10 Reasons Why All Beer Lovers Should Go For The Better Beer Festival!

1) BECAUSE EVERYONE DESERVES BETTER BEER! 
And Taps Beer Bar is probably the only place in town that is making the effort to buck the boring commercial beer trend and bring in AWESOME, BETTER beers. They deserve all the support they can get!

2) MORE THAN SEVENTY BEERS TO TRY! 
There will be over 70, yes SEVENTY, different craft brews from Singapore, Australia, England, Scotland, Denmark, Norway, Japan, USA, Belgium and Germany.

4) CHEAP AWESOME BEERS ON TAP! 
ALL the beers on tap at Taps will be going at RM15 a glass, which means you'll be getting AWESOME BEERS from BrewDog, Mikkeller, Nogne, Thornbridge, Harviestoun and Orkney for almost HALF THE NORMAL PRICE.

5) LEARN MORE ABOUT BEERS!
Sick of commercial beers? Too many events serving the same old beers OVER AND OVER AGAIN? Then this is the best time to come and try out some NEW, TASTY craft beers that you won't get ANYWHERE ELSE in KL.

6) CHEAP WEIHENSTEPHANER!
There's also going to be Weihenstephaner wheat beer going for RM10 a glass. Why pay more for a boring glass of Hoegaarden or Paulaner elsewhere when you have Weihenstephaner?

7) HITACHINO NEST JAPANESE CRAFT BEER!
This little owl beer is one of the most easy drinking yet unique beer brands I've tried, and they'll be at the fest!

8) LIVE MUSIC AND FUN!
There will be live music from 4pm onwards, as well as talks, beer tasting, beer auctions and lucky draws. And trust me, some of the acts who will be performing are REALLY GOOD.

9) NEW BEERS!
Besides Hitachino, the other new beers available at the festival are: Jungle Beer (Singapore), Red Dot Beer (Singapore), St Bernadus (Belgium) and Het Anker (Belgium).

10) NO CRAZY EXPENSIVE ENTRY FEES!
Entry is a RM5 donation to Taps' partner charity, the Kiwanis Down Syndrome Foundation. The donation witll entitle you to one free beer taster.

10) COME FOR THE BEER, STAY FOR THE COMPANY!
A bunch of us are already planning to camped out there for the most part of the day. I'll probably be there at about 2pm onwards, so just come over and say hi!

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The Better Beer Festival 2012:

Date: 29 September 2012 (Saturday)
Time: Doors open at 12pm
Venue: Taps Beer Bar, One Residency, 1 Jalan Nagasari, Off Changkat Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur
Tel: 03-2110-1560
Email: info@tapsbeerbar.my
Facebook: facebook.com/TapsBeerBar

Beers will be available for purchase from RM15 upwards. Food and other beverages will also be available. Tokens can be purchased in RM50 lots. A minimum purchase of RM100 is required for credit card transactions. Taps Beer Bar will also be launching their membership program on that day.

they'll also be selling this cool beer glasses at the festival for RM20 each! Limited quantities only though...

To Arthur At Sid's!

Yup, if you only go for ONE Arthur's Day party this year, then go for the one at Sid's Pub TTDI this Sunday, the bar with the best Guinness in town!



The party starts at 12 noon, all the way until 8pm (or until they run out of Guinness, which will probably NEVER happen), with the black stuff going at RM10 NETT a glass.

Seeya there!

20 Reasons to go for Brewfest 2012

1) Over 50 different beers to try! I was there yesterday from 2pm to 1130pm, and even I only managed to get up to 31 different beers, and this was with my "Don't drink the same beer twice all day" rule (Of course I didn't finish ENTIRE BOTTLES, just tasting samples, but still...)

2) BREWFEST is MAlaysia's FIRST EVER Malaysia’s 1st International Beer Festival. MUST SUPPORT!

3) It's cozy and easy to get to. The Brewfest is happening at Publika @ Solaris Dutams/Mont Kiara, which is reasonably easy to get to, and parking is not too tough either.

4) It starts at 5.30pm, and goes on until late at night, TODAY and TOMORROW. Which means lots of time to TRY ALL THE BEERS!

5) All the beers are sold at cost price. For instance, at Taps, a Mikkeller or an Orkney would set you back about RM30++ at least. At Brewfest, they're selling them at RM15-20 EACH. Now THAT'S a steal.

