Adding to their growing product range, Vietnam brewer FURBREW have recently launched HAMR, an 11.5% mead.

Sold in 130ml bottles because of it’s punch comes with a warning “The drink of the Vikings. Mead. Made them go berserk. Beware.”

The ancient beverage, brewed from honey, has long been connected with rampaging Norse warriors so head brewer Thomas Bilgram, himself a Scandinavian, decided to use Viking imagery for his promotional materials.

Describing the drink as ‘dry crisp, winey, rather like a very minerally white wine, or a dry sherry’ Thomas says the HAMR, while a new addition to their range is at the moment intended to be a one-off brew, but adds it could return if popular.

The Hanoi brewery, founded in 2016, has long been known for their wide variety of beers. Their two taprooms in the Vietnamese capitol often sees experimental brews such as Rose Wheat and Black Garlic Barley Wine line up alongside their core range of beers.

This year due to popular demand they also added an alcoholic lemonade to their core range of products over the summer. Uncle Sam’s Hard Lemonade has proved a big hit with their regulars and reflects the growing trend in Vietnam of breweries offering alternative products such as hard seltzers.

Do they have any other new products/projects planned in the pipeline? “The one missing to complete the brewing cycle would be cider” says Thomas “at some point we will add it”. For now, however, they are determined to stick to interesting beers and experimenting with local flavours in their brews.

The market in Hanoi has shown good resilience to this year’s global pandemic. Following two very tough months in April & May when the Vietnamese capitol was placed in a lockdown the market has bounced back with only an estimated 20-30% impact on sales.

Bars and restaurants have seen customers return and businesses are thriving once again following a tumultuous early 2020.