Makebeereasy – Singapore's Favourite Beer Blog!

Songkran festival is THE BIG thing in Thailand, much like Chinese New Year in China and Christmas in the US. As such, there is a promotion that allows you to buy one beer to get another free! Tawandang doesn’t have the best of prices for beer but with this promotion, it can be pretty value for money especially when you consider that they actually send their Bangkok based German brewer in on a regular basis to whip up their beers personally.

They have typical German beers. A golden lager, a dark lager as well as a typical Bavarian Weizen. These old school beers are not shabby. The best school is the old school.

They have a great band. I believe they are Thai but they can sing great Thai, English, English and believe it or not Hokkien and Cantonese songs. Hear it to believe it.

For info, visit their website.

Followers of this blog will know that I was pretty pleased with my new fridge and bottling investments. With the proper equipment, I actually wanted to do a bigger beer. Most of my beers has an original gravity of below 1.060 because I wasn’t very confident of making beers with higher gravity than that. Most standard yeast packs won’t contain enough yeast for good fermentation of heavier beers. I would need a yeast starter to increase my yeast population, a hassle I was previously (and currently) unwilling to take.

High gravity beers usually refer to beers that have a original gravity. The number is arbitrary but I will consider > 1.065 to be rather high. High gravity beers are made with extra amount of malt. This needs to be balanced with extra hop bitterness. This is complicated by the fact that hop oils dissolve less well in high gravity wort. More importantly, high gravity wort stresses our yeasty friends and the resultant high alcohol content isn’t friendly either. So more yeast needs to be pitched and these yeasts need to be healthy.

Style: Pilsner / Steam Ale

Grains

250g Carapils

These are put in a grain bag (available from the suppliers), put in the brewpot of water and heated up. The grain bag is swirled from time to time. When the temperature of the water hits ~ 70 degrees, the bag is removed and grains are disposed.

Extract & Sugars

4kg Light dried malt extract

Hop schedule – Boil time of 60min

0 min 20g Saaz

15min 20g Saaz

30min 15g Saaz

59min 5g Saaz

Yeast: Czech Pilsner from Red Dot brewhouse (Thanks Ernest!)

Final volume is 21L

OG is about 1.070

OG is about 1.016

Temperature was maintained at about 14 degrees C for about 3 weeks.

All ingredients were purchased from www.ibrew.com.sg except for the yeast which was a kind gift from Ernest of Red Dot Brewhouse.

This formulation is meant to be a for a Pilsner, a typical lager style. I am not a big fan of lagers and hence decided to introduce a twist to the fermentation. I allowed the fermentation to take place at a higher temperature (typical lagers ferment at closer to 10 degrees C) to allow the beer to develop ale-like characteristics.  Traditionally, the resultant “ale-like lager” is called Steam Beer and this is a style of beer that is not often found. Brewerkz has a nice Steam beer and The Good Beer Company at Chinatown carries the original steam beer from California.

Blogging and Beering, two in one

I am pretty happy with this. I opened a sample after 3 + 2 weeks. My sister commented that it is pretty strong. At > 7% alcohol, it is pretty strong no doubt. This is no light lager and drinkers who like heavier beers will love it. The hop bitterness was more than sufficient to balance the sweetness but there was little hop aroma, something that was unexpected. Esters are evident in the aftertaste, an indication that the higher fermentation temperature did its job.

As a sign of gratitude, I will send a bottle of this to Red Dot Brewhouse after a few more weeks of maturation in the bottles. Ernest, master brewer from Red Dot Brewhouse, wasn’t very sure if this “Steam beer” will work out as I was told that such a yeast wasn’t very suitable but I am welcome to give it a shot, which I more than happily did. I am pleased with what I got nonetheless.

With this brew out of the way, I am now planning ahead for my next brew.  Maybe something smaller and faster. I have not decided yet but would almost certainly grab yeasts from other microbreweries. Till then, watch this space!

Wonder if there is anything to do on campus after classes? NTU students, often being subject of jokes saying that they are located in the ulu corner of the island, have the luxury of a internal bus ride away to the Craft Beerfest. This is the 2nd year in which this event was hosted (I was told that they have confirmed, in principle, to organise another one in Aug 2012! Song bo!) and I was happy to be there for 2 years running.

Trappist beers are one of the best I have tried for the commercials

Some Kiwi beers

These Swiss beers aren't shabby. These guys are fun loving and even gave me some of their used bottles for my homebrew. Thanks!

