Smith Street Taps (Chinatown Complex)

Honey get the beer? No honey, get IN the beer. For @smithstreettaps tenth anniversary, they went real special with a collab with @alivebrewing Honey My Bock, a clever little play on the name of this style of beer. Maibocks are refreshing beers with low hoppy bitterness & a pleasantly bready aroma, and it could be thought of as the bridge between a lager & a wheat beer.⠀
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Alive Brewing made this maibock extra special with the inclusion of wild Australian honey. They definitely put lots of it into this beer, as nosing over this beer reveals scents of sweet honey, light floral notes, and malt mixed with freshly baked bread. The flavours are mouthwateringly malty, but if you’re a beer snob who likes your beer more bitter than your ex, you’re going to detest the sweetness of this beer. I personally found it to be acceptably sweet, like a cross between a sweet cider & wheat beer, and it’s exceptionally easy to guzzle down even though it weighs in at a respectable 7% ABV.
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Alive Brewing’s Honey My Bock might be controversial, but it’s quite a fitting beer to celebrate ten years of boisterous boozy fun. Here’s to ten more years, Smith Street Taps.

@youngmasterales doing a collab beer with @smithstreettaps is definitely one of the most unexpected collabs of all time, right up there with Eminem & Dido, and Paul Mccartney, Kanye, Rihanna. And just like the two aforementioned music collabs, this beer collab produced something wonderful.⠀
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The Smith Street Anniversary Beer is an imperial stout that clocks in at 10.5% ABV. It seems to be a trend with Young Master Brewery that their imperial stouts tend to have a thin body. Sure, it’s more suited for guzzling in the harsh climate of Southeast Asia, but the body of the beer isn’t nearly as robust as the flavours & scents. Speaking of which, the usual aromas of roasted coffee, molasses & just a little bit of vanilla were present. What made this beer really special, however, was the extra notes of oak & bourbon.⠀
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Yes indeed, this stout was aged in Rebel Yell bourbon barrels, and it definitely shows. The oak flavours were quite prominent in the background, and the unmistakable malty sweetness of bourbon meshed well with the roasted coffee notes. Truly a beer worthy commemorate an era of tapping up great pints. ⠀
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I remember when I first started paying (alarmingly) regular visits to Smith Street Taps and then drunkenly staggering home after last call, and long may it continue for many more years to come.

@amagerbryghus has been on a crusade to conquer my money for years, and this half pint of tawny port barrel aged Livonian Crusade stout is their latest campaign on my already nearly dead wallet. They’ve allied with @soribrewing from Estonia for this assault, and yes, I can confirm that my wallet has been conquered, and my bank account is in ruins.⠀
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It’s a delightfully smooth stout with pleasantly low carbonation, with all the prerequisite stout elements of roasted coffee & malts, dark chocolate, and caramel. However, due to this imperial stout sitting in tawny port wine barrels for an undisclosed amount of time, it has picked up a few tricks from the former occupant of the barrel.⠀
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The Livonian Crusade is quite light and somewhat vinous for a stout, and there’s a deeply intriguing tart cherry flavour from the tawny port, as well as the expected oakiness from the barrel. It’s rounded out by the sweetness & fruit forwardness of the port wine, and the finish is long, languid and warming.⠀
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With imperial stout this good, it’s no wonder that Amager’s crusade has conquered all in its path.

An imperial stout that’s super chocolatey and easy to drink, albeit a bit thin.

Syrupy but potent. A great pre-festival drink for sure. The menu changes frequently so it’s a fantastic place for discovering new craft beers to pair with hawker food.

Stall name: Chinatown Cooked Food

Manned by two elderly ladies. It sells a small assorted selection of fried Yong Tau foo to go with laksa or fried beehoon or noodles. Go early as the stall sells out very early.