6) OK, there's a RM68 entry fee that includes two beers. But  the number of awesome and different beers available AND the price they're being sold at makes the entry fee WORTH EVERY PENNY.

7) Taps Beer Bar is one of the most awesome beer places in KL right now, with almost 60 different beers on tap and in bottle. They've brought about 40 of those beers along with them to Brewfest, and are selling those at cost price, so this is an AWESOME chance to check out all those beers!

8) THIS AWESOME HOT DOG. One of the best I've ever tasted!

9) Hitachino Nest! I love Jibiru in Singapore, and the guys from that place have brought up some of their awesome Hitachino Nest Japanese Craft beers for Brewfest. The Yona Yona and Espresso Stout is especially awesome!

10) Douglas Lim stand-up comedy. His shows can be patchy, but after a few beers, hey, he might get funnier. The show we attended last night was pretty funny. :D

11) Mikkeller Beer Geek Breakfast - thick, rich, chocolaty, coffee-y and awesome.

12) For the lovers of lighter beers, there's Warsteiner, Tsingtao, Suntory, Konig Ludwig and even some Singha available as well!

13) Besides the hot dogs, the food is decent as well - there's a stall selling deep fried chicken skin, salmon skin and chicken soft bones. and another that has some great pork ribs too!

14) A festival like this is WAY overdue. We need beer events like this to help educate drinkers that beer is not just about the commercial lagers and the big boys. There is SO MUCH MORE To beer than just Tiger, Carlsberg or Guinness.

15) No Overtime crap shit piss Starker beer.

16) There's a good variety of beers there, not just lagers, but some great stouts, ales, fruit beers, and even a bit of cider here and there. There's evern a DIM SUM BEER. There are Trappist ales, abbey ales, crazy ales and all sorts of ales. TRY THEM ALL!

17) DO try to be more experimental with your beers. Don't be afraid to try something new, because that's what beer festivals are all about - expanding your horizons and finding out more about beer.

18) Be careful though, some of these beers are REALLY STRONG. There are quite a number of 8% and 9% beers, including the Hitachino Nest XH (an awesome stout, BTW)

19) If you are trying new stuff, try to talk to the guys behind the counter to see what to try. Guys like Alvin from Taps and Charlie from Hitachino are more than willing to explain their beers and give you some recommendations.

20) FIFTY DIFFERENT BEERS TO TRY! COME ON, THAT SHOULD BE THE ONLY REASON TO GO FOR BREWFEST!



(Some of the photos here were taken from Suanie's post about Brewfest, which you can read HERE!)

Come Party With The Thirsty Blogger & Beerbeer!

Heads up, all your alkies and drunks, two of the best alcohol blogs out there are having a JOINT anniversary celebration this Thursday, at S'Mores Bar & Restaurant. Drinks are courtesy of Guinness Anchor Bhd. (And maybe some cider courtesy of Baad Apples.)!

Seeya there!


Date: 3 May 2012 (Thursday)
Time: 6pm till late

Venue: S’MoreS Bar+ Restaurant + Chilled Out
Unit G2, Ground Floor, The Sphere
Bangsar South, 59200 Kuala Lumpur

Get Thirsty This Sunday!

Drink up folks, Beerbeer.org's Thirsty Sunday is BACK!

As usual, it's gonna be at bakita in Changkat Bukit Bintang, from 2.30pm to 7pm, this Sunday (yes, on April Fool's Day, but this ain't no joke. You don't joke about beer, ok?)

It's gonna be RM5 & RM10 for beers and cider like Kronenbourg Blanc, Carlsberg, Blackthorne, and there's gonna be TODDY ON DRAUGHT as well. Yes, TODDY. On TAP. Now THAT'S gonna be worth going for!

Here're the details of the event!

Seeya there!

Here's To Guinness & The Friendliest Day Of the Year!

So, last last Saturday, I was moving house all day, and was pretty damn tired. By the time we’d done most of the heavy lifting, it was already 6pm, and I was dying for a nice cold beer.

Then I remembered… It’s St. Patrick’s Day! There’s a BIG Guinness street party going on at Changkat Bukit Bintang!

So in the end, my desire for a nice cold glass of Guinness beat my tiredness to submission and I ventured out to KL for the party. I decided to park at Pavilion and take a short walk to Changkat from there (which turned out to be a pretty good idea because the traffic was CHAOS later).

