, maths, like, I'll be like, okay, how much is it per hundred mil or per five hundred mil, whatever, it is, Because it can be confusing, because every bar has like different Sizes and

different

prices.

So sometimes you'll be like, Oh, that's, that's quite cheap. Or you'll be like, Oh, that's quite expensive, But then you do it by size and you'll be like,

Oh, you know that that's quite reasonable.

So,

uh, as I just met, you didn't hear me. I was just saying how I'd compared it to Australian prices. It's definitely cheaper than Australian prices.

And I was just talking to John, the owner of

Heart of Darkness, just this

week, and We always forget how much goes to

tax. And he was explaining to me how much of just

one beer is consumed by tax and you're like, wait, what? And I'm sure all you guys who work in the craft beer industry are

like, yeah, what the fuck?

Like it's like 30, 40 percent of what us consumers pay at the bar.

That's going towards government pockets, which I'm not going to get [00:47:00] into that, but, You know, Not all uh, it's just a fact of

life. So, we're at Bar 5. This is the Hinge Bar, as

Misha says. We got two more to go. bar 5. We're not at bar 5. We're not at bar 5. 5. 

Olli: 150 

Niall: free flow.

We're at

So it's just been pointed out to me, we are not at Bar 5, because that is a very specific type of bar in Saigon, which has a hundred and

Background: 150K for 

Niall: free flow. 150K free flow. So 150K is how much in, it's basically 10 Aussie dollars, it's 6 US dollars, and it's free flow for about 8 hours. And when I did a YouTube video recently, I, I was going through Pasteur Street and I said that there was some girly bars and YouTube translated it as gully balls.

So we now call them gully balls [00:48:00] and, uh, you can definitely get much cheaper. So it's not, we're not in bar five, but we're in bar number five. We're going to have a drink here, maybe have some food, and then we're going to move on to bar

six, which is, shame it says, Win

Seven

Bridges. Say it in a Scottish accent, everybody.

Seven Bridges!

Mischa: Seven Bridges! 

 we are at bar number six, which is seven Bridges. we've ordered some chicken wings, we've ordered some beer, uh, and I'm gonna, we're gonna introduce, we're not introduced, that's a stupid thing to say, because he's been introduced since the beginning, but we're gonna talk to Seamus.

Niall: so Seamus, tell us a bit about Seven Bridges. Why is Seven Bridges on this list?

Seamus: This was thought up of a couple of weeks ago. It was trying to find out, kind of, what would make a little bit more sense in terms of walking. Because, uh, the next street down is Malt. So rather than go to there and then backtrack up, it would say [00:49:00] here, uh, this is our second location in Saigon. Uh, we have 40 taps here.

Uh, this can vary. Four zero, yeah, 40. Um, One of the things I always want to try and promote is not just our beers, but it's to promote like craft as a whole within Vietnam, um, so we have, we have our core range beers, uh, we have our seasonal beers, we have, uh, three different wines on tap, a red, a white, and a rosé.

And we have a variety of guest beers from literally just off the top of my head. Belgo, Bizan, Origins, Fuzzy Logic, East West, HOD, Mixtape, Mekong, Bearhops, Tete, Wildside, Rooster. Like for me, I always want to try and give choice and variety to people [00:50:00] when they come in, so. That's important. Um, at the end of the day, I find our respective partners will choose where we go to in the evening.

So rather than having somebody sat there not happy with the options that they have for us, it's to try and have as much as possible. Cocktails, mocktails. I, I don't look at us anymore as a craft beer business. I look at us as an F& B business. A lot of people will come in, not actually have any of our drinks, but eat our food, have a drink from somebody else.

And I'm happy about that. It, it helps. It's a challenging industry. it's trying, it's trying to think outside the box when it comes to this. 

Niall: What's your favorite deal that, you know, uh, Seven Millions 

Seamus: do? I quite like, uh, I quite like Mekong's, um, Bengal Ambush, uh, their blonde. there's some fantastic beers from within Vietnam to try and, to try and limit it down. Like, uh, as we talked about earlier, people [00:51:00] talk about Seven Bridges, Hai Van Haze. It's a fantastic beer. however, I think, uh, People become creatures of habit, or they're influenced by what others will say, and they'll choose that.

