I've had a number of people, who seem reasonably intelligent, tell me that there are fake Vietnamese copies of beer knocking about, specifically fake cans of Angkor of all things. Others on the list include fake Tiger, which might be slightly more plausible. Ganzberg doesn't count as that's definitely fake beer already.
Now I can understand collecting up old bottles of Jack Daniels and sticking industrial ethanol, water and some colouring in it, as you can sell that for actual money, and people stick coke with it, which masks the flavour, but I can't see anyone making a can of fake Angkor beer and getting a profit out of it without having a massive brewery, as it's about 1400 riel a can wholesale. I've had various differences in can printing pointed to as examples of bootlegs, so the fakers are supposedly printing and canning a beer product. With winning ring-pulls.

Has anyone drunk a can of fake beer? Not just a horrible warm can. I have been doing my best to investigate but every can I've had has tasted like Angkor, even ones I've bought off of ethnically Vietnamese people. If someone is making Angkor that tastes of Angkor, and has a canning plant and brewery, surely they can just sell their own beer?

did a bloke down the bar tell you that?

What a load of shit! Haha

It's obviously not Barangs telling me this, the guy next door works for the government and runs a wholesale booze business on the side, and he and his cronies from his department are all insistent this is true, including pointing out the bar codes. This is not the first time this has come up, either.

''works for the government and runs a wholesale booze business on the side,

Interesting.

Fake beer. The US has been selling fake beer for generations. Fake an Angkor & Tiger? As you state. Why?

I can say that I have had my fair share of Angkor beers and cannot recall a single one taste shady. As you pointed: it doesn't make sense economically.

cptrelentless wrote:It's obviously not Barangs telling me this, the guy next door works for the government and runs a wholesale booze business on the side, and he and his cronies from his department are all insistent this is true, including pointing out the bar codes. This is not the first time this has come up, either.

Could be another anti-Vietnamese rumour spread on social media ?
(Bastards are now poisoning our national beer.)

The Thai Chang and Leo bottles (don't see cans in bars so much there)that I presume were brewery rejects, often used to turn up in some of the small bars in Issan I drank at. They could sell a big Leo for less than 50baht. If you looked at the label the batch number was missing with sell by date. I once got an enormous hang over the next day from only 3 bottles. You tell me what reason they were rejected for, wrong SG, too much formaldehyde? But not destroyed, sold off cheap via the back door.
Never heard of that in Cambodia but..

Vaguely related; I once bought a can of fake WD40 in SHV main market. Same can as genuine (even had the 25%free print), smelt like engine oil thinned down with paraffin.
Heard the Viets copy Razor blades, toothpaste, sun block. Brake shoes, pads, DID chains and bearings seem to crop up quite a bit, bad quality, they last fraction of the genuine.

I couldn't get past the been told be people fairly intelligent mark.