I had these mini burgers last year and gosh they are good! This year they were back again at the same price! 2 for $5 ain't too expensive.

These beers from South Australia are worth a try. I immediately loved their steam ale

I believe these are German beers though I did not actually try it. Not enough space laaaaaaaar.

I am unsure of who is invited to this mini event but the microbreweries that sent their guys down are Archipelago and Jungle beer. The rest of the guys are simply distributors and importers of beers from down under (Aussie and Kiwi), up above (Europe and what not). Samples are priced at $1 and beers are priced from $5. It’s cheaper than most pubs but are expensive compared to supermarkets. Considering the variety and the fact that I met up with some of these guys and talked about beers and whatnot, I would say it is a worthy trip.

Adi from Jungle beer had their fruit wheat beers. It was refreshing and new for most but some has criticised to be too “not like beer”. Some see it as being the main point – it attracts people who will otherwise give beer a miss. Collin was on hand to recommend me his beers from the UK and English ciders. I like the Hobgoblin line of beers. The Loh siblings even offered me one of their beers towards the end of the event. Thanks! I do love your steam ale.

With these beers now available in Singapore, it kinda gives homebrewers less incentive to brew their own. When homebrewing was first legalised in 2004, most of these beers are not even in the scene. (Only Brewerkz, Paulaner and Archipelago were around doing craft beers) With such a vibrant beer scene in Singapore nowadays, is there a need to really brew your own? Send me your thoughts.

Homebrewers coming up with recipes will often need a recipator to do all the relevant calculations. The leader in this field is probably the Beersmith software which is of course a paid software. Other free alternatives can work but they aren’t very friendly. It’s free, so can’t complain much.

Well now, I was informed of a new alternative that is also completely FREE OF CHARGE! Download it, play around with the features and see how it works!

Download it here.

Here’s a demo video on some of its features.

Why Create Brewtarget?

“I was fed up with the lack of good open source beer software, so I thought I would make a small application that would do all the calculations for me. Before long, the application had over 10,000 lines, and at that point, I figured that I would just put it up on Sourceforge so that all the work I spent on it could be shared.”

I agree completely. Share the joy guys,

PS: Thanks Josh!

When I was flipping through The Straits Times today (11 Mar 2012), I saw an article about exotic beers (by Singapore standards anyway) are now being sold in a hawker centre!

The exact address is Blk 335 Smith Street #02-58 Chinatown Complex, Singapore, Singapore 050335

I have heard of this stall for quite some time now but has never gotten the energy to actually go down to the place itself. Word has it that the Singapore Homebrew Club (now formally known as the Singapore Craft Brew Club) wanted to hook them up as a sponsor the last time but not sure if a formal approach was made.

Beer is really getting more popular

The Good Beer Company appears to be real passionate about bringing something different. The Taiwanese based fruit beers, German Dunkels and what not. Would be a real eye opener for those who think that beer is always about Tiger, Carlsberg and Heineken. In a hawker centre no less. That obviously lowers the overheads and allow us to buy cheaper beer (though I think they are no match for the big breweries who can really produce at dirt cheap prices), a boon for the drinkers.

I do not hide the fact that I am not a big fan of overly sweet stuff (Sweet lychee beer? If I have a sweet tooth, I’d rather  just grab canned lychees from the supermarket. They really taste about the same anyway) and mass produced bland commercial lagers. The sad fact is that despite all the hype, many of these so called “exotic lagers” are really the same old bland tasting stuff we see everyday. Risking being called sexist, I would say that the sweet stuff are targeted specifically at ladies. Though I fail to see the point of paying for such a beer , I do see the appeal these have towards those with a sweet tooth.

Having said all these, I believe that something different is always welcoming. After all, we have been overfed with Asia Pacific Breweries stuff for way too long. Beer importers, together with the local mircobreweries, are set to change the scene little by little, day by day.

Anyway, here’s the link to their facebook page.

Do check them out.

I know I haven’t been updating this blog for quite a while. That doesn’t mean I stopped loving beer or brewing it for that matter! Life’s busy with the PhD that I am pursuing but that is of course boring compared to brewing and drinking.

Anyways, this post may be belated but I need to share a good beer that I brewed for the chinese new year. It was received by many and a far cry from the disappointing sour crap that I previous reported. That’s good!

Also, I have invested in some equipment. A small fridge for fermentation and a bottle capper for the bottling of glass bottles.

