Aussie brewery makes beer with Asia’s smelliest fruit

Durian, the strong odoured tropical fruit in Southeast Asia, has inspired a craft beer in Australia that celebrates the smell of this controversial fruit, which is so pungent it is banned in most hotels, airports and public transport across Southeast Asia.

The fruit’s odour is so strong that it is banned in hotels, airports and public transport in many Southeast Asian countries such as Thailand.

Named ‘Durian Durian Beer’, the brew was unveiled last week at the Great Australasian Beer Spectapular (GABS) in Melbourne by a brewery called Mr Foreigner Brewing Company.

Peter Denison from the brewery believes “durian’s subtly sweet and savoury flavour goes well with the dry spiciness of a saison-style beer,” reported The Straits Times.

Other odd balls included beers made with snails, Skittles, breakfast cereals and ground crickets were also on show at the festival, which encourages experiments.

This is, however, not the first alcoholic drink made from this divisive fruit that has spiky husks but yellow, gooey, custard like flesh. Students in Singapore National University once created a wine made from durian and other tropical fruits such as mango and lychee.

Durian’s popularity in Southeast Asian countries in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore and China has spawned many Durian-flavoured products from lipsticks, ice cream, coffee to even Durian flavoured condoms.

In China, love for Durian, in particular Thailand’s Monthong durian – the most popular variety known as “golden pillow” in Thai – is fervent. On 19 April, 80,000 Monthong durians were snapped up by Chinese consumers within one minute on Alibaba’s Tmall.com after the tech giant signed a deal with Thai government to sell Thailand’s local products on its platform.