Beerfest Asia’s second iteration is bigger and better

Christopher Lim | The Business Times | Fri Jun 18 2010

Singapore, June 18, 2010- THE key sign of a beverage festival’s viability is making it beyond the first year.

And Beerfest Asia swept into its second iteration in style, with an emphasis on business opportunities and branding showcases.

Some 3,500 people attended the opening night on Wednesday, and 21,500 more are expected to show up by the time things wrap up at midnight on Sunday.

The audience target exceeds last year’s 18,000 by almost 40 per cent.

But the real news is the number of first-time exhibitors hoping to get into the local beverage market.

Malaysian company Napex Marketing is one of the most interesting newcomers.

It has set up franchise breweries for German brand Starker in Malaysia and China, and is here to gauge trade and consumer interest.

“If there’s interest here in Singapore, we’d definitely consider expanding here,” says Napex brand manager Desmond Pang.

“In fact, we would need to set up a brewery in Singapore if we entered this market, because Starker beer has a shelf life of only several days, which makes it impractical to import stock from Malaysia.”

Golden double
Brewing a new franchised beer here would be a welcome alternative to importing bottles or cans, and judging by the crisp taste of Napex’s version of Starker’s two varieties, The Malaysian company has its production technique sorted out nicely.

Both flavours deserve the Gold medals they won in their respective Wheat and Pilsner micro-brewery categories of the Asia Beer Awards 2010, held in conjunction with Beerfest.

Storm Brewing from Bali is another newcomer, and brewer Stephen Spinney hit town to see if his beer would be popular here. If the Gold his Iron Stout won in the Stout micro-brewery category is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes.

One of the more unexpectedly promising participants is North Taiwan Brewing, whose Abbey Beer has a bottle label that looks similar to Chinese cooking wine, but tastes like an astonishingly attractive take on Belgian ale.

This is North Taiwan Brewing’s first Beerfest – and, hopefully, far from its last.

Veteran local players have new tricks up their sleeves to match the buzz from the newcomers.

BeerStyle Distribution is showing off the Southern Tier Imperial Choklat Stout it imports.

The 11 per cent alcohol stout is made with bittersweet Belgian chocolate, and tastes like what might happen if you blend an iced coffee with a stout and paired the result with a bar of chocolate. It’s decadent and quite divine.

Even the big boys have a bolder presence this year.

Carlsberg, for example, is out to showcase the breadth of its portfolio of beers, according to Carlsberg Singapore’s assistant brand manager Jamie Lee.

While few of these varieties have been launched here, that could change if enough interest is shown at Beerfest.

Notable beers in the Carlsberg family on display include Russian brand Baltika, whose limited-edition No 20 Jubilee anniversary beer is here for the first time. And malty and robust Baltika No 7 clinched a Silver in the Pilsner European-style category.

One exception to the trend of expansion is the local Archipelago micro-brewery, which has its most conservative festival showing yet, in a move towards consolidation of its portfolio ahead of a rebranding exercise later this year.

“We’re focusing very much on four main flavours, with the possibility of doing others as seasonal ones,” says Archipelago chief brewmaster Fal Allen. The quartet of beers has already been soft-launched for three months but hasn’t been officially publicised yet, although the Gold the Summer Ale won in the Golden Ale micro-brewery category should help spread the word.

Exclusive touch
Also worth noting is that while the physical footprint of Beerfest Asia has increased from last year’s debut, exhibitors have expanded upwards too. Pacific Beverages has constructed an exclusive VIP lounge on top of its booth to showcase the local launch of Weihenstephaner beer on tap, although its perennially popular Leffe Bruin and Blonde flavours hogged the Awards spotlight with a pair of Golds.

There is a vast increase in the number of female models brought in to promote beers at the festival. One exhibitor single-handedly flew in 60 models from Vietnam.

Even Swiss Dreams, which has always focused on substance over flash, was pressured into hiring some models to keep up with the crowd, according to founder Shumit Arun Chanda.

He need not have bothered though, because his Swiss beers on tap speak amply for themselves, particularly the Quollfrisch and Holzfass, which are normally only available bottled. Both have a malty freshness that’s refreshingly free of oxidation, and the Quollfrisch won a Gold in the International Lager category.

The intelligent improvements to Beerfest Asia bode well for its continued relevance as it seeks to avoid the pitfalls of 2008’s ill-fated Singapore Beer Festival, which never made it past the first year.

Sphere Exhibits, an SPH subsidiary, and Beerfest Pte Ltd, a subsidiary of the Ublues Group, are intent on continuing to increase the scale and quality of the festival down the road, according to Chua Wee Phong, Sphere Exhibits executive director and Edward Chia, the festival’s director.

Beerfest Asia 2010 runs until Sunday night at the Marina Promenade F1 tracks behind the Singapore Flyer; tickets $10-90 from bytes.sg.

More information available at beerfestasia.com