Talk about offering an incentive to drive support for your national football/rugby/netball/table tennis/Scramble team! A free beer is being promised to every adult in Australia if they win the Ashes. If you’re as clueless about cricket as us, the Ashes is some cricket match played between Australia and England, named as such because the winner takes home at urn of ashes (yes, we’ve given up trying to understand the game, let alone figure why anyone would want this honour).

Carlton and United Breweries sponsor the Australian team and they’ll be publishing coupons in five Australian newspapers which are good for a bottle of Victoria Bitter if the Aussies win. It’s estimated that this will cost them AUD$20 million. It’s been 24 years since they’ve won on home soil, we sincerely hope they don’t end up “bitter” about it!

Our local S-League folks should take a sip from this marketing ploy!

We both love our Aussie beers, both the industrial brews and the numerous craft beers from Downunder. It was a pleasant surprise when we started seeing pubs and restaurants installing Victoria Bitter taps especially in areas frequented by Australians in Singapore. Check out bars in Robertson Quay and Clarke Quay to find these.

Where we did sample our draft VB was our own Changi “local”, Hanamco at Changi Village. It’s the sister outlet of Charlie’s Corner and a favourite hangout whenever we go biking to Pulau Ubin.

After our ride, its ever refreshing cold taste hits the sweet spot and tastes as good as what we’ve tried when in Australia. It’s got good head and a nice crisp, bitter aftertaste. Best of all, Hanamco serves it in those perfect VB pint glasses.

On this occasion, we were introduced to a beer we’d never seen before, Silly Saison. I was particularly drawn to this partly because I’d never tried a Saison beer before but because it was called Silly – I used to drive a Celica which my mates often labeled as a Silly-Car. Yes, it’s a lame excuse to sample a beer because we never do need an excuse!

A Saison beer is traditionally a low-alcohol ale brewed by farmhouses in the winter months, stored and consumed in summer. Its tastes are usually complicated by adding ingredients like coriander, orange peel which gives this beer a slightly spicy tastes. The Silly Saison lives up to this and makes a nice evening session beer.

This beer is also available at Happy Dayz. But after biking on a hot afternoon, we’d rather stick to our beloved VB.

VB ad for the every-man

Budweiser ‘Wassup’ Ad

Boddington’s beer advert 1992

FLASH BEER Australia Flashdance , mmm Beer

Guinness – Surfer ( extended )

My favourite beer has a new commercial. But its very Aussie contexted, so I’m not feeling the full relevance, though I can appreciate that it would be a blast for true blue Australians in heart or mind. I guess the Singapore version of a regular bloke would be  ‘Guys Who’ve Piled Their Buffet Plates Three Stories High and Gone Back for Seven Rounds’, ‘Taxi Uncles Who Deftly Pluck Their Facial Hair Between Two Coins’ and ‘Men Who’ve Picked Their Nose While Waiting at the Traffic Lights in their Car’ and ‘Men Who’ve Carried Their Girlfriend’s Handbag While Out Shopping’. Actually the last category of people are not real men so I struck them out – and they definitely don’t deserve any mentions in any beer ads.  Any others you can think of?

I’ve lifted some parts of the article below:

The work is the biggest campaign yet from the Sydney outpost of Droga5, which launched after David Nobay departed Saatchi & Saatchi two years ago.

Filmed in Ballarat with a cast of 1500, it features a march of comical archetypal Aussie men. They include:

• “Blokes punching above their weight”
• “Men who’ve had their arm in a cow”
• “Guys who peaked in high school”
• “Meat tray winners”
• “Blokes who’ve done the phantom”
• “The manscapers”
• “Guys who claim to have punched a shark”
• “The Brewers”
• “The miniature bat signers”

Nobay, of  said: “What was clear to us from the start is that VB is the great leveller – that’s what makes it such a quintessential Aussie brand. It doesn’t matter who you are, what you do or wear, when you pick up VB you become a part of something authentic. Our creative challenge was to amplify that in a way that is equally authentic, Australian and real. The result is the ‘The Regulars’ and as a team it’s work we’re really proud of.”

Here’s a blast from the past I found that reminded me of the ABC Stout ads so iconic in the 80′s in Singapore:

But one of my fave Australian beer commercials has to be this – the BIG BEER ad:

In my course of work, I end up visiting and checking out many hotels. This time round, I went round several in the Causeway Bay area and there’re basically only two 4-star hotels in that bustling area and a few boutique hotels. But the 5-star Crowne Plaza will be opening there in October.

Anyway, sticking to the subject if booze, I did a site inspection of Excelsior Hotel and checked out the basement Dickens Bar. The staff were preparing for lunch but what caught my eye was the number of beer taps and in particular, a Marston’s Pedigree draft.

I promised myself to attempt a return after the day’s business obligations and did exactly that.

Dicken’s has to be one of the best pub finds in Hong Kong. It has 11 taps including the Pedigree ale. As it was served, it looked like a typical British ale, light amber in colour and took some time to settle, building a nice, heavy layer of froth.

But what struck me was the sweet taste. At first, I thought the glass was dirty, shifted around the glass and took another gulp. But the sweet taste was unmistakable. It’s a sweet, fruity, creamy ale and the sweetness linger through the after taste. For the guys out there, if you like Hoegaarden but think it’s too girly to be seen with a pint in your hand, Pedigree could be your next best alternative. Unfortunately, I doubt you’d find this ale available readily in Asia Pacific.

The selling point of this joint must be the 11 beer taps, including Victoria Bitter! Seriously, how often do you find VB on tap? I’ve been to Sydney, Melbourne, Perth so many times and hardly seen the green label available fresh in most pubs. But here it is in Hong Kong! Other taps included are the usual suspects like Tiger, Heineken, Carlsberg, Strongbow, Hoegaarden, Kilkenny, Leffe, Guinness and San Miguel.

It does have a decent selection of bottles too including regional brews like Tsing Tao, Blue Girl or try the Guinness Foreign Extra Stout. Still, with 11 tap, it has to be one of the city’s most crowded bar tops and why would you drink bottles?

If you know of another pub in Hong Kong with more taps, do let us know!