Anyway, here goes:

Style: American Wheat

Extract & Sugars

4kg liquid wheat malt extract

0.5kg Dextrose

Hop schedule

14g Hallertauer for 60 min

7 g Hallertauer for 30min

7 g  Cascade for 30min

7 g Hallertauer for 5min

7 g  Cascade for 5min

Yeast: Weizen yeast from Red Dot brewhouse (Thanks Ernest!)

Final volume is 23L

OG is about 1.055

OG is about 1.010

Temperature was maintained at about 18 degrees C.

All ingredients were purchased from www.homebrew.com.sg except for the yeast which was a kind gift from Ernest of Red Dot Brewhouse.

Great beer with great company over CNY @ Xue's Brewery

The volume of the beer wasn’t meant to be so high. The estimation of OG given to me by the supplier was way off and I only realised it when I topped up the wort. It was too high and I had to dilute it. Luckily for me, the bitterness turned out ok. Was concerned that the bitterness will be unbalanced.

It was the first time that I was using this wheat extract and I am very happy to find it of very high quality.

The banana and clove nose of the beer was clearly evident. It was cloudy as per expected and of low bitterness. Many non-drinkers find it refreshing and different compared to commercial lagers. I sent a bottle over to Ernest at Red Dot and was happy with his approval. I was very pleased.

A few months after the first bottle was opened, I was rather sad that such a great beer is gone. I may not repeat this brew again since there are so many possibilities in the world of homebrewing. Such is the beauty of being able to brew one’s own.

I write this post with a heavy heart. No self respecting homebrewer likes to see their homebrew ruined. And mine did. It was disappointing because this was a brew that was requested by a close mate who wanted “something less bitter” and “something different from the supermarket”. I immediately thought of a wheat beer, which is not that mainstream on the supermarket shelves yet (I can seriously only think of Erdinger and Hoegaarden ). I decided to have a twist. Since I have  some hops lying around anyway, I figured that using non German hops might give the brew a nice little twist.

Looks can be deceiving. What looks like a nice beer can turn out surprising

Anyway, this is an extract brew, Pretty straightforward:

2x 1.5kg Wheat liquid malt extract

1.0 oz Kent Golding hops (4.6% AA) 60min boil

I asked for a Weizen yeast from Red Dot Brewhouse and they kindly sponsored me some. Thanks Ernest!

Fermentation temperature is kept at about 20 degrees C.

Those with a keen eye will realise that I am using British hops! And that’s odd for a German wheat beer. True enough but hey! We are homebrewers! Who cares about what is supposed to be politically correct and what’s not? That’s the beauty of homebrewing. We get to brew what we want!

So, what happened to this twisted German Weizen? Honestly, I have no idea what happened but the beer turned out sour. Yes. SOUR. Not like super lemon sour but tangy and tart. It is very evident. Perhaps it is the old hops (they were in the freezer for 12 months), perhaps I was lax on the sanitation. I really know don’t.

Homebrewers get disappointments like these once in the while. It is all part of brewing. Even the big breweries run into these problems and are forced to dump thousands of litres of beer without ever finding out the reason why the beer didn’t turn out the way they wanted. You see, fermentation is a biological process and as much as we wish to, there is little that can be done to control these little yeasts from performing the same everytime we want them to. Got to live with it!

Now, there is little point in crying over split milk. Another friend of mine was recommending me a fish and chip beer batter which will make good use of the sour brew. Maybe I can use some of the beer for such a purpose. Why not?  The beer is there whether I like it or not. Might as well put it into good use. And it is not thaaaaaat awful (hey I am a lambic fan. Sour isn’t awful for me, just weird in this case) and I could live with it. It just didn’t turn out the way I wanted.

Still, this setback is not going to stop me from brewing. The request given to me wasn’t fulfilled yet. I will plan up another brew and ask for more yeasts from RedDot Brewhouse once again. I was told that they have so much yeasts that they need to dump them on a regular basis. Homebrewers who are keen for some FREE live and healthy yeast, why not just visit one of the mircobreweries here and kindly ask?

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Originally from Build A Home Brewery

Sit Down and have a Beer or Three ? The Rise of Session Beers

Perhaps the most noticeable trend in the world of craft brewing has been that of exotic, extreme beers made with odd ingredients and/or with super-high alcohol content. While that has certainly given beer lovers an almost endless range of interesting options to explore in their drinking, it’s hard to have more than one or two of these beers without feeling the effects. However, uber-robust beers might not be the norm for long. A new trend is rising – session beers are becoming more and more popular with beer drinkers and pubs/restaurants too.

What the Heck Is a Session Beer?

