As of yesterday, the new alcohol bill known as “sura khao na”, or “progressive alcohol”, got through its first phase, making it one step—out of approximately 10 steps—closer to becoming a reality. 

MP Taopiphop Limjittrakorn from the Move Forward Party has been leading this movement for years. You may remember him from five years ago when he, not yet a politician, got busted for brewing craft beer in his own home.

The new alcohol bill will legalize all small batch brewings and allow homebrewing. For example, right now, to open a brewpub—and sell on site only—you’d need to be able to brew a minimum of 100,000 liters and no more than one million liters per year. For breweries—think Singha, Chang, etc.—you’d have to be able to brew a minimum of 10 millions liters per year.

The new bill will unlock these specific rules, even for the breweries able to brew 10 million liters per year.

The new bill regards amendments to the Excise Tax Act of 2017. While this is a small victory for brewers, it does not affect other draconian regulations, specifically Article 32 of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Act which forbids the advertising of alcohol from producers or consumers.