The Great Beer Experiment

The Great Beer Experiment or TGBE to those of us who have come to dearly love this place call it, has been my regular watering hole now for nigh on two years. The attraction being that it was hip and new when it first opened with the added attraction and mystique of not knowing when this «new beer joint» was going to be gone forever. Well, it’s certainly demonstrated that it’s here to stay and for me has become more attractive by having the quality of «being there for me». Food and drink joints in Singapore are as ephemeral as the local morning mist, here today and gone today. So when you find a quality joint that sticks around a while, you start to get hopeful. I am more than hopeful about TGBE’s longevity and niche in Singapore beer culture. I certainly have high hopes for beer in Singapore, that Singaporeans will come to be known to have as discerning a palate when tasting ales as when they quaff a nice mature red.
Ok, brass tacks…
TGBE is brought to you by the fine folks at The Drinking Partners (
). These are the same folk who decided to bring you all the fine continental crafts on tap at Druggist (
).
While I love Druggist, I have to say that TGBE will always be my go to hole because while it is not a dive bar, an institution of which I am indefensibly fond, it is an excellent place to go have good beer without having to risk rubbing shoulders with hipsters or get caught in their miasma of smug hipness. Of hipsters, I have very mixed feelings… buy me a pint at TGBE and I’ll consider giving you the unexpurgated version on the history and ills of hipsterism and their inbred cousins the lads.
TGBE has a special niche in the slowly momentum-​gaining Singapore craft beer movement. It features a very very honorable cavalcade of continental craft brewers, Mikkeller, ToØl, De Struisse, De Molen, Amager and Birra del Borgo to just drop a few names. If these names mean anything to you at all, you’ll be hopping the next MRT, catching the next cab, hailing your next Über to get here. No one else carries a more extensive or as fresh an inventory of really ground-​breaking, interesting and cutting-​edge continentals as TGBE.
So no man is an island, except a beer nerd. So if you’re beer-​curious or beer-​savvy and you’re wondering if TGBE is going to have anything for your friends, family or hangers on, don’t fret. TGBE carries Witterkerke, Bavik and Palm, in addition to a pretty comprehensive list of fruit lambic a from Lindemann, ciders from Cornish Orchards, Crabbies ginger beer and of course, Mongozo. There will be something for everybody, if you bother to look.
At the time of this review, I have to recommend the following (for details and reviews you can look these up on Rate Beer or Beer Advocate):
Amager. Batch 1000.
Amager. Wookiee IPA.
Amager. Surly Todd.
Amager. Winter in Bangalore.
Mikkeller. 1000 IBU.
Mikkeller. Cellar de can Roca. A very very nice pils.
Birra del Borgo: Just about all the Borgos are good. Special mentions are the Etrusca, BigBodyIBU and Stars and Stripes.
ToØl: Dangerously Close to Stupid.
ToØl: Blossom.
ToØl: By Udder Means.
ToØl: Battle Royale.
De Struisse: Pannepot Grand Reserva 2010. This one is peaking right about now.
De Struisse: Struisse Rosse.
Prairie Artisan Ales: Anything is good… I mean anything is worth trying, nothing is bad. They don’t brew mediocre ales at all…
TGBE also has 3 taps serving up a constantly changing lineup of craft brews, usually from the above Brewers. At the time of this review, cups are $ 10 and a US pint $ 14.
While they don’t serve food, Pasarbella encourages you to graze, which is to wander to drink, eat and browse as you you please. So you can pick up food and bring it here or you can pick up a pint or a bottle and take it to where your food is. Part of the wonderful charm of this place and more than ample reason to drop by TGBE.

This is a perfect complement to the other shops at Pasarbella. They keep one or two beers on tap at ~$ 14/​pint, and there are quite a few excellent choices in the cooler. Best of all, you can browse their shelves for some take-​away bottles while you are sipping. There are beers from all over the world organized by style. My favorite is the «barrel-​aged» corner. I recommend grabbing a pint before heading to another stall for food. It’s a perfect complement to the paella around the corner at Le Patio, for example.

A wonderful beer shop in the lovely Pasarbella. They have an awesome collection of Belgian beers, ciders, and other bottles you can’t easily find at the supermarket. The staff are really friendly and knowledgable. You can hang out there and enjoy a pint or a bottle. I especially love the ciders there. Relaxing, friendly and unpretentious!