Singapore beer visit by gnoff, July 8-9, 2013

Singapore beer visit by gnoff, July 8-9, 2013

(Edited from September to July, guess I'm not very good at keeping track of the time of year?)

When planning my beer vacation in Australia the flight would go via Singapore. I figured I'd stay two nights here so not to have to make the long trip from Gothenburg, Sweden, to Sydney, Australia, in one stretch. Also with the help of two hostel nights I could now add a new country tick to my travels, as well as score more beers and new places ticks for ratebeer, yay. 

Before heading down there got the "Singapore Insight Flexi Map 1 : 12 500" ISBN 978-178-005-356-1 as well as the "Lonely Planet" Pocket Singapore with pull-out Map" ISBN 978-1-74220-209-9, from Swedish online book store Adlibris.
When applicable below letters and numbers are for finding places in the "pocket map" where page number is in reference to a map inside the book, "pull out map" is a reference to the map in the back of the Lonely Planet book and "flexi map" is a reference to that map mentioned above.

Next I went to the "places section" of ratebeer for Singapore, Singapore places on ratebeer then sorted out all the places marked on here as breweries, these would be my priority for visits during my short stay in the city/Country.

On the evening (Swedish local time) of Sunday July 7 I started my journey at Landvetter airport in Gothenburg. A nice timing was that the news on screens in the airport spoke of a plane crash in the US, perhaps time to screen what news to show at the airport better? A SAS/Lufthansa flight brought me to Frankfurt for a short layover. I had voiced my concern to the booking agency, Ticket, that one hour in Frankfurt felt short, but they insisted it should be just fine. With a 15 minute delay on my incoming flight and having to change terminals as well as pass the passport control I needed to do some running though. Ran through the underpass to the next terminal and all the way to the next gate, got there with a few minutes to spare. However, despite the fact 45 minutes shall be guaranteed your bags make it, that didn't happen. More on that later.
Next was a Singapore Airlines flight to Singapore, some 12+ hours of sitting around, watching some movies, eating and drinking, trying not to be too bored, cursing myself for not being able to rest or sleep, etc. Only did drink one beer for this whole flight, and one I've rated before at that, but nice they carry such a quality beer on their flights!
First beer of the trip:
ABC Extra Stout.
And as per nerdy info, the only other beer from Singapore I had rated before this trip was Tiger Beer.

Landed in the afternoon Monday July 8 local time at Singapore airport, passed through immigrations who took their time and wanted to see proof of me travel out of the country again 2 days later. Then headed to the luggage arrival where a lady from the airline walked up to me and asked if I was "Mr. Berglund" and informed me that my bag would not arrive today, instead she sent me to the lost luggage part of the airport. Here left some info and received 120 Singapore dollars in cash to help me cope until my bag made it. Well what to do? Through customs with only my carry on luggage, then got a ticket for the MRT (metro) to go to stop NE4, Chinatown. From Changi Airport could get the CG line a few stops and switch to the EW line, then once again switch to the NE line and get to my stop.
The hostel I was staying at, 5footway.inn Project Chinatown 1 on 63A Pagoda Street (hostel web site), was located very close to the MRT station indeed if following the directions on which exit to use. C2 pocket map page 68, 10F pull out map, Q15 flexi map. Walked up to the place, checked in (pay in cash only here), got shown my room, started the air conditioning and emptied out the stuff from my only small bag that I didn't need to carry around for the night. Also they had free WiFi, so could let my twitter followers know I made it there. The room itself was super small, only a tiny floor space, then a ladder with a loft bed, see pics below.

Headed out for a walk to my first beer destination, Level 33 as of H4 pocket map page 69, K11 pull out map and R17 flexi map. Walked east on Pagoda St., north on South Bridge Rd., east on Cross St., north on Raffles Quay and east down on Marina Boulevard, easy! Now things were less easy all of a sudden. My maps weren't very detailed in this part of town and the address pointed out on ratebeer didn't help all that much.
The view was nice though! 

Walked back and forth, looking for the place, figuring with that name it would likely be on the 33rd floor and all, so in one of the towers. Finally walked into the Financial Centre and asked, indeed it was located in that very tower! They even had a separate elevator that took you from the ground floor to the restaurant only. Up there the view was amazing, the copper brewery on display behind the bar wasn't bad either! They offered a 5 beer flight to sample the beers from tap, so naturally ordered that. Also they had WiFi so could tweet and update for the people back home that wanted to hear back from my on my trip. When the waiter brought me the beer flight he knocked three of the glasses over and spilled it over my rating book, my pants and my beer, oh I was so happy now that I didn't have a change of clothing or a towel with me.
More info on the place, brewery and the beers I tried below with links for the interested.

