Despite being entrants since its inception and proudly displaying their medals on the bottle, none of Cambodia’s breweries entered the 2006 Australian International Beer Awards. Regionally, BGI, Chang Light, Beer Lao and Myanmar Beer all made an effort, with Chang Light receiving a bronze in the International Lager : Other section.
For a full listing of the 2006 winners and losers, read the AIBA catalogue of results. For anyone loosely interested in small breweries, the list of exhibitors at the end is a good wrap up of the rapidly expanding list of microbreweries in Australia.
Cambodia/SE Asian beer in the news: http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=65785
Vutha’s take:
http://www.vuthasurf.com/2006/05/30/life-of-promotion-girl/
I think any change in quality of beer or quality of life for people in the beer industry will have to be driven by people who *like* beer and drink it on a regular basis.
I’m a bit interested that the ACTU has thrown their hat in the ring when they’ve got a non-beer related war to fight at home, not to mention that Preah Karuna Preah Bat Samdech Preah Norodom Sihanouk has recently had his say.