Brewerkz Hopback Ale

Brewed by Brewerkz
Style: Bitter
Riverside Point, Singapore

Serve in English pint

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Hand Pumped so this presents with a flat white head and is a nut brown colout. Aroma is quite nice courtesy of the dry hopping, flavour and mouhfeel are quite good. Flavour is a mix of stonefruits and has a very strong transfer of sweetness over to a pleasent bitter finish. Given the location, it is a long way from ye-old england so it is a pretty good attempt at a beer in a country where 500ml cans of Malt-Liquor and Tiger beer seems the norm.

From a 500ml bottle that was bottle conditioned. Very nice classic interpretation of a British Special Bitter. Nice golden color, good head retention, nice hop bite that blends well with the maltiness.

On draught at the brewery. Poured a dense gold color with a light body and slight hop-over-malt flavor balance. Very clean, very smooth, very nice cask!.

Smells acid but the taste is not acid at all. Light body, short end. Nothing else (for me!) special to report.

It’s such a novelty for an Australia-based rater to find a hand-pumped cask ale that I probably over-rate any I find. I won’t break the habit here. This Singaporean cask ale brewed by a Canadian using Challenger and Goldings hops is very similar to his Golden Ale but with more bite and a softer body. I liked the Golden Ale and this is better. It was hazy gold with a muted head. The aroma echoed the Golden Ale - lime marmalade and violets, plus some Challenger spice. Nice soft cask-conditioned mouthfeel. Good, fresh rush of hops in the first sip, a nice prelude to the long finish. Lots of citrus and pine - arguably more US in flavour than UK. Good resinous finish. Very good. (Draught at brewpub)

Cask Conditioned in the brewpub
Hazy golden color. Nice hoppy aroma, a bit fruity and grassy; malt taste, good hopping, aromatic, strong ending bitterness. The best offer of the evening.

UPDATED: JUL 18, 2006 Its funny when you do a bit of a wander around the site and discover the odd beer that has escaped rating. This is obviously only available from the pub and, as always, support should be given to those places that attempt a beer of this nature. It presents like a hand pumped beer should with a scant head due to lack of carbonation. There is a definite dry hop nose and the flavour is well balanced by hop and malt. This beer is probably a beginners beer as it seems to be the introductory beer for Singaporean palates brought up on fizzy Asian lagers. While there are always a large number of expats the concentration of locals seems to assist in the success of the establishment.
Earlier Rating: 10/27/2003 Total Score: 2.9
The commercial description on the tasting sheet simply states that it is "Dry hopped, cask conditioned, hand-pumped." Yup, sounds about right. The colour is sherry like so it is a bit paler than your average Pommy style. The head lasts well in the pint glass. The nose is a soft malty and toffee with some dry hopping evident. Yhe mouthfeel is fine and taste similar, my only misgiving about the goldings hops used is that too much can give a slightly cardboardy finish.

Cask conditioned/handpumped@brewpub
Pale yellow color, small white head. Lemony hoppy nose. Floral hoppy in the light body, similar to their Golden Ale, but this one has longer hoppy aftertaste.

UPDATED: JUL 13, 2005 Cask at the brewpub. Pale amber. Rich grapefruity hop aroma. Sweet with clean, rounded mouthfeel. There’s some dry caramel before a lightly ashy finish with medium bitterness.

Aside from the poor colour. It is quite good. The dry hopping adds a lot. Pale-golden colour. Hoppy flavour throughout.