The food needed beer that had a lot of body and hop aroma, but not as much bitterness as was found in many American craft beers, like IPAs.
(That restaurant has since closed.) “Lao food in particular is very rich, and when I say rich, I mean we use ingredients that are very strong flavors like fish sauce and fermented fish paste,” says Le. He had the same issue at the Thai-Laotian restaurant, Dara Thai Lao Cuisine, that he opened with his wife, Daovone Xayavong, in Berkeley. Le, whose family runs several Anh Hong locations throughout the Bay Area, wanted to pair the restaurant’s Vietnamese food like the Cá Kho Tộ, sweet and salty catfish cooked in a clay pot, with flavorful, full-bodied beer, but there weren’t any Asian examples he could source.
And they were all one-note, light lagers. None of them were made by craft breweries. In the restaurant’s early years, there were only a few choices available: Beer 33, Singha, Kirin, Saigon and Tsingtao. Clara Mokri/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show LessĬustomers at Anh Hong, a Vietnamese restaurant that Michael Le helped his family open in Milpitas in 1999, were always ordering Asian beers. Clara Mokri/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 4 of4Īsian Brothers beers can be found at the Le family’s Anh Hong restaurants in Milpitas, Oakland and San Francisco. Clara Mokri/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 3 of4Įach Asian Brothers Brewing label nods to a different story relating to the lives of Southeast Asian refugees. Michael Le’s brother David with a bottle of Thai IPA at Anh Hong restaurant. Clara Mokri/Special to The Chronicle Show More Show Less 2 of4 Michael Le sits down with Anh Hong diners Brian Pedersen and Jeffrey Vaughn as they discuss the history Asian Brothers Brewing Co.