Have you wondered how beer is made? There is a beer factory which is open to the public to visit at Tuas Singapore. Yes, it is Singapore’s first locally-brewed beer, also the national beer for Singapore. You can make a booking online for Tiger Brewery Tour, go reserve your slot before you pay a visit.
You can park your car at the visitor car park but most visitors come here by taxi or public transport because there is unlimited free flow of beer sampling after the one hour tour. Remember: “No drink driving”!
Dutch have their Heineken, Singaporeans have our Tiger
The factory is called Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore (APBS, formerly known as Malayan Breweries) has been here in Singapore for over 80 years. It was founded in 1932 and can be found in more than 60 countries now.
Why do they call it Tiger Beer?
To name the first beer in 1932, they drew inspiration from a local legend. In 1902, a tiger was shot in the Raffles Hotel Long Bar, by Raffles Institution school principal CM Phillips. For many years after, well into the 1980s, the skin left from that tiger decorated the bar. It was a story often retold there. APB executives of the time, remembering the story, and with the tiger being the very symbol of vigour and vitality, named their beer Tiger, adding a coconut palm to the logo to signify its tropical origins. That was how Tiger beer was born.
ID check at the Tiger Reception
At the reception, visitors must show identification then a visitor pass will be given. We booked our tour at 1 pm. There were about 20 pax on our tour. Tours run from 1 to 6 pm. Children below 18 years old will not be given a visitor pass but only a stamp at the hand. No free flow of beer sampling but instead, soft drink will be provided.
Digital Presentation
The tour starts slightly late, 5 min behind the schedule. The guide brings us to the Visitor Center, where there is a digital presentation telling some history and heritage of Tiger Beer.
At the visitor center, there are many display of tiger beer bottles from different era. Quite interesting to find all the different packaging and seals.
Some of the bottles are still having the old name – Malayan Breweries.
Get a closer look at some of the antique of Tiger Beer in Visitor Center.
Some old advertisement poster can be seen, was drawn poster not photo from the camera.
Smell the malt
There are only 4 ingredients to make beer, the malt, hops, yeast, and water. You can touch two different kinds of malt and smell them. The lighter color malt which makes tiger lager and the darker one is due to roasted malt (chocolate color) which make stout. The darker color, roasted malt smell stronger like coffee.
You get to see the hops and yeast too. Hops are the flowers of the hop plant used primarily as a flavoring and stability agent in beer. Yeast converts sugars into alcohol and CO2. And finally 90% are made from water, that is why you keep going to the toilet after drinking beer.
Recycle Used Malt
After the malt was used for making beer, the waste did not get throw away, instead, it gets to recycle and resell to a nearby chicken farm in Singapore. These residual protein and fiber-rich leftovers are an excellent feed for chickens. The truck from the chicken farm will pick up the waste from the silver tank. The two red tanks are “danger” ingredient, CO2.
Factory Plant Visit Begin!
Moving up the factory plant. No photography is allowed at the operation site. The whole site is fully automated 24 hours daily and I did not see a single worker. However, the guide told us there are frequent checks on the machines by the engineers. Once you entered the factory, be prepared to sweat a lot as it is quite warm inside, looks like no ventilation. Luckily no humans working inside, only curious visitors like us went in, luckily for 15 mins only, so you will still survive. There are in total 10 steps of process in making beer, which includes milling and mashing the barley malt, fermentation, storage, and filtration, with over 250 checks to ensure the excellent quality of each can of beer when it reaches consumers. The process takes about 7 days to 30 days, it depends on the alcohol level.
After that, we went into the second plant to see how tiger beer is packed. Again, be prepared for the heat. There are 40,000 of cans of beer being produced and packed hourly. Again, fully automated plant.
Photo session at Tiger Beer Garden
This is the old truck used back in the olden days. I was on my way delivering tiger beer to the customers. 🙂
Movie Session
A tunnel leading us to a mini theater.
Excited visitors grab their best seats before the show start. Only 15 mins.
After the movie, there are quiz and if you get the answer right, you are allowed to hands on the “pour yourself the perfect draught beer“. It can be quite fun, I saw a visitor pouring his beer with plenty of bubble gas and everyone laugh. Obviously, he needs more practice. After pouring like a bartender, you also get to drink your own poured beer.
Little Tiger Beer Museum
Tiger beer has won many beer competition, over 40 medals since it was first brewed in 1932.
Time for a Tiger
Happy hour at the Tiger Beer Tavern! Every visitor who is over 18 years of age is given half a pint of tiger beer and then unlimited of free flow of sampling. Children under 18 years old can ask for soft drinks. By the way, I can’t drink beer as I am allergic to malt and will have rashes after drinking. The above picture for “posing “only.
The tavern are very spacious, plenty of comfortable seats and aired with nice music, really nice ambient. Two young brothers were playing snooker while waiting for their parents to sample the freshly brewed beers.
I enjoyed the dart, the throwing sport a lot! I didn’t know I can do so well 🙂
Back in 1930, people believed “Beer is the medicine“. Apparently, regular consumption of beer was recommended by doctors of the time 🙂 🙂 Maybe the doctors that time love beer too much!
Tiger Beer Tour Goody Bag
A hardcover book about Tiger Beer was given to each of the visitors. Plenty of information and funny stories about Tiger Beer, including the haunted story in the plant 🙂
During the period of NDP month, a goodie bag is given to each visitor over 18 years in the month of August (Saturday only). The goodie bag consists of 3 types of Tiger Beer.
How to get here?
- Address: 459 Jalan Ahmad Ibrahim Singapore 639934
- By MRT : Boon Lay MRT Station and hop onto Bus Service No. 182 from the Bus Interchange which is just next to the MRT station. The bus took you there in approximately 20 minutes.
- If you are driving, there are free parking lots available.
Book via Klook to enjoy discount :
- Operating hour : Monday to Saturday, hourly tour from 1.00 pm to 6.30 pm.
- Adult : SGD $20.00 – An hour tour & unlimited free flow of beer sampling.
- Children : SGD $12.00 – An hour tour & soft drinks.
