Archipelago Brewery has teamed up with The Tuckshop to custom create a limited-edition beer infused with gula melaka and calamansi to be sold specially at the F&B joint.
The use of the local ingredients in the making of the beer was inspired by The Tuckshop’s mantra ‘Made by Locals’, with the craft brewery – owned by Asia Pacific Breweries, which is in turn owned by Heineken – incorporating fresh calamansi juice and gula melaka (brown palm sugar) into the refreshing lager.
This beer harkens back to Archipelago’s initial days in 2006, when its first brewer Fal Allen had created the brewery’s original core range that featured a unique blend of East and West with the use of local ingredients. If you remember those days, there was the Traveller’s Wheat, Straits Pale and Trader’s Ale, which included the use of “exotic” Asian ingredients such as lemon grass, tamarind and, yes, gula melaka.
The beer also follows the Archipelago’s tradition of working with local drinkeries to create such custom beers; there was that coffee-infused schwarzbier it made with coffee joint Forty Hands, and the smoked IPA in collaboration with barbecue eatery Smokey’s BBQ.
The term “tuck shop” generally means a small retailer selling food items; in Singapore it’s also used colloquially to describe a school canteen.
The rich golden calamansi and gula melaka lager is an easy-drinking brew at 4.5% ABV with a refreshing zest from the calamansi, while the gula melaka adds the expected sweetness to help round out the citrusy zing.
The beer is available at The Tuckshop for $9 (330ml) and $14 (500ml).
Archipelago The Tuckshop Edition
Maker: Archipelago Brewery (Asia Pacific Breweries)
Style: Lager
ABV: 4.5%