I got there relatively early and the party hadn’t started going yet. But some of the pubs were already packed and people had started booking tables on the street already…

Anyway, I headed over to Loco, where these two jokers were already lepaking at along with KY:

Hello Fireangel and Suanie! WHEE!

But first things first… GIMME MY PINT OF GUINNESS!!!!

Oooh look, there’s even a nice little shamrock on top of the foam! What a nice touch!

Ahhhhhh, nothing like a nice pint of Guinness after a long day of moving house. I finished the first pint in double quick time, and was about to guzzle down the second when we were told to head over to the Arthur’s Lounge for a special visit:

For RM50, party-goers could go into the Arthur’s Lounge for a pint of Guinness, food and even get to pour their own pint of Guinness!

There, I learnt how to pour my own pint of Guinness, using the now famous two-part pour.

first, you gotta hold the glass at a 45 degree angle, and then PULL the tap towards you. Then as the glass slowly fills up, you SLLOOOWWLLYYY straighten the glass, and then close the tap. After that, you let the Guinness rest for a few minutes. This was the most agonising part for me, because you just do nothing but stare at the half-full glass, and watching the foam and guinness swirling and bubbling inside the damn glass... GAH! SOOO THIRSTYFYING!!!!

Anyway, after you've let the liquid settle for a while, you now hold the glass under the tap again, and this time, PUSH the lever all the way until the glass is full and there is a nice, dome-shaped foam on top. Now THAT'S A perfect Guinness two-part pour! So next time you go to a bar and they DON'T do the two-part pour, complain and ask for another glass! :D



Check out Fireangel pouring a pint of Guinness for herself, heh heh.

POUR ME A PINT, BAR WENCH! Hehe.

Oh, and that’s not all, you also get a cool, personalised Guinness glass with your name engraved on it! WHEE!

After lepaking at the lounge for a while (and stuffing our mouths with canapés), we headed back to Loco, where we got some GREAT seats at the balcony overlooking the party below:

I was already pretty tired by then, and decided to just plonk myself on the balcony and watch everyone else party. Oh, and enjoy the food at Loco, which also included these AWESOME chocolate mousse desserts that came in tiny Guinness glasses! Whee!



As you can see, the party was already beginning to get going by then, and people were really enjoying the whole RM10 a Guinness deal. The organisers also did a damn good job of making sure there was ALWAYS something happening at the party, with street performers running around, hot Guinness chicks serving Guinness, and also stage performances later on in the night.

Oh, and there was an AWESOME fireworks display that lasted most than 5 minutes long (I know it lasted that long because it lasted the length of Black Eyed Peas’ I Gotta Feeling, which is about that length hehe).

All in all, it was a damn good party, and apparently it also set the record for BIGGEST St. Patrick's Day celebration in Asia, with more than 10,000 party-goers joining the party!

So, here's to Guinness, and the Friendliest Day Of The Year! Now, Bring on Arthur's Day! :D

Beer Of The Week: Ay Caramba, It's Corona!

In case you haven't noticed, I've added a new label to the blog titled: Tipsy-Turvy, which of course, is the name of my regular alcoholic column in the newspaper. In addition to that, I'm starting a new 'Beer Of the Week' label where I'll choose a beer, any beer, and tokkok about it, just for the heck of it. Heh heh.

To kick things off, here's a beer that's always been close to my heart - Corona Extra.



You see, way way way way back when I didn't know better, and before there was Hoegaarden, Stella, or even Kilkenny; there was Corona. It's the only imported beer I seem to remember being available back then (correct me if I'm wrong), and I used to snub Tiger and Carlsberg just so I could be seen as 'cool' drinking Corona. That, plus the lemon in the beer always made it a great conversation starter with the girls hur hur hur.

Of course, later I found out that Corona isn't exactly a premium brand even in Mexico, and my American brother-in-law even laughed at me mockingly once when I ordered a Corona in front of him. Deep even calls it Mexican Donkey Piss. HMPH.

Anyway, a few days ago, I was invited to check out a Cinco De Mayo (Fifth of May) celebration at Las Carretas restaurant in Ampang, where the sponsored beer was of course, Corona.

This was a good chance for me to go back to a beer I once loved after trying so many other beers, and finding out once and for all why exactly I liked it so much.

