Beer in Asia, what you need to know

Here is one to wet your whistle, and I don’t mean that figuratively, unless you think I mean I am going by the numbers — every pun intended, obviously.

The Singapore beer market is dominated by Heineken Asia Pacific, formerly Asia Pacific Breweries, and its most popular brand, Tiger Beer, with 28 percent of total sales in 2015, is the front runner. This may only speak of Singapore but being that the largest consumer of beer in the South East Asia Region is in fact Singapore, what better way is there for measuring the the yardstick against all other party nations in the region, than the island nation itself?

Beer is a tradition, with the earliest distilleries producing the favoured party beverage in Sumer, Mesopotamia (ancient Iraq) circa 6000 years ago. Its was introduced by Europeans in the 19th century, with modern breweries established in British India, the Dutch East Indies (today Indonesia), China, and Japan. Asia’s first modern brewery was established in 1830 in India entirely using European brewing technology.

So what does this all mean?

Southeast Asia’s former colonial masters were great beer drinkers, and the colonies were quick studies: from San Miguel Beer in 1890 to Tiger Beer in 1930 to a flurry of Indochina beers in the 1960s, the region now boasts a robust catalog of brews made just for the tropical heat.

So, to put it into perspective Tiger Beer may be to most consumed beer in South East Asia but according to corporate the favourite is still Lion, a lager produced by Lion Brewery. My point is this, when speaking of popularity or sheer consumption, all goes out the window when in search for a good bottle of brew. I think you get the picture — we simply cannot escape our history, especially when it comes to beer, the cold bevies we are to down to wash away the sweltering heat of the tropical sun.

While the Europeans still consume more beer in general, the surge in production of beers in Asia can only mean one thing. For travelers from and/or around the region beer-drinking is very much becoming apart of the Asian vacationers practice where beer-drinking is as much part of the experience of the region as seeing the temples, the markets and other attractions.