Before we get into anything else related to the topic, it might be best to look a little more closely at what a session beer actually is. This is not a “style” of beer like a lager or an amber ale. Instead, it’s a concept – an ideal. Interestingly, it seems to be the reverse of the trend that has held strong in craft brewing for the last decade or so. Where many craft brewers focus on robust, super strong beers, session beers are a bit tamer.

Typically, a session beer has an ABV of less than 5% (some say 4.5% or lower). Does that mean they’re boring, watered down brews that hold little interest for the confirmed beer lover? Far from it – you’ll find some extremely good session beers out there and the market is just now beginning to pick up. That means more options will be arriving soon.

Why Lower ABV?

What’s the point of having a beer with such a low amount of alcohol in it? Essentially, a session beer is designed so that drinkers can leave their drinking session without being hammered – walking a straight line out of the pub might be a refreshing difference for some. The entire point here is so that drinkers can enjoy having several beers during a set “session” without becoming incoherent.

What Makes a Session Beer?

So, other than relatively low alcohol content, what goes into creating a session beer? First, it has to be interesting enough for drinkers to have several of them during the session without becoming bored. That means that watered down, mass-produced beers like Bud are off the list. The beer should have enough flavor to keep the drinker, well, drinking.

The flavor and body of the beer must also be balanced enough that multiple glasses will not wear the drinker down. Remember, too much of a good thing is still too much. A good session beer will be balanced and interesting, flavorful and enjoyable.

Finally, a good session brew should also be relatively affordable. After all, if drinkers are going to have several pints in a row, they have to be able to afford to pony up for those sequential glasses. Obviously, that’s good for the customer but what makes these beers so popular with pubs and eateries serving craft beer?

The Benefits of Session Beers for Sellers

So, as you can see from the information above, beer drinkers get to enjoy a brew that is flavorful, interesting, affordable and not knock-your-socks-off strong. What’s in it for the sellers, though? Actually, establishments serving this type of beer stand to gain just as much as drinkers do. What’s on tap here?

Lower ABV Equates to Better Patrons

For any establishment that serves beer, having customers drink too heavily is not a good thing. The lower alcohol percentage in these brews ensures that customers are better behaved during their sojourn in a pub or restaurant (no arrests for drunk and disorderly for instance). That equates to a better overall atmosphere within an establishment, but it also makes for a more enjoyable experience for patrons.

More Beers Sold per Session Equals More Profit

Most of those heading into their favorite watering hole for a drinking session will limit the number of beers they consume so that they can make it home safely. This has a direct effect on the sales for any establishment, obviously. Fewer beers consumed equates to lower sales. However, because drinkers can have several session beers during any drinking session, that equates to more beers sold and higher profit for the pub or restaurant.

In addition, because drinkers will be staying for longer sessions, establishments that serve food are noticing a distinct increase the amount of food served – a further boost to profitability.

Wider Appeal for Customers Boosts Establishment Foot Traffic

Let’s face it, not everyone is interested in trying out the latest extreme beer or super-high ABV brew. However, more and more people are becoming interested in session style brews. In fact, the appeal is growing so much that establishments that serve a decent variety of these brews have noticed a distinct increase in the amount of traffic they receive. More patrons certainly goes a long way toward making a bar more successful.

Even with the lower price point for these types of brews, establishments are finding that greater volume and more customers more than makes up for the few dollars they might be losing per pint due to the lower price point.

Zhaosheng’s (Hairy) Comments:

Golden Ale from Brewerkz is a good example of a session beer

Ahh… Session beers. These are highly suitable for all night drinking. Specifically, how should homebrewers go about making a session beer?

1. Go easy on the malt. High gravity brews don’t make good session beers. They end up with high ABV and requires a high amount of hops to balance the sweetness. This makes the end up product something more of a sipping beer. While sipping beers aren’t all bad in their own right, we can’t have glasses and glasses of it all night, at least if you wish to stay sober. I would recommend an original gravity of about 1.050 and aim for a final gravity of about 1.010 – 1.012.

While you are at it, also remember that using too much adjuncts will thin down the body too much and watered down crap not only does not make a good session beer, it is not a good beer, all things considered.

2. Moderate amount of hops. I would say, something in the region of 15 – 20 IBUs would give a pretty decent level of bitterness for continuous drinking while not being overly harsh for high volume drinking. There is no restriction on the type of hops to use as different beer styles will favor different types of flavoring hops.