Brewer: Level 33
After this trip, on August 13, 2013, I'm currently the second in number of beers sampled from this brewery, yay! *nerd*

Place: Level 33
Brewery site
After this trip, on August 13, 2013, I'm currently the ratebeer Mayor of this place, yay! *nerd*
 
Beers sampled by gnoff and my rating of them, in order of listed below (5 beer sample flight/plate): 
Level 33 33.1 Blond Lager
Level 33 33.9 Wheat Beer
Level 33 33.11 Oaked Bock Beer
Level 33 33.2 Pale Ale
Level 33 33.3 Stout
 
A pic of the bar
 

After tasting my 5 beers here I got back to ground level, started walking the wrong way, found my way back and then headed for my next place, the Archipelago Brewery Company on 79 Circular Rd., F1 pocket map page 69, H9 pull out map and Q17 flexi map. I decided to walk over there, not being very far according to my maps. Found Circular Rd fairly easy and walked up it until I located the place on my left when coming up south to north. This wasn't actually a brew pub though, more of a cellar door/tap house for the actual brewery. They did have WiFi available if you asked for the password though. Unfortunately they didn't offer any kind of samplers what so ever, or even smaller pours. With 4 beers available, but smallest pour being half pints, I sampled 2 beers only here before heading to the next place. Some pretty loud music playing in here, among others "I'm in Miami bitch" reminding me of the next 70k cruise coming up in some 6 months.

More info on the place, brewery and the beers I tried below with links for the interested.
 
Brewer: Archipelago Brewery Company (Asia Pacific Breweries-Heineken)
 
Place: Archipelago Brewery Company
Brewer's web site
After this trip, on August 13, 2013, I'm currently the ratebeer Mayor of this place, yay! *nerd*
 
Beers sampled by gnoff and my rating of them, in order of listed below (½ pint each):
Archipelago Summer Ale
Archipelago Irish Ale
A pic of the tap setup for the beers brewed for this place 

Next wanted to head to Brewerkz on 30 Merchant Rd., C4 pocket map page 30, F9 pull out map, P15 flexi map. As of the maps it was close and walking distance, so gladly headed off in what I thought was the correct direction. Soon got myself disoriented though, when I managed to figure out where I was I had walked around in partly the wrong direction, backtracked etc. Finally got to Merchant and walked down the left hand side of the road when walking west. Ah, looks like it is on the right hand side of the road, but I'm bound to find a crossing soon, right? No... Back again, cross the road at the very beginning of it, up the correct side of the road, in and find Brewerkz at last.
Nice place located along some water, nice fast service, they offered 4 beers per flight, so tried some standard as well as some seasonal beers here, 8 beers in total. One of the waiters saw me where a Hypocrisy shirt and asked me if I was in the band, he was quite familiar with Peter Tägtgren. He also made sure I knew he thought I looked like a viking. 

More info on the place, brewery and the beers I tried below with links for the interested.

Brewer: Brewerkz

Place: Brewerkz Singapore Restaurant and Microbrewery
Brewpub's site
 
Beers sampled by gnoff and my rating of them, in order of listed below (2*4 beer sample flight/plate):
Brewerkz Golden Ale
Brewerkz Pilsner Lager
Brewerkz India Pale Ale
Brewerkz Oatmeal Stout
Brewerkz American Pale Ale
Brewerkz Blackberry Honey Ale
Brewerkz Black Pig
Brewerkz Xtra IPA

A pic of the first four beers I sampled  

Me having a great time  

You could see part of the brew setup on your way to the restroom  

Next went to find The Pump Room, a nearby brewpub supposed to be open until 3 am or 5 am, located at 3B River Valley Road. The streets in that area wasn't very well marked and had a hard time finding the place. Eventually got there and realized why I hadn't seen it. Even though it was still not even midnight, it was firmly dark and closed down. If someone else cares to find it, from my notes it is C3 pocket map page 30, G8 pull out map, P15 flexi map. 

Was a bit tired after the trip and had no other walking distance brewpubs to hit, so figured I'd walk back to my hotel. On the way down New Bridge Road just before heading into Pagoda St. sat down at a Chinese Sichuan restaurant and ordered a "bit more spicy" meal and a Chinese beer. The food was great and spicy, made me sweat. The beer was not very interesting though, but hey always a new rating, right?
Beer was: Snow Dry

After this turned the corner, checked reception at my hostel, no news on my bag, went to bed happy to have AC in the room. Luckily had got a toothbrush from Singapore Airlines, so could freshen up a tiny bit. Did wake up in the middle of the night from some crazy thunder and rain that rattled the windows, but got some decent sleep still.


