Malt & Grain

What malt is beer brewed from in Singapore? No brewing barley grows in the city-state, so all the malt is imported. Malting means letting barley germinate and then drying it, so that its starch converts into fermentable sugar during the brew.

A pale lager like Tiger relies on pale malt. It gives the beer its straw-to-gold colour and flavours of bread and biscuit, without any dark roasted notes getting in the way. The style guidelines for international pale lager allow a colour range of 4 to 12 EBC, a measure of beer colour.

International lagers around the world are often brewed with rice or corn alongside barley malt. These adjuncts make the beer lighter and drier without adding body. How much of this any particular brand uses is entirely up to the brewery in question.

A stout works quite differently. It calls for roasted malt with flavours of coffee, cocoa and bitter chocolate, turning the beer nearly black. The guideline for Foreign Extra Stout ranges from 59 to 79 EBC.

The stout thus stands as a counterpoint to the pale lager, and both fit a country that sources its grain from the harbour. Singapore has been a trading hub since its founding, and that's as true for raw ingredients as it is for finished beer.

Anyone looking for malt character in Tiger Beer will find it more in bread and biscuit than in smoke or caramel. Archipelago Brewery's ABC Extra Stout shows the dark side of the coin, and both beers are made from malt that has already travelled halfway around the world.