3. Go easy on spices and exotics. Homebrewing is great because we get to add whatever we want into the beers, making exotic brews that wow drinkers. Spices and whatnot are often used in homebrewing to make exotic brews. These are fun to make but overly strong flavors turn drinkers off very quickly. They are nice once in a while but to make a drinker wants more, overly harsh flavors are to be avoided.

These are 3 simple guidelines for making a good session beer. In addition to these, basic homebrewing rules of thumbs apply. These include proper sanitization, proper fermentation temperature, etc.

The issue with brewing session beers though, is that they run out fast! The effort needed to make a 20L batch of a strong brew is about the same as a session beer and the former don’t run out as fast. From an efficiency perspective, making a session brew isn’t optimal but hey! Who says brewing is all about efficiency? If you like the brew, jolly well brew it!

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It was reported that a obnoxious smell produced by a fermenter caused the evacuation of an apartment in Colorado.

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — It’s a brew with quite a head. A Colorado apartment complex was evacuated yesterday because of a noxious odor. Turns out the smell was from a home beer-brewing kit. Authorities tell KRDO-TV that two workers at the Colorado Springs complex went into an apartment and were sickened by the smell. Firefighters cleared part of the complex. Residents were allowed back less than an hour later.

No details were given on the nature of the smell or the cause of it, except that is is due to homebrewing. Is this a real concern for homenbrewers?

Homebrewing is generally not a smelly business but stinky is in the nose of the beholder. So what type of smells are expected in the course of the whole homebrewing journey?

Brewday

On brewday, the kitchen can smell of malt and grain. Not forgetting hop aroma as well. Hops by themselves can smell quite bad, due to the high concentration of hop oils. Some people describe the smell of hops to be similar to stinky socks. However, after the hop oil is diluted by boiling, they definitely smell much better. Of course, stale hops and grain just smells stale. They smell unfresh but nothing that should cause anyone to evacuate the house.

On occasions, dimethyl sulfide can be detected on brewday. This is the characteristic cooked cabbage or cooked corn smell. Different grains have different tendency to form dimethyl sulfide but generally, slow cooling of wort will cause dimethyl sulfide problems.

Fermentation

Rotten eggs smell from the fermenter is not cool but it is normal for most fermenting lagers.

Fermentation produces lots of different minor by-products. These organic molecules can contribute to some smell coming from the fermenter. Strangely, they don’t smell alcoholic at all. Most organic molecules that can be detected are esters or sulfur compounds.

Esters are supposed to be sweet smelling but high concentrations give them a solvent like odor. Wheat beers are known for high concentration of esters, particularly those resembling bananas and cloves. High temperature ferementation (>20 degrees C) causes increased production of esters which not only produces a smell from the fermenter but also affects the taste of the beer. Esters have characteristic odors but once again, should not be anything so severe that calls for evacuation.

Sulfur compounds on the other hand can potentially wreak havoc. This is of particular concern for lager brewers who place their fermenter in a confined space. Lager yeasts have a tendency to produce high levels of hydrogen sulfide and other sulfur compounds. This produces a rotten egg smell and it freaks first time lager brewers out. Fortunately, these odors and taste gets cleaned up by the yeast during lagering but during the peak of these sulfur compound production, the smell can be quite severe especially when the area is not ventilated.

During the course of fermentation of ales, nothing stinky should be coming out from the fermenter. If rotten egg smell is detected, it can point to a potential infection. Infection of wild yeasts and bacteria can produce wierd smells that are usually not encountered. If the fermenter produces sour or vinegar-like smells, it is an almost guaranteed infection unless one is using lambic yeasts.

So does homebrewing stink?

Homebrewing can certainly add some smell to your house and it can be potentially smelly. Not everyone appreciates the smell from the brewpot and fermenter. However, in most cases, when done properly, homebrewing should not stink and no evacuation is expected. However, lager brewing and poor ventilation can cause quite a stench.

So guys, remember to keep your fermenter well ventilated. Even nice smells turn stinky when concentrated in a small space.

 

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By MARK BITTMAN

Published: September 1, 2011

Originally from NY Times

Beer can be an excellent ingredient - especially when a beer expert helps you choose the brew.

Here’s a rough history of my beer-drinking career: at age 18 (then the legal drinking age in New York), I started with Rheingold — cheap, watery stuff that later went off the market. Down the road, after messing around with Narragansett (or ’gansett), I moved “up” to Heineken. (Up in status, I suppose. In quality? Questionable.) Eventually I discovered real beers: Bass Pale Ale, no longer favored by the cognoscenti but then a beacon of refinement, became a favorite. Before too long, the beer world exploded, and I found myself visiting the Good Beer store in Manhattan, which has something like 600 types of craft beers.

