OnTap Magazine

A sia. I always come back to Asia. For years I have had a love for the East: the food, the people, the culture. However, the beer has long left a lot to be desired. Don’t get me wrong - the beers I’ve had ain’t bad; they’re just lagers. Smash-them–on- the-beach, light, refreshing, plain old lagers. Lagers, lagers, lagers! Singha, Bintang, Tiger, Saigon – all lagers. It has taken a good few years but the craft beer revolution is at last spreading throughout Asia. Laws are being changed in Indonesia to allow smaller breweries to operate, people are secretly homebrewing in ailand, and Singapore is exploding with American imports and new local breweries. All this makes me very happy, so I set out with my good friend and long-time brewing partner Shawn “Dissident” Duthie and Brad “ at Last Drop” Bergh to brew a beer at the southern tip of Asia: Singapore. QUEUING FOR COCKTAILS If you’ve read any of my other World of Beer articles for On Tap, you’ll know I tend to like places that are hot. Swelteringly hot. Beer just tastes better when the humidity is so high you’re sweating before you’ve even pulled on your pants. And Singapore is hot. Also, as expected, the city is e cient, with subways running on time and tra c constant but never crawling. e city-state is perpetually buzzing and we found that there was something going on – and something to eat – 24 hours a day. Within two hours of arriving, we are ready to sweat our way around the city in search of beer, but rst, a touch of tourism. We set our inner GPS for Ra es, one of the rst hotels in the city and the place where the eponymous Singapore Sling was invented. We queue for the bar with a small crowd of visitors from around the world and order the signature cocktail – a sippable melange of gin, bitters, cherry brandy, grenadine and various fruit juices, though recipes seem to vary considerably. While the price of the cocktail (over R300) is tough on the wallet, it is a must when visiting this part of the world. With our tourist itches scratched, it’s time to discover the beer scene, which in Singapore is sizable and growing quickly. We kick o our tour at Level 33, the highest urban microbrewery in the world, situated – unsurprisingly – on the 33rd story of an o ce tower. How they got the brewery up there I do not know. Alas, the engineering is more impressive than the brews and our rst impression is that Singaporean beer plays it safe – at least in regard to avour. Price- wise the beers are anything but safe and we’re in imminent danger of blowing our entire budget if we buy too many rounds. DIM SUM AND SOURS Fortunately, we had made plans to meet up with two Singaporean beer importers who have been bringing South African staples such as Devil’s Peak and Darling to Singapore for the past few years. ey gave us directions and as we round the corner down a small but bustling alley I see a sign. And it makes me happy; oh so very happy. It reads: “Dim sum and craft beer”. We quickly grab a seat and are introduced to Tim Boey and AshTay, a couple of guys who love beer as much as we do. ey ll us in on Singapore’s beer scene and order some snacks to go with our beers. e amount of double IPAs and sours coming from Singapore and neighbouring countries is amazing, as is the number of collaborations with top breweries. As we travel Singapore’s beer landscape, we are able to purchase beers we can only dream about in South Africa – beers from Cloudwater, Stone, and Mikkeller star in every tap line-up and bottle fridge we see. One standout beer bar was Smith Street Taps, a small (think 3-metre by 3-metre) tap space in a local market with local and international beers on tap. e space is surrounded by food stalls and you’re encouraged to walk around and try as much as you can. is seems to be the meeting place for the craft beer community and we chat to beer writers, brewers and beer lovers, making new friends and sharing great beers. is is a must-visit place set in the heart of Singapore’s Chinatown. Whenever we drink we also eat, as is Asian culture, and by 2am we’re eating again. e food is incredible: bok choy, noodles, even the tofu is tasty. I love the fact that Asian eating is about a shared experience and the portions are kept quite small. I’m not a big eater and rarely nish a plate when travelling through the US or Europe, but in Asia I can continue to snack on amazing, new avours throughout the day, never getting full but never feeling hungry. COLLABORATION EATING After a few hours of sweaty sleep, we are up and ready for our reason to be in Singapore: brew day. We had set up a collaboration with Red Dot Brewery whose owner, Ernest Ng, We are able to purchase beers we can only dream about in South Africa Shawn mashes in at Red Dot The ultimate Asian beer experience American imports do well across the city ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2020 | 43