Whereas, for myself now, I, I don't offer, order off our core menu as much as what I used to. I want to try seasonal, so I want to try other things.

to this, Belgo Cherry, again, another fantastically, fantastic beer in my opinion. a long list of drinks I enjoy within Vietnam. To try and narrow it down, it's, it's a challenge.

I never want to become a creature of habit with this. In terms of beers that I've had from outside of Vietnam,

I've

I've had great beers from the UK, I've had great beers from Australia, I've had great beers from Ireland.

been a very,

Again, challenging.

 this is, this is a new seasonal that we brewed about three months [00:52:00] ago. Uh, this is Choy Oi. It's a, a nitro Irish stout.

Oi!

So it's, uh,

for a beer.

it looks and resembles a very famous, um, stout from Ireland. Um, I was not trying to be a copy of it. It's, it's our take on it. Um, I actually enjoy this quite a lot. It's a something.

It's, it's easy to drink, even in like the high heat and humidity of Saigon. It's still a, it's still a pleasant beverage.

this, this is our first beer that we've ever produced on Nitro. So it was a, is an experiment for us. Thankfully, it was an experiment that went right.

Niall: It's not heavy, it's really light. 

Seamus: Yeah, it's

Yeah, it's, it's creamy. It's silky. It's something you can enjoy. multiples of them without filling up. No, it's, to be honest with that, it's, like, I drink socially, uh, it's very hard to put, there's some fantastic beers out there, but it's very hard to put away, like, 8 9 percent [00:53:00] beers in this heat. Um, it, it, it's, it has to, it has to be thought out.

Sang, or Brewer, he, himself, Stanley, Dwayne, the trio of them. They've, they just do a fantastic job. I'm, I'm blessed and I'm, um, what's the word? I'm fortunate to be able to have this available.

so do you want to, uh, do you want to tell us about the, uh, the beer that you have?

I'll 

Adrie: Hello. Me again. I have. Lucky money. Uh, I don't remember anything about it. Seamus recommended it and it is delicious.

[00:54:00] 

Adrie: Hello. Welcome to a live broadcast from Malta.

we're here at Live. We're here. This is our seventh pub. We made it. The whole pub crawl. Wahoo! We started at 12. 30 and now it's 8. 30. Seven pubs, eight hours. That's pretty impressive, actually. Honestly, today we started like 30 minutes delayed. So you would think that every pub would be delayed.

And the first place you were at, we were at for two hours, but then we picked up the pace and we made it to 

Niall: [00:55:00] our final destination. No, the destination was 

Adrie: known and it was Malt and we are here and we made it. And so I'm drinking. A beer, can't remember what it was, but it is delish. And it is Heart of Darkness.

And then he's drinking a beer, can't remember what it is, but it's delish. And, oh, Platinum. And Seamus is drinking a Bloody Mary. Bloody Caesar. A Bloody Caesar. A Bloody Caesar. Whatever that is. But, it's delish. So, we're all here, Biscuit's staring at the shuffleboard table. OMG. Steve. Steve. There's very few men left standing.

I'm not a man, and I'm still standing. And, um, I can't remember what else I'm supposed to talk about. So, we lost some people because they decided to go to the craft No, wrong. The Cocktail Festival, which I wanted to go to too, [00:56:00] cause like, cocktail festival sounds delish. Lots of cocktails. But, we're paying homage to craft beer.

So, here we are. Beer. What do you have to say about it? Beer. Lovin Beer is delish. And then, um, it's 8. 30 on Saturday. Woo! Woo! Bye!

It's your turn, Doug.

Niall: So we are at the 7th bar. We've made it all the way to Malt. Uh, I'm pretty drunk. I think Adrie's pretty drunk. She Seamus, not you're not that drunk? Wow, Seamus is not that drunk. Misha has left us for the the cocktail festival, as has Dave Tinnen, and Arika. I think, uh, Jack. I think Jack has left because he was too drunk.[00:57:00] 

We've had an awesome day. These are my seven top bars. We've had so much fun hopping between them all. If you have any questions, let me know. We're going to do another seven bars soon. Thank you so much for watching this. If you do like it, share it, please. It helps so much. And thank you very much for tuning in.

Cheers.