Brew King is Back! Returning for a second year, the freestyle beer competition will be held again in Singapore this June/July.
The annual competition, run by the Asia Brewers Network, is designed to give craft brewing professionals the freedom to express themselves without the traditional boundaries of beerstyle guidelines.
Upon entering brewers are tasked to brew a beer according to a competition concept brief, not a style guideline like other competitions. Brewers are permitted to produce any beerstyle they like
(recognized or not) to showcase a designated hero ingredient and concept in their beer.
The beers entered are then be judged by a panel of brewers and then the public according to
the brewer’s notes of what they were aiming to produce.
The competition was first run in 2021 on collaboration with El Dorado hops. As El Dorado displays distinct tropical fruit characteristics brewers were asked simply to brew a tropical beer that showcased the characteristics of the El Dorado hop. Fourteen beers battles through two rounds of judging, professional & public, to be crowned the inaugural winner. The title was taken by Sunbird Brewing Company, a brewery founded only a year earlier.
Clive Tan (R) & Mark Lye (L) of Sunbird Brewing Company celebrate winning the inaugural Brew King Singapore.
Their entry, Sunbird’s “City of Gold”, was a hazy copper IPL (India Pale Lager) and wowed victorious brew wowing drinkers with light maltiness, pineapple, citrus and a slight hint of mango on the nose with notes of caramel, pineapple, citrus, mango and grapefruit on the palette.
New year, new challenge
This year’s competition is once again being supported by Yakima Valley’s CLS Farms and brewers will be tested with another, very different, hop variety; Zappa™.
Zappa™ is a proprietary neomexicanus hop grown by CLS Farms and prides itself on being pure, wild, and American. Competitors entering this year’s Brew King Singapore will have to summon up their creative juices to formulate and brew a beer that reflects these qualities and showcases the characters of the hop which, among others, are passion fruit, mint, mango, white pepper, spice, fruity pebbles and orange.
Despite strict social distancing restrictions there was a great turnout for the public judging event in 2021
The people’s vote
Once the brews are ready they will undergo two rounds of judging. First the brewers themselves will decide which are the top 5 beers, those 5 will then go forward to a public judging during an open event attended by the island nation’s craft beer lovers.
Despite pandemic restrictions still being in place in 2021 the public celebration saw a full house at Club Street’s 36 Brewlab with a great turnout from the craft community, giving them the opportunity to appreciate the brewing skills on display. Attendees were able to try not only the 5 top brews but all the competition entries throughout the afternoon and well into the evening.
Following the success of the inaugural competition 2021 the Asia Brewers Network has already launched Brew King Philippines with a vision to bring the freestyle brewing competition to other Asian brewing markets in 2023 and beyond.
Registration for Brew King Singapore 2022 is already open and closes on the 15th June. The brewers and public judging will be held on Saturday the 23rd July, and at the end of the day we’ll be crowning this year’s Brew King Singapore!
For more information please contact the Asia Brewers Network HERE
