Brew Town

The rise of locally made craft beers and spirits.

- Charlene Chow

Singapore’s craft beer culture has been brewing for quite a few years now. Says John Wei, brewer and yeast whisperer of Brewlander & Co., “In Singapore we had microbreweries which operated more like F&B establishments for many years. However, the big change happened from 2010 with importers bringing in world class craft beer. Likewise, homebrewing started to grow as well. Drinkers’ palates became more exposed and developed over time, resulting in a small, growing community of craft beer enthusiasts.” Along with it came a coterie of local brewers— homebrewers or otherwise—keen on injecting a local touch to the drinks they made.

And it’s not just for craft beer. The growing popularity of previously obscure drinks like mead— made by fermenting honey with water—and the revival of spirits such as gin worldwide has had trickling effects here as well, kindling interest not only in drinking them but in making them. Says Andy Hodgson, operations manager of Tanglin Gin, a new gin distillery based in Singapore, “When you look to places like the UK, the home of the modern renaissance of gin, even just a decade ago a pub would have had one gin on offer. Now there’s about 315 distilleries, and pubs have gin menus. Australia is not that different with at least 100 gin distilleries there now. For Singapore, it just took a little imagination to realise a city with a rich gin heritage that includes the gin-based Singapore Sling needed its own gin to put into it.”

With a wave of enthusiastic craftsmen tinkering away on our shores to the point where there are plans to start a Distillers and Brewers Association of Singapore, we can only say cheers to good drink, and bottoms up.

Brewed with passion