I’d probably also add “line cleaner” as a separate flaw, as well as dimethyl sulphide (it comes out as a “cooked corn” quality) which was combined with two of the other flaws.

My guess with Angkor is that they’re still using the equipment from the 60s – the 90s refurb was just to knock the rust out and dust off the gear. I never made it into the factory to find out.

Brewerkz in Singapore definitely has a line problem. Remarkably, they go through the trouble of getting good ingredients, keeping everything cool, then serve it through tainted lines (three tries, three different trips).

To that end, Angkor’s metallic taste has long flummoxed me. As the fault kit’s info notes, bad/low-quality equipment can impart a metallic taste, but that goes away as the steel tuns are “cured” with use. My point is, I don’t think Angkor has crap equipment. Carlsberg (50% owner) has this odd bit to say of the plant: “The brewery was commissioned by the Cambodian Government in the early 1960s and built by a French contractor with technical assistance from France.” It was refurbished in 1991 re-opened in 1992, just in time for everyone to get good and blurry for the 1993 election farce (end gratuitous political aside).

My unsubstantiated guess is that the flavor is a chemical preservative (no, I don’t think formaldehyde) added to stabilize the beer for the heat as well as clean tap lines that never – ever – see a drop of Beer Line Cleaner.

Last point: the kit should note the skunky smells that come from simple heat and light damage. For years I thought that Heineken was the official beer of Pepe Le Pew.

- Beer-Obsessed Photographer