And no, it's not because of the hot promoter girls:



Anyway, armed with my new *ahem* discerning beer palette, I realized that on its own, Corona is actually pretty bland and tastes just like any other lager. In fact, I'd even venture to say it's even weaker than Budweiser, and that's saying a lot. I don't even know why I liked it last time (hey, I was young and naive back then).

So what makes it so special then? Well, if you asked me, I'd say it's the lemon/lime slice that they always put inside the bottle:



Like Kenhynn of Beer Beer says, Corona is pretty pointless without the lemon or lime. Without it, it tastes bland and forgettable. But WITH it, the combination of the lemon and the beer makes for a refreshing, tangy and pretty cool drink. Of course, you could argue that you can add the lemon to ANY lager and it'll taste the same, but I suppose it just ain't the same if it ain't drunk from the Corona's clear bottle.

Oh, if you have some tequila lying around, you can use it in a submarine:



I've blogged about How to Make A Submarine a LONG LONG time ago, so go see how exactly it's made and how to drink it. And no, it's more than just dunking a shot of tequila into it and downing the whole thing. Now THIS it for me, the BEST way to drink a Corona, heh heh.

I suppose if forced to choose between Corona and the usual Tigers or Carlsbergs, I would still go for a Corona, though probably more for sentimental reasons than anything else. It IS a pretty refreshing beer, though like I said, make sure you get the lemon, or it's pretty much pointless.


Mexican LL Approves!

Beer Of The Week: It's Grimbergen. Not GrimBurger.

YAY NEW BEER!

Brussels just recently brought in Grimbergen Blonde, an abbey beer from Belgium, and yesterday they invited the whole bunch of us to their branch in Menara Hap Seng to thrash and puke on their flo... er... drink the beer!

Anyway, I got there really early, around 5:30pm (the event was supposed to start at 830pm); and got right into the new beer.



I love the pale golden straw colour of the beer, and the phoenix on the logo (I'm a sucker for stuff like dragons and phoenixes hehe). The beer is very light and citrusy on the nose, and it's got a sweet, caramel-y taste, with some hints of apples and pears. It tasted surprisingly light and smooth, but don't let that fool you, it's got 6.7%ABV! It's a light beer that is really strong! Heh heh.

Anyway, Grimbergen is an abbey beer - meaning it used to be made by monks but now it's done by a brewer who pays the monks for the right to use their beer recipe instead (in this case, it's Carlsberg) - so it's got the typical abbey beer goblet, just like Leffe.

Speaking of Leffe, I tried the two beers side by side, and found that Leffe Blonde actually tasted really bland next to Grimbergen.



The Pork Gang arrived around 8pm, and we got down to the serious business of drinking a lot of beer. Hard work, that. Oh, and they also served us some food during the launch, including these awesome mussels that were cooked with Grimbergen:



Cheese + Beer + Bacon + mussels = AWESOME.
No really. BEST. COMBINATION. EVER!

They also gave us some awesome siew yoke as well, which were snapped up within SECONDS of it coming to our table:



It was a real fun night. The Carlsberg MD did some rapping, the Luen Heng boss gave us Jager shots, and we all drank copious amounts of beer. Not much to complain about, except for the hangover I had this morning. GAH....

Free Music and Cheap Books In Xcess!

Today is Music Freedom Day! And in conjunction with the celebration, Bookxcess is having a Music Appreciation Night tomorrow (Firday) and Saturday, night in conjunction with ongoing their Music Freedom Day promotion:



This event is organized to appreciate some free performances by Malaysian musicians including Azmyl Yunor,

Here are the details:

Date: 4th-5th March 2011 Time: 8pm-9pm
Venue: Bookxcess, 3rd Floor, Amcorp Mall
Admission is free!

RSVP At the Facebook event page, and non-members will get a FREE BookXcess membership and one FREE book thong when they attend the event.

Even if you don't show up for the shows, at least go check out the promotion, which has the AWESOME Rolling Stone Cover-To-Cover box set going for 30% discount from its alrady discounted and cheap price:



Usual price is RM99.90, but for the promo, it's gonna be about RM63 only! Dammit, I should have waited....

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Oh, and at the same time, they're also having a promo for International Women's Day, with discounts for selected women-themed books:




And no, guys, I don't think back-issues of FHM or Maxim count...

Let's Have a Beer Picnic This Sunday! WHEE!!

