Discovering the Tiger in its den

On every visit to Singapore, I have always wanted to make a trip to the Tiger Brewery to sample their beers, within the confines of the brewery itself.

Trying to grab a Tiger by its tail

Unfortunately, it never really panned out. For one, with no idea of actual distance and a poor sense of geography, I had convinced myself that it was very far off from the city center. Which it is. Besides, you also need to have the right sort of company. If the company isn’t good, then it just isn’t worth the time and effort.

So, this time, when I was back in the city for the umpteenth time, it was very much on top of my list of ‘to-do’ things. Again. And I was hoping I could make the pilgrimage, circumstances permitting.

What circumstances?

Well, I like my beers. I do. However, with an itinerary that left me running from one local hotspot to another, Tiger Brewery was the last thing on my mind. Thank goodness, my girlfriend had other thoughts.

Let’s catch a Tiger today

So, one sunny morning, when she proposed a tour of the Tiger Brewery, I first pinched myself to make sure it wasn’t a dream. She’s a teetotaller, you see. Convinced I did hear it right the first time around, I then proceeded to vigorously shake my head in agreement, before she changed her mind. Bless her, she didn’t. Now, if this isn’t love, then what is? Sigh!

It is among the many things I enjoy doing when traveling to any city worldwide. I like to try and visit at least one of the known local breweries. It doesn’t matter if they specialize in craft beer, or if it is a mass-market beer easily available off the shelf. That is how I found myself sitting at the pub within the walls of the Pilsner Urquell Brewery in Pilsen, understanding what makes for a fine pilsner, unlike some pretenders who pretend to be your ‘Bud’dy, when they aren’t. Or enjoying the great outdoors with a German-style lager beer freshly poured from the tap at Live Oak Brewing Co’s Taproom in Austin. It could also be a dense and refreshing brew, aptly named Coffee Porter at Pasteur Street Brewing Taproom, which is, no guesses, on Pasteur Street in Ho Chi Minh City. Or even a good old pint, or three, of Guinness at the Guinness Storehouse in Dublin, the very city where it traces its rich, creamy history.

Heading to the Tiger’s lair

On this particular sunny morning, if I may highlight, we opted to catch the tour at 3:00 pm that same afternoon. So after buying our tickets online at the Tiger Brewery Tour website, we decided, that since we had ample time, why not grab a quick bite? The plan was that, once we were done with lunch, we would head to the nearest MRT station to us, in this case, Stevens MRT station. From there, our train ride would take us to Joo Koon MRT station. From there, it would be a short SBT Transit bus ride on route 182 or 182M. Six stops later, we would get down at the Asia Pacific Brewery stop, walk a few hundred meters, and start our tour. Simple, huh!

A bad idea. As the sunny morning made way for an overcast noon, and a short lunch extended into a lengthy one, we suddenly realized that we had under an hour to make it on time for our scheduled tour. And the only way we could do that was if we hopped into a cab and asked the driver to try and speed things up a little bit.

And speed it up he didn’t do. Leaving us both a little stressed, to say the least.

Prowling around the den

When the cab finally pulled in through the gates a little about 10 minutes after 3:00 pm, we rushed in, fingers crossed that there would still be a small glimmer of hope that the tour hadn’t started without us yet. Worse case, we figured we would put on our best sad faces, and with folded hands, moist eyes, and pleading voices, beg them to put us on the next tour.

Thankfully though, it came to none of that. Our tour guide was patiently waiting for us with the rest of the party at the Visitor Center. We immediately registered ourselves and were handed entry tickets along with beer tokens to be exchanged for beers later.

The Tiger Brewery Tour lasts approximately an hour, followed by beer sampling at the adjoining Tiger Tavern. It starts with a video introduction to the history of Tiger Beer. This is followed by a review of various bottle and can packaging designs over the decades, numerous awards won around the world and even advertisements from then to now.

Within the visitor center is also an ingredient display kiosk that highlights what goes into making a Tiger Beer. It has the usual suspects, including malts, hops, yeast, and water. And for those so inclined, you can also smell each of the ingredients.

However, I was more interested in moving on to the actual brewing process. Immediately after exiting the visitor center, we briefly walked to another building, and up a flight of stairs to the brew house. Unfortunately, one is not allowed to take any photographs. While I will not get into the specifics of the beer-making process, keep an eye out for some funky displays on the lawn outside, including a Tiger Beer bottle carved out of, what looked like stone, and a vintage 1:1-sized Tiger Beer truck. This is also the ideal spot for as many photographs as you can manage, with some great photo-ops.

From here, it was back indoors, and on to the packaging gallery section at the visitor center. It is also one of two exciting parts of the tour – pouring the perfect serve. We also got to try and pour ourselves the perfect serve immediately after the tour guide had done so. This is also when I had a newfound appreciation for bartenders around the world whom I have given grief to, mostly in my head, each time they served me my pint. Cheers to them.

I feel like a Tiger now

And finally, the most exciting part of the tour that I had been thirsting for all the while – the beer appreciation session. It is after this point that the tour guide ushered us to the Tiger Tavern and took our leave, at least temporarily. We had up to two hours to sample several beers. This includes a pint of Tiger Beer and a half pint of five other beers of your choice. Quite an interesting choice, I must admit, including Archipelago’s Irish Ale, Bohemian Lager, Singapore Blonde Ale, Belgian Wit and Limited Edition, Guinness, Anchor, Baron’s, ABC, Heineken, and Tiger Silver.

She was sweet enough and patient to not only pass on her coupons to me but also sit through the whole session with me. Bless her. Of course, the gentleman that I am, I didn’t make her wait too long. Just enough to sample each of the beers, and finally settle down on a pint of Tiger Beer. Or was that two?

Once we were done sampling the beers, we headed to the bar, where they handed over a bottle of Tiger Beer to each of us as a souvenir. After thanking our tour guide, a short stop at the souvenir shop for a few mementos, and we were finally done with the Tiger Brewery Tour. A trip that had been brewing in my head for ages.