Tiger Asian Lager September 26, 2019

Hey peeps. How's everyone week going so far. This past weekend I was at the Bronx Zoo and was finally able to get a couple of brews at their weekend only beer stand: Zoo Brews. When I went to the Zoo earlier in the summer, I posted their beer list to my IG page. It wasn't monumental but they had a couple of smaller craft breweries such as Fat Tire and Captain Lawrence on tap and a number of other beers in cans. The one beer that I wanted to try, which is apropos for the Bronx Zoo is Tiger Asian Lager.

Tiger was first produced in Singapore in 1932 via a joint venture between Singaporean food and beverage conglomerate Fraser and Neave, Limited and Heineken as the Malayan Breweries Limited. Tiger would win a number of awards in its early years and would continue production during the years leading into and during World War II.

Post World War would see Tiger continue to grow in its surrounding markets and it would eventually expand into Europe, the United States and Oceania. Heineken Asia Pacific would become the sole owner of the Tiger brand in 2012 and it would help to continue Tiger's growth and presence worldwide. It is brewed in 16 countries and available in 50. Tiger brews their classic original, a lighter version of the original called Tiger Crystal, a wheat beer called Tiger White and an Asian Black Lager what is brewed with black rice called Tiger Black.

 Here are some vintage Tiger beer ads from throughout the years:

I did come across something interesting as to how Tiger is made. As with many beers, the listed base ingredients tend to be Water, malt, yeast and hops. But with the listing for Tiger from the DBrewing page this is what they show for the four ingredients used to make Tiger:

Ingredients: Water, malted barley, sugar*, hop extract
*Sugar can often be added to beer to add flavour and body. Don’t worry, because this doesn’t mean that the beer is packed with sugars, as most of the sugar is used by the yeast to create alcohol and carbon dioxide during fermentation.

So does this mean that Tiger uses yeast and extra sugar in their beer in the form of sucralose? Is this what Tiger means when they refer to "The ‘tropical lagering’ process brews a bravely creative and unpretentious lager." Going to the Heineken page for Tiger Beer also gives another ambigious answer as to the "Tropical lagering."  Here is what they say:

Just a stone’s throw away from the equator, people said Singapore was too hot to brew beer. In 1932 Tiger defied the odds and pioneered Tropical Lagering, a unique brewing process designed to refresh a nation. Tiger Beer has been challenging convention ever since.

I have no clue as to what that means and why they use sucralose in the brewing process instead of yeast (?). I hope some of you more informed brewers/brewing aficionados will help shed some light on this. Well, enough about the lagering of the beer to the beer itself.

As you can see from the can, I was lucky to get one of the Tiger beers made and imported from Singapore. I did a quick video on the Tiger beer on my IG-TV channel that you can watch here: SiscoVanilla Has a Tiger Asian Lager at The Bronx Zoo 09-22-2019. 

Clocking in at 5.0 ABV and an 18 IBU,  I found it to be crisp, dry with a little bit more body that I expected. I really wished that it was ice cold, in the way that the Singaporeans drink Tiger in their tropical environment paired with their spicy food. I can see how it does the job at beating the heat. 

I'm not sure for how much long the Zoo Brews booth will be open near the Wild Asia part of the Zoo. But if you are at the Bronx Zoo during the next few weekends, check them out. They have cans, pints and sangria. 

For my next post, I'm staying in the Bronx. I recently took a trip to the Gun Hill Brewery Company and wanted to let you all know what I thought about it. So stay tuned true believers. 

Until Then Happy Drinking,
SiscoVanilla
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