I learned how to drink beer with food (beyond hot dogs, Indian food and the like) from Garrett Oliver, the brewmaster of New York’s Brooklyn Brewery and editor in chief of the soon-to-be-published “Oxford Companion to Beer.” So it seemed only natural, when I found myself cooking with beer more often, to ask Garrett how to determine what’s best.  Cooking with beer makes sense: not only is it more flavorful than water, but it’s also more flavorful than any store-bought chicken stock and less ethically objectionable as well. And unlike wine or liquor, you can substitute beer cup-for-cup for stock or water when you’re braising or making soup. Yet like wine, beer is acidic, which comes in handy when you’re baking quick bread, cake or fried foods, because you need a little acidity to activate baking soda.  In fact, beer’s flavors are arguably more varied and complex than any ready-made liquid besides wine. And like bread, to which it’s closely related, beer loves to team with meat, cheese and strong flavors like onions, garlic and spices.  I knew all this in theory, and I had done some work on these things before contacting Garrett. For starters, I wanted to make a beer bread; a basic quick bread with whole-wheat flour and a little cornmeal. I had experimented with this a couple of times and loved both the ridiculously easy method (stir, pour, bake) and the finished loaf’s tender crumb and warm, yeasty flavor. (Yeast bread with no yeast. Interesting.)  Similarly, I had made carnitas — that irresistible Mexican pork shoulder braised for hours with spices, then fried in its own fat until crisp — with beer as the braising liquid, but I wanted further guidance. Lastly, a kind of old-fashioned cheddar-beer soup is less my style, but still intriguing — I was eager to try that as well. Most versions of this soup contain copious amounts of cream in addition to the cheese, but I was confident I could come up with a version using cauliflower to provide the velvety body.  The dishes I made were good but could be better; the difference could be the right beers. So I consulted Garrett, and he did not disappoint. In fact, he was so specific that I had to ask him for common substitutions for those of us who are not fanatics (see the recipes).  For the bread, he suggested a doppelbock (double bock), often referred to as liquid bread: a semisweet, supermalty, high-alcohol beer whose aroma reminds you of bread baking in an oven. Belgian wheat beer (witbier), he said, would be best for the carnitas, because these beers are often spiced with coriander and bitter orange, obviously akin to braised meat, Mexican-style; they are also a little sour, which lends the meat a nice complexity.  Finally, for the soup, he had me use Belgian dark abbey ale (and plugged his own, but, hey — we owe him that), whose yeast strain, he said, “has its own funky sulfurous quality and caramel notes” that show off both cauliflower and cheese nicely.  It’s delicious, but frankly this all gets a little over my head. You can use any full-bodied, full-flavored beer in any of these recipes. Rheingold, you’ll be pleased to know, is back on the market with a reformed recipe.

Zhaosheng’s (Hairy) Comments:

Technically, any beer can be used in cooking though ales are usually preferred due to stronger flavors. Bland lagers are simply a waste of time and resources.

Cooking with beer is not something that is exactly new. How is beer used in cooking? Generally speaking, it is used as a more flavorful form of water. Any recipe that needs water can be replaced by beer. This includes, bread, soup, stew…etc. Grab any recipe you like, change water into beer and there you have it.

The problem? The problem here in Singapore is that our markets are dominated by the major boring lager brands which aren’t very flavorful for cooking. Also, the alcohol tax here makes cooking with beer almost like cooking with gold. Cooking a stew with beer can set one back by tens of dollars here and that hasn’t included the contents of the stew! It just isn’t cost efficient and with bland lagers, it simply doesn’t make any sense even if cost wasn’t an issue.

If you are still unfazed about the cost, you need to know where to get stuff suitable for cooking. For great ales suitable for cooking (and massive drinking of course), skip the supermarket. Look for importers like The Beer Club, The Drinking Partners and East of Avalon Wines that carries great beers not normally found in the supermarkets.

Some drinkers feel that beer is wasted in cooking and should be just drunk. Whether it is a waste or not is debatable but beer is indeed something that introduces new tastes to a dish. So, in my opinion, it is always worth a shot.

Once again, homebrewers who have a plentiful supply of good flavorful beer have no issues with finding good beer for cooking. Ales are easy to make and with a typical batch size of 20litres, there is enough to use some for cooking. Cost of ingredients is also way cheaper than buying imported brews.

Now, who is interested in sharing a beer stew

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