Guinness fans flocked to Sepang International Circuit for Arthur’s Day for a chance to catch their favourite performers rocking it on the Arthur’s Day stage.  The Arthur’s Day celebration in Malaysia was a smashing success as tens of thousands of fans strummed the air-guitar, rocked their heads and roared out singing to their favourite songs, all throughout the 5 hours of pure live music performances by; Five For Fighting, The All American Rejects and The Wanted. Not forgetting our local artists; Once Upon A Time There Was A Sausage Named Bob and Prema Yin who warmed up the Arthur’s Day stage!

“Arthur’s Day has always been about people coming together for unique and remarkable music experiences. This year we wanted to do more so we brought not just 1 but 3 international music icons for the celebrations here in Malaysia, making it one of the biggest Arthur’s Day celebrations yet. The month long Arthur’s Day parties nationwide was a hit with consumers as well. All in all, we had more than a hundred thousand people across Malaysia come together and raise a toast to Arthur and those who like him, make great things happen.” said Bruce Dallas, Marketