Monday, December 26, 2016

Singapore Blond Ale by Archipelago Brewery


I haven't had anything from Archipelago Brewery for a long time. Not that I could specifically recall in the last decade anyway. Their business model have obviously expanded over the years and their brews are distributed throughout a number of watering holes and restaurants. So I came across a tacky poster promoting their Singapore Blond Ale featuring calamansi and pandan leaves. Really?

Not so for me. Maybe the finesse that people are trying to incorporate into craft beers don't always work for me. I'm reading sweet grain, sweet malt, pine, spices, yeast, coriander spice and mango sweet. Reading from somewhere else that is. I think that's all bull. Personally it's bitter yeasty and sour. A more genteel Tiger perhaps. 

Not quite getting the pandan and nothing on the calamansi unless the sour is all they managed from the fruit. If there had been enough ingredients for them to be put into marketing, the flavours need to be obvious or otherwise it's deemed a failure in my books. This is a beer - any subtleties are lost beyond the first couple of sips. And to me, many of these pretentious craft brews are but swill with attached psychosis.

Well, first and last glass with the local blond I'm sure.

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