Got up Tuesday July 9, checked reception again. Finally they had got a call stating my bag should be delivered "later today", but not for a while longer. Went on a quest to find a T-shirt and a towel during the stands in Chinatown. Managed to find a T-shirt and some sun block, but no towel. Rented a towel from my hostel for 2 dollars, then could finally shower, nice! 

My next plan for brewpub visit was RedDot Brewhouse on Block 25A, Dempsey Road, in Dempsey Hill. F4 pocket map page 125 (also same as sight 17) and Q19 flexi map backside. Located a fair bit from any MRT station and I didn't want to start messing around with buses. The weather looked a bit ominous, and my rain gear plus any possible change of shoes and pants were in my bag, so borrowed an umbrella from the hostel and set out.
My plan was to get the MRT to station Botanic Gardens, then walk the 2-2.5 km down to the brewpub. I love my green gardens and would be nice to have a bit of a walk as well. Got to the station and there's a real tropical downpour with thunder and lightning going on! 

I waited for some 20 minutes, but don't seem to stop anytime soon, put the little rain hoodie on my backpack, get the umbrella and start walking. After perhaps 200 meters I turn back realizing I will be soaked by the time I get there, and likely won't enjoy the gardens much in this weather either. Stood around for some 10-15 minutes until a taxi arrived and took the faster way of getting where I wanted to go.
Once there I had planned to eat at Samy's Curry Restaurant pretty much next door to the brewhouse, but alas they are apparently closed on Tuesdays. Walked up to the brewpub instead and got started on my beers.
First did a 6 beer sample plate, followed by two smaller sort of ½ pint pours of the other two beers available. 

Also wanted to eat, but since I was there in between lunch and dinner they only had finger food available. After the description of the apparently very spicy Chicken Fagra I ordered that, and got the warning it was rather spicy, but still went for it. 

Boy they don't kid around when they talk about spices! If you took a chicken wing and shook it a little chili flakes flew right off of it, seemingly endlessly appearing more. After the first bite my lips were going numb and when finished I was sweating. Still tasted nice though, but I would not recommend it to anyone that are not fairly used to spicy food.

Another cool thing was that the brewery was nicely on display behind some glass windows. 

The garden like area was very nice and would likely be even more beautiful in less rainy days. 

More info on the place, brewery and the beers I tried below with links for the interested.

Brewer: RedDot Brewhouse
After this trip, on August 14, 2013, I'm currently the first in number of beers sampled from this brewery, yay! *nerd*

Place: RedDot Brewhouse
Brewery web site
After this trip, on August 14, 2013, I'm currently the ratebeer Mayor of this place, yay! *nerd*

Beers sampled by gnoff and my rating of them, in order of listed below (6 first beer sample flight/plate, last two smaller pours around ½ pints):
RedDot Czech Pilsener
RedDot Kolsch
RedDot Weizen
RedDot Monster Green Lager Beer
RedDot English Ale
RedDot Lime Wheat
RedDot Oatmeal Stout
RedDot Indian Pale Ale

Payed my bill and asked for directions to nearby Tawandang and ventured off.

Walked more or less around the corner and was at my next place of interest. Something I hadn't realized before was that the beers available here are listed at a Thai brewery on ratebeer. I'm rather sure they actually brew onsite in Singapore too, but likely on ratebeer they have decided the recipes are so similar they don't deserve a brewery listing of their own.
Anyhow, Tawandang Microbrewery on 26 Dempsey Rd, F5 pocket map page 125 and Q19 flexi map back side. A Thai sort of place with three beers available. Sat down and got a sample of each of their three beers, to be honest none of them inspired me very much at all. If you bought a pint between 1 pm and 6 pm you got one free, the only one I really wanted more of though was the wheat beer, so got my pints of that. Also ate here, food was decent but nothing really that sticks to memory. Finished my food and beers, then asked for help to call a cab and move on to the next place. 

This was not very inspiring, only real reason to go here is if you're already at RedDot and want to sample some more beers, but don't go all this way out just for this place I'd say. 

More info on the place, brewery and the beers I tried below with links for the interested.
 
