{"id":959691,"date":"2026-07-26T04:18:25","date_gmt":"2026-07-26T04:18:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/959691\/"},"modified":"2026-07-26T04:18:25","modified_gmt":"2026-07-26T04:18:25","slug":"laos-famous-beer-brand-beerlao-makes-a-splash-in-the-midwest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/959691\/","title":{"rendered":"Laos’ famous beer brand Beerlao makes a splash in the Midwest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Stacy Seuamsothabandith, CEO of Laos to Your House, fondly remembers her Lao relatives drinking Beerlao at family gatherings during her childhood in the Quad Cities.<\/p>\n

Beerlao, brewed with Lao jasmine rice and European malt, hops and yeast, is considered the national beer of Laos. It was hard to find in the Chicago area until Laos to Your House recently became Beerlao\u2019s importer in some Midwest states. The food business imports the beer directly from Lao Brewing Co. in Laos. Its first shipment arrived in Illinois in June.<\/p>\n

The rice in Beerlao gives it a smooth finish that goes well with southeast Asian cuisine, Byron Gully, chief operating officer of Laos to Your House, said. Many customers asked the founders to bring Beerlao to Illinois.<\/p>\n

Because of Laos to Your House, Beerlao is now sold more widely in big stores such as select Garfield Beverage Warehouse locations and Sam\u2019s Club in Rockford and Elgin. Starting in September, Sam\u2019s Club will sell the beer in Montgomery, about 40 miles southwest of Chicago, and two locations near Minneapolis in Eagan and White Bear Lake. <\/p>\n

Beerlao has importers on the east and west coasts, but its previous Midwest distributor stopped selling it years ago. But last year, Laos to Your House got limited distribution for Illinois, followed by rights to distribute to big retailers in Illinois, Minnesota, Iowa and Wisconsin. <\/p>\n

Beerlao is also carried by Vietnamese restaurant Saigon Sisters in the West Loop.<\/p>\n

It goes \u201cvery well with our food and I want to introduce it to my diners because it\u2019s so hard to find,\u201d Saigon Sisters owner Mary Nguyen Aregoni said.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Saigon<\/p>\n

Saigon Sisters owner Mary Nguyen Aregoni at her West Loop restaurant.<\/p>\n

Candace Dane Chambers\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Aregoni is ethnically Vietnamese but was born in Laos and lived there until about age seven. Beerlao has sentimental value for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to carry great Asian beers, and I had Beerlao during my travels in Laos with my mom. And it was a backpackers favorite and hard to find in the U.S.,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

And it tastes good. \u201cIt\u2019s like Belgian style and more complex than standard lager beer,\u201d Aregoni said. \u201cIt\u2019s not Bud Light.\u201d<\/p>\n

An 8-ounce bottle costs $6.50 at Saigon Sisters.<\/p>\n

Demand for Beerlao has been strong and Laos to Your House hopes to bring the beer to more big retailers. <\/b>It expects its next shipment \u2014 a container of Beerlao with more than 28,000 bottles \u2014 to arrive in the U.S. in September.<\/p>\n

Laos to Your House is a family-owned food business based at The Hatchery Chicago, an incubator in East Garfield Park. Its ready-made Lao dishes are in 12 Mariano\u2019s in the Chicago area, as well as select Foxtrot and Fresh Market stores.<\/p>\n

Beer fits with the company\u2019s goal to ensure that Laos is no longer the \u201cforgotten\u201d Asian country.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery bottle of Beerlao represents an opportunity not only for someone to enjoy a great beer, but also to start a conversation about Laos,\u201d Seuamsothabandith said. \u201cIf someone picks up a bottle because they\u2019re curious and then learns something about the country, its people or its cuisine, we\u2019ve accomplished something far greater than simply making a sale. That\u2019s exactly what our mission is about.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

Beerlao is brewed with Lao jasmine rice and European malt, hops and yeast.<\/p>\n

Candace Dane Chambers\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n

Laos to Your House launched in 2022, with Seuamsothabandith as CEO and her brother Keo Seuam as executive chef. Their parents were refugees from Laos who immigrated to the U.S. in the late 1970s, due to war in southeast Asia. Gully, Seuamsothabandith\u2019s husband, joined full-time in 2024.<\/p>\n

Fluctuating tariffs last year were a challenge but settled at about 10% for products from Laos. But that could change any time, Gully said. The current tariff will expire near the end of July. It\u2019s unclear what will happen next.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is one of the many things that make it so hard for a small business to take a chance: the uncertainty in the administration\u2019s policies,\u201d Gully said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur supply chain will be longer now and more risky, especially since we are importing directly from Laos. Anything that impacts shipping \u2014 wars, the cost of fuel \u2014 will impact us,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t deter consumers. Beerlao is in Sam\u2019s Club because its customers in Rockford, home to a sizable southeast Asian community, asked the retailer to stock the beer. Sam\u2019s Club started looking for someone to supply it and came across Laos to Your House, which was just starting to import Beerlao.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really the Lao movement that bubbled Beerlao up to the surface. Then through searching, Sam\u2019s Club found us and reached out,\u201d Seuamsothabandith said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeerlao is a great example of how listening to our members helps us deliver authentic finds,\u201d Madelyn Yates, merchant at Sam\u2019s Club, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWho would have thought Beerlao would be in a big box retailer next to Heineken?\u201d Seuamsothabandith said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s another step in Laos to Your House\u2019s mission to elevate Laos, first through food and now through beer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Stacy Seuamsothabandith, CEO of Laos to Your House, fondly remembers her Lao relatives drinking Beerlao at family gatherings…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":959692,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":["post-959691","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-chicago","tag-chicago","tag-il","tag-illinois"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116984355944920456","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959691","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=959691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/959691\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/959692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=959691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=959691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=959691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}