Journey to Breaking My Craft Beer Virginity - 1/3
Ahhh.. Beer.. Nothing comes close to the euphoria when gulping a cold can of beer on a warm afternoon in sunny Singapore. Dating as far back as the 5th Millenium BC in Iran, beer has by far been one of the oldest man produced beverage in the world. Hah! Now that’s a long way to go even for you, Milo Dinosaur!
Needless to say, humans being humans, are very crafty beings. They could never keep still through the time of evolution. That was perhaps the reason why we have survived all these years and stood out to be the “superior” species. And with all this tinkering, came a plethora of ways to produce man’s favourite beverage.
Variations using the same ingredients, under different conditions, brought about a gang of flavours that was unique to beer alone. Fast forward down to the present, and voila! A thriving brewing population has given rise to craft beers all across the world. So unique are their tastes, there are some craft breweries brewing up to 40 different beers in-house! With logistics being far superior than what it used to be, all these beers from all over the world are exported to enter new markets.
Being in Singapore, your choice of poison for a good night out, is rather limited to just alcohol. We are not going to argue with the “we do not need alcohol to have fun” group of people. I am talking to the ones that enjoy alcohol in moderation and just occassionally, get shit faced while doing it group.
As far as alcohol goes, this body has taken its fair share of experience in alcohol-induced nights out. To be honest, my old man always told me one thing,
“Alcohol is a beautiful drink. You gotta appreciate it. You abuse it, and it will tear you apart and show you who’s boss”
I am considered a lightweight-drinker amongst my immediate friends. That is fairly reasonable considering they are mostly made up of indians and sikh community. We have a reputation that precedes us, of being really good drinkers. Somehow, I ended up in the lower spectrum of that group. However, on a macro scale, with a mixed group of regular drinkers, I would say I am on the 70th percentile.
Craft beers came to the shores of Singapore around 2012. Nobody was actually bothered back then about the craft that goes behind making your favourite brew. Considering up till recently, only the big boys like Asia-Pacific Brewery, AB-InBev have had a strong-hold in the relatively high-barrier of entry industry. With industrialisation, we lost much of the interest in the craft of making the beer itself. Now, with the rules of commerce changing, the speed of one product reaching another part of the world, is just a matter of days.
Having heard so much about it, my curiosity tingled and I dived right into the world of Craft Beers. This is my journey…
