> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://easythailandvisa.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Leo Is Thirty-Five Baht and the Good Beer Is Not in a Bottle - URL: https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-beer-singha-leo-chang/ - Published: 2026-08-22T13:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-09T05:38:50.000Z - Description: The cheapest beer in Thailand is not the one in the fridge, it is the one on draught in a plastic bag at a roadside stall, and it is genuinely better than most of what you will be served later. - Author: Somchai Jaidee - Tags: Street Food A roadside stall, a [plastic bag](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-single-use-plastic-bag/) hooked over the side of the container, an orange lager that has been poured fresh and is the temperature of the day rather than of a fridge, and 35 baht for a bag as big as your forearm. This is the best-value drink in Thailand and it is available almost anywhere, and the reason tourists miss it is that they are sitting in a bar being charged 180 baht for something in a bottle. Last verified 5 September 2026. ## The two beers that matter **Singha is the national beer and it is the stronger, more bitter one.** Around 5% [alcohol](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-alcohol-rules-monks-and-the-muslim-south/), properly bitter, with a flavour that survives being cold and does not survive being warm. This is what a Thai person orders and it is what you should order if you want to know what Thai beer tastes like. **Leo is lighter, milder, cheaper, and much more widely available on draught.** Around 3.2% in recent years, which is noticeably lower than it was, and it is a lager in the sense that it is smooth, easy and slightly bland. It is not a bad beer. It is the beer you drink when you are not tasting, and in a hot country that is most of the time. **Chang, and Chang Draft specifically, is the one people in Thailand actually drink most of,** and it is cheap everywhere. Draught Chang in a plastic bag is the cheapest good drink on this list. **Foreign craft and imported beer exist in Chiang Mai and Bangkok** and are good and are four to eight times the price, and it is a completely different evening. ## What it costs **A plastic bag of draught Leo or Chang at a roadside stall: 30 to 40 baht.** **A bottle of Leo at a restaurant: 60 to 90 baht.** **A bottle in a bar: 100 to 180 baht.** **Draught in a bar: 90 to 150 baht, often a good deal for a fresh one.** **An imported or craft beer: 200 to 400 baht.** **And the markup on a bag at a stall versus a bottle in a bar is roughly 400 percent, for a product that is made on the same street from the same water. That is not a complaint, it is just a fact about how alcohol is priced differently from the way it is priced almost everywhere else.** ## **Why the bag, and how it works** **Fresh draught beer in a plastic bag is sold from a polystyrene cooler with a tap, and the bag is filled from a spigot and handed to you tied. It is a genuinely Thai institution and it is the best way to drink a Thai lager.** **It is warm, or at least ambient, and that is deliberate. Thai draught beer is served at cellar temperature rather than ice cold, because it is a light lager and cold flattens it, and because the tradition is built around a warm afternoon. Western lager is served ice cold for the opposite reason. Neither is wrong and the difference is real.** **It is also stronger than you expect, because a 3.2% beer at ambient temperature and at a slow pace over a long evening is a different quantity of alcohol from the same beer cold and quickly. Pace yourself.** ## **The rules, which are not widely known** **There is a national curfew: alcohol cannot be sold between 11:59pm and 2am. This is a real restriction and it applies everywhere, so a** [**7-Eleven**](https://easythailandvisa.com/thailand-7-eleven-convenience-store/) **will not sell you a beer at one in the morning and neither will most restaurants.** **And there are proximity restrictions. Sales are prohibited within 500 metres of a school, and there are restrictions around hospitals, temples and administrative offices. This is why a convenience store near a temple is closed at 8pm while one two streets away is open. It looks arbitrary from outside and it is a mapped exclusion radius.** **Sale to under-20s is prohibited and it is enforced in the serious places and not in the others.** **And you cannot drink and drive, in a country where the road fatality rate is already high. This is not a slogan, it is the reason the taxi exists.** ## **What to order, honestly** **Order a bag of draught Leo or Chang at a roadside stall at least once. It is the best-value thing you will drink and it costs almost nothing, and the experience is unlike anywhere else.** **Order a Singha when you want to taste the country's beer. It is the better beer and it is worth the extra baht once.** **And do not pay 180 baht in a bar for a bottle when the same beer is 80 in a restaurant three streets away. The difference is the room, not the beer, and that is a perfectly good reason to be in the room, but it is not a reason to drink better beer.** **More on this** - [**I Paid 1,500 Baht for an Omelette at a Stall With No Sign**](https://easythailandvisa.com/jay-fai-the-1500-baht-omelette/) - [**Seven Days in Chiang Mai on 300 Baht a Day**](https://easythailandvisa.com/seven-days-chiang-mai-300-baht-a-day/) - [**Thai Fish Sauce Is a Category, Not a Bottle, and Nam Pla O**](https://easythailandvisa.com/thai-seafood-pla-tha-and-fish-sauce/)