Brewer: Tawandang German Brewery
 
Place: Tawandang Microbrewery
Brewer site
After this trip, on August 14, 2013, I'm currently the ratebeer Mayor of this place, yay! *nerd*
 
Beers sampled by gnoff and my rating of them, in order of listed below (2 first beer samples only, last one in pints):
Tawandang Lager
Tawandang Dunkel
Tawandang Weizen

Got in a cab from Tawandang and asked the driver to take me to 417/419 East Coast Rd, it was time to visit AdstraGold Microbrewery, Q21 flexi map back side.
Cab driver didn't know the place or exact location of that address, also the road was rather busy with traffic, but I spotted it right when we were about to pass it, so worked out well.
They had 13 beers listed, out of 9 were currently available. You could get 3 samples, then you were supposed to buy the beers by the glass, I talked to my friendly waiter though he he agreed to let me sample all 9 beers, and then pay a price for them as he saw fit, yay!

So here's to you Kyanta Yap! You made my evening!
Didn't eat here, nor could I have any WiFi connection. I did talk quite a bit to Yap though, also he asked me to fill out a customer satisfaction form and their guest book, how could I not after he treated me so well? 

Some seating inside, also some tables and chairs outside by the road. Not very many guests this evening, and most other than me spent their time outside.
On ratebeer I was the first person to review the place, also only one beer was added, so had to add the other 8 beers, hard work to be a nerd.
Sampled the 9 beers, then walked about 25 minutes to the MRT and continued to the next place.

Brewer: AdstraGold Microbrewery & Bistro Bar
After this trip, on August 14, 2013, I'm currently the first (by far!) in number of beers sampled from this brewery, yay! *nerd*
 
Place: AdstraGold Microbrewery & Bistro Bar
Brewery site
After this trip, on August 14, 2013, I'm currently the ratebeer Mayor of this place, yay! *nerd*
 
Beers sampled by gnoff and my rating of them, in order of listed below (all nine beers by samples):
AdstraGold IPA
AdstraGold Red Ale
AdstraGold Dark Ale
AdstraGold Roasty Stout
AdstraGold Nutty Brown Ale
AdstraGold Golden Ale
AdstraGold Red Summer Wheat
AdstraGold Pilsner Premium
AdstraGold 188 Nutty IPA

Got on the MRT and with one switch ended up at station Promenade, my maps showed different physical locations for the address, and nobody could tell me which way to walk, so started walking around the buildings one way until I found the place I was looking for.
 
Finally walked into Paulaner Brauhaus on 9 Raffles Blvd, H3 pocket map page 31, M8 pull out map, P18 flexi map.
They had three beers for sale, two of them could be bought by 30 cl servings, the wiess could only be purchased by 50 cl though.

This place was rather big, indoors seating on ground level and at least one level up, also outdoors seating. Fairly busy the evening I visited. After a bit a girl and a guy got up on a ledge by the brewery which was located behind the bar and sang plus played guitar.
Didn't eat here, also just stayed for the three beers before hailing a cab and going back to my hostel. Was getting rather tired, the time didn't really stop, and really wanted a few hours sleep before my early morning to follow.
All three beers at this German style brewpub were nice though, I can imagine the food would be as well. 

More info on the place, brewery and the beers I tried below with links for the interested.
 
Brewer: Paulaner Brauhaus (brewpub Singapore)
After this trip, on August 14, 2013, I'm currently the second in number of beers sampled from this brewery, yay! *nerd*
 
Place: Paulaner Brauhaus (brewpub Singapore)
Brewery site
After this trip, on August 14, 2013, I'm currently the ratebeer Mayor of this place, yay! *nerd*
 
Beers sampled by gnoff and my rating of them, in order of listed below (5 beer sample flight/plate):
Paulaner Brauhaus Munich Lager (Singapore)
Paulaner Brauhaus Munich Dark (Singapore)
Paulaner Brauhaus Hefe-Weissbier (Singapore)
 
Got back to my hostel, my bag was there!
Had a shower, packed the little that needed to be packed, then had a few hours sleep.
Got up early, about 4.30 am July 10 and checked out from my hostel, walked out on the main road and hailed a cab, then got to the airport. Checked in, then sat down at Starbucks for some breakfast and to use the airport WiFi. 

Had forgot I still hadn't passed through security or checked how far my gate was, so eventually ended up having to hurry a bit, despite being at the airport very early. Oh well, I did make my flight to Sydney to start of the "real" beercation I had planned, the two first bonus days were over. The other stories will follow once I've found time to go over all my notes, pictures, memories and had time to write. 

Cheers Singapore, you treated me well!