Free flow is a tempting event, even Beerbeer 2nd anniversary have free flow beer. But sadly many free flow event doesn’t really impress yet make frustration and blacklist to the goers. This year it self already have a few in my list, waiting for beer is not something pretty especially we are going for the drinks.

First on the list is Zouk 7th Anniversary. Very very sad free flow party… hundreds of people cramping outside waiting to get in, hundreds more cramp inside waiting for the drinks. There is like another hundred over people lining up for the free flow drinks at the bar counter… this is just a con job to lure people to the place but have not much intention providing free flow. Marketing gimmick that are con consumer in every single way.

Second on the list is Overtime Starker Dunkel launch at Pavilion. Nice free flow of buffet food but not the beer beer. The food you can get it yourself, but the beer is just have to wait freaking long. The reason is they only have one tap for such a big crowd. At least 300-400 hundred people are in there including media and guest but there is only 1 tap running. How weird can that be? Plus when the beer is launch, non of us at the media table have beer with us. To wait 1 hour for beer…. this is a sad launch.

I know there is more sad free flow event especially launch of new places or anniversary. Many reason of failure in this type of free flow event here are some of the reason.

1. Untrained Staff
New outlet are more chaotic as the staff is not well trained. During this kind of full house crowd, the staff can got confused, panic and not fully function.

2. Over Invite
This is always the case of free flow event. Beside invite people from facebook, they also invite VIP, VVIP to all squeeze into a tiny places. Then expect everyone to enjoy a good night there.

3. Misused the word “Free Flow”
Is quite sad that free flow event have no free flow. Sometimes you only have 1 glass of beer for time wasted there. By the time you realise it, you may end up buying the beer to enjoy the crave you already lust for. Even worst is 4 kegs beer for 500 people… how sad can that be.

So the next time you going for any free flow party, please be prepare that you may end up more frustrated then happy as sad event kill joy.

Note:
Beerbeer 2nd anniversary is not a good free flow event either, the free flow ended too soon. I’ll try my best not to do any free flow event anymore. Unless it can make everyone happy.

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Happy Malaysia Day… hope all of you still sober from Yesterday heavy drinking. Wishing all Malaysia reader a good and fun long weekend. Cheers to Malaysia!

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Is been 54 years of independence… let us have more peace and harmony for coming years. Let’s us all work hand in hand to make this a better country. Cheers!

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Drinking in front of 7-11 corridor is what we used to do after work. We don’t understand much about our favourite drink but finding the most convenience place to drink is what we needed. In there, we will always choose the beer we want, Heineken is one of the beer of celebration for us to cheers after a good successful day.

When our pay increased over the years, we moved from our corridor to a more luxury bar. Where draught beer is served. By then, we still haven’t really known much about beer. We just started to discover draught beer and from then on draught beer become our choice of beer, yet one thing remains the same… to celebrate our life’s success with Heineken.

Those cinema ads may play a role in influencing us to drink Heineken. But for whatever reason, it became the beer we always relate to success. One of my favourite ads is when the guy stuck his hand inside a barrel to look for a nice chill Heineken while ignoring other brands. The ads does send a strong message that Heineken is always the preferred choice. Back when I was working in the advertising industry, this ad has really influenced me to choose Heineken.

Beerbeer.org actually didn’t start in the bar on a drunken night. It started in Phuket, Thailand, while my friends and I were buying beers at the supermarket nearby. Since they had a few varieties, we bought all the different beer brands. So after our Phuket trip, we started our beer hunting adventure and decided to write something about beer. It took us some time before we decided to name the blog site Beerbeer.org… ironically, it came from a nick name of a friend… haha

The first few months of writing made us discover more about beer, we bought magazine, books and did some internet research to understand more about beer. We then email to breweries in Malaysia to set us up for brewery visit. But it wasn’t easy to get a reply from them, I then wrote to Singapore breweries and microbreweries. One of the microbrewery replied and welcomed us to visit. So I took this first opportunity to see firsthand how beer is made. I will never forget that experience, it was the best experience at that time to discover how beer is made.

So in actual fact, Beerbeer actually has more success in Singapore in the beginning as compared in Malaysia. I met so many suppliers, brew masters and owner of pubs in Singapore. In actual fact, I almost wanted Beerbeer to focus mainly in Singapore. But I decided to remain in Malaysia as it is my hometown. Not long after that, we’ve been invited by GAB to have a brewery visit.

Few months later, we brewed our first batch of beer, as we have the theory and seen how it’s done to brew our first beer. We then continued to write about beer since May 2008. Many have laughed at us when we first started back then but it has been 3 years and Beerbeer is still going strong and we’re still getting a lot of free beers!

We have accomplished many fun activities during the time where we were interviewed by BFM, startup ALCON (Alcohol Consumer-Rights Group), who organizes events with pubs. We were also invited to all the media press conference by the beer brands, met up with a lot of people who were genuinely interested in alcohol and many more exciting events which I thought I will get bored of it once I reach 30. Life is so interesting as compared to 3 years ago.

I used to think that the advertising industry is my life. Who could’ve known that beer has changed my life? If it wasn’t for that that Heineken advert that I watched in the cinema years back or if I didn’t loiter around with my friend to drink beer at those dodgy corridors of 7-11, I wouldn’t be where I am today.

Looking back, Beerbeer.org has gone a long way to where it is today. In fact, I think Beerbeer.org has gone international since it started. No matter where you are, you’ll never know little discoveries like this would change your life. Heineken’s slogan is “Open your world” and from what I know, beer has changed my life, and I will never look back and regret. What about you?

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I have many bartender friends which mostly are mixologist. Firstly mixologist are the specialist of mixing cocktails. But if they stand behind the bar and serving drinks, they are basically bartenders to us as well.

So how to differentiate a good bartender from bartenders? The answer is actually quite hard. Most bartenders you see in the pubs or clubs are likely part time employee earning extra from this lucrative industry. Even worse when you have unskilled bartender tending the bar.

A bartender job is not only pouring beer, their job scope are quite wide including tending the bar, mixing the drinks, make sure the inventory have enough stock and taking care of the cashier. Sad to say so, not many places have good bartenders.

I hate those places that don’t have skill bartenders. Not only they are not train, some can’t even speak the local language. By putting someone at the bar and fill in the space is wrong. What’s the point of spending so much money on the outlet and hire lousy bartenders and waiters to run the show.

Is really sad how the service industry is heading. Many good bartenders are feeling the pinch as the earning power of bartenders are confine at certain limit. Many have switch career, work overseas or if they lucky – open their own pubs.

We are getting less and less skill bartenders, this is bad for the coming years. A good bartenders is really needed to bring up the level of the playing field of bar standard. The standard for the bartender now is really low, that’s why people don’t really respect bartenders. I wish bar owner will change a bit on hiring bartenders, get those that have standard to at least able to train the staff and make sure the bar runs well.

Everything take time, as we need to straighten back the service industry in Malaysia. Either your bartender is local or foreign workers, please send them for simple training before making them a bartender. If a bartender can communicate well, pour a good beer, mix a decent cocktails and have some simple liquor knowledge, that would be a good start.

Breweries like GAB had start courses to help outlet to train their bartenders. Even lately, Carlsberg also did the same thing with their ACE training. Hopefully all this courses will help bring up the bartenders skill. Is time to change the culture seen in bar. Please stop opening doggy place, give some standard and class to it. Cheers!

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