Do you like beer?
Are you sick of all the usual beers they serve at the pubs?
Then head on over to Sid's Pubs Bukit Tunku this weekend for SID'S BEERFEST, where there will be THIRTY beers from all over the world available for you to try!



Sid's has been having a weekly beer promotion on these bottled beers for almost two weeks now, this is what's available (sorry its a bit blurry, click on it for a clearer version):



That's on top of the regular beers, which I'm sure you're all familiar with:



I'm planning to bring a nice big mat and a picnic lunch there so I can lepak in the BIG garden in front of Sid's and have my beers there! Woot!

Oh, and if you see THIS guy there:



Go say "HI SID!" and tell him to buy ME a drink! MUAHAHA!

PS: For more details, check out the FB Event page HERE.

Party with a Young Male Cavorting Alien At MONSTROCITY!

Hello everyone! I’m Ally the Baby Alien. You may have seen me in a past Fun with Toys & MS Paint post, where I accompanied my mom to her ass-kicking session with Ripley:



Anyway, if there’s one thing we Aliens love to do, it’s PAAARRTEH! And what better way to parteh then with FREE DRINKS!!!! YAY! Yup, we’re giving out FREE DRINKS HERE!

But before that, you better read on first, or I’ll BITE OFF YOUR NECK AND SPIT ACID ALL OVER YOUR HEART MUAHAHAHAHA! HISSSSS!



Ahem.

Anyway, us monsters (and other assorted scary things) will be partying at
the MONSTROCITY party at Coco Banana (Sunway Pyramid) this Thursday!

Here are the details of the party:

Venue: Coco Banana (Sunway Pyramid)
Date: 14th October 2010 (Thursday)
Event time: 10:00pm till 12:00am

There’s gonna be DRINKS! LIVE SHOWS! And ENTERTAINMENT! WHEE!!! Oh, and the theme is HORROR and GOTH, so let out your inner monster and come party with us! (And leave your space marines at home, kthxbai)



What’s this party all about? Well, it’s part of the ENCORE series of parties, organised by the Horeca School of Excellence (Horeca stands for Hotels, Restaurants & Cafés, BTW), where they use their hard-learned awesome service industry skills to organise some kick-ass parties.

Yeah. Because every well-respected hotelier, restaurantier or bartender must know how to organize kick-ass parties.

MONSTROCITY is only the first of these parties, there’s gonna be more to come – just check out and ‘LIKE’ the ENCORE Facebook page to find out when’s the next party!



Drinks? Of course, there’ll be drinks! They’ll be serving four Encore signature cocktails there (while stocks last, so get there early!).

If you’re feeling like Tom Cruise in Cocktail (now THAT was a scary movie), there’s even a ‘Make Your Own Cocktail’ experience, where a HSE Mixologist will teach you how shake, muddle, mix and pour your own cocktails, and how to perfect that perfect awesome-possum tangy chilly sour sweet cocktail you’ve always wanted to try (but never knew how to!



Anyway, back to that free booze I mentioned earlier. Do you wanna get some vouchers for free booze at MONSTROCITY? Then be quick, cos the fastest 10 readers to comment on this post and say they want the vouchers (with your names please) will get two free drink vouchers free! WHEEE!

See you there! GRAAAWWRRR! CHOMP! HISSSSSS!!!! GAH! MARINES! RUN AWAY!!!!!

Rip It Up, Curl It Up!

Last week, me, LL and Reta went all the way to KLCC to stare at Elfie's ass.



Now that is some ass, eh? HAHAHAHA. Best advertisement for Ripcurl EVAR!

We were there for the official Ripcurl launch of their flagship KLCC store on the third floor, and there was food, a runway fashion show and some er... local hip-hop artists performing.

Two things were great for me that day - the food, and the shopping after the event.

The food was pretty damn goooood. Apparently there some special cupcakes as well, but I was too busy stuffing my mouth with the awesome O'Briens sandwiches to notice. Would have been awesome if there were beer to wash it down, but we WERE in the middle of freaking KLCC in a healthy sports lifestyle fashion line's event after all... NO DRUNKARDS ALLOWED. Damn.

After that we went up to the store where we were given a 40% discount for anything Ripcurl and Mooks in the store, and I bought a nice little shirt, while LL bought a handbag. Not bad, not bad. And that's on TOP of the cool caps and laptop cover that they gave out as doorgifts! WOOT! Thanks for the invite, Elfie! Next time please provide booze kthxbai!