Jungle beer brewery!

4 beers on tap. Free flow!

Entry from guest blogger and lover of beer, Clyde.

I am an enthusiast. Most of my family and friends know me as the beer guy. But I want to be clear:  I’m not an expert. I don’t study beer. I don’t analyze it. I don’t hoard it or cherish it. I don’t look at beer the way a sommelier looks at a glass of Bordeaux. I drink beer. I drink it often and I try to experience as many as possible. I prefer crafted beer from the West Coast of the United States, but I enjoy all forms of the wondrously fermented malt. I drink Tiger sometimes and I’ve even been seen with a Bud Light in my hand on a hot afternoon (although I don’t often admit that), but there’s little that gives me as much pleasure as finding that perfect IPA when I’m not expecting it, or ending the day with a really strong, boozy imperial stout that has spent a few months in a bourbon barrel.

If you’re still here after that rambling narcissistic diatribe, Keira wanted me to talk about our recent trip to Jungle Beer.

The journey. I’ve lived in Singapore for about a year and a half. I have enjoyed almost all of it, but the rarity of craft beer has been a challenge. I do enjoy the hunt, though, and this recent one almost felt like a safari. Jungle Beer (at Barefoot Brewery) is hard to get to. It is as far north as you can get without getting wet, so you need a car or a cab. Follow Google Maps to 8A Admiralty Street (not 8 Admiralty Street, sorry Keira), turn into the carpark in front of the FoodXchange sign, drive up to level 4, and look around for the Jungle Beer van. The tasting room is through the door, past the “Danger Men Brewing” sign, and up the stairs.

You’re getting warmer…

The First Impression. Most of the time it’s just a microbrewery, but once a month on a Saturday they open up the tasting room for … wait for it … FREE FLOW BEER! $40 for all you can handle from 6:30 – 11:30. Bring some munchies, though, because there’s no food there (unless you walk down to FoodXchange) and you’re going to want something to soak up that beer. We showed up after 10:00 and met Joe as we walked in. Very friendly guy. He introduced us to the lay of the land, chatted for a few minutes, then disappeared into the back room to find us a couple of glasses.

Polished, frat-like atmosphere.

The Vibe. Two words:  house party. The “tasting room” is really more of a frat house, but cleaner. A few couches, some bar tables, a pool table, and a “we-mean-business” scale kegerator in the corner. The music is loud and centers around 2002. By the time we got there, several of the patrons were visibly drunk (duh), but everyone was pretty mellow and amicable. About half local, half ex-pat. Also, pretty cool that there is a large window overlooking the production floor. And if the noise starts to get to you, you can always grab a seat at one of the tables they set up outside the door in the carpark.

Enjoying their IPA at the Good Beer Company

The Beer. Now this is where the rubber hits the road. I’m here for the beer, not the vibe. And I’m not referring to the quantity. I’m not here to drink as much as possible for my $40. I want good, satisfying, brewery-fresh, lovingly-crafted beer. They had 4 taps flowing when we got there:  American Pale Ale, Mango Wheat, Coffee Amber, and a smoked Porter. The Mango Wheat blew shortly after we got there and they quickly replaced it with a similar Fruit Wheat. The verdict, honestly: meh. I wanted to love it. Really. I’ve had their beer before. The IPA is satisfying although unremarkable, and the Kiasu Stout is very good. Drink the stout at about 18-20 degrees and you will find a rich and complex beer, deserving of the moniker, “craft beer”. That is what I was expecting (hoping for) at the brewery. But the offerings that night were underwhelming. The Pale Ale and the Porter were passable, but highly unrefined. They had what I call the “green brewery syndrome” which happens when a small brewery starts production before they’ve really figured out what they’re doing. I’m an intermediate-level home brewer, so I use my own beer as my yardstick. It’s decent, but I wouldn’t try to sell it. I can make a better pale ale and a better porter than I had that night at Jungle Beer. The Wheat and the Amber suffer from a related disease. In my opinion, you should be able to make a good Wheat beer first, then you can experiment with fruit. That being said, the fruit and the coffee characters do mask the shortcomings of the underlying beer and make it more drinkable.

The Close. At 11:25 Adi turned off the music and politely-but-firmly told the crowd that it was time to wrap it up. Getting a cab turned out to be more of a problem than it should have been, but that was my fault for not using my app properly (sorry again, Keira).

The Judgment. Despite my disappointment with the beer, I was happy to stick with the porter and enjoy the laid-back atmosphere. Will I be back? Almost certainly, but it won’t be the mandatory monthly event that I expected it to be.

Did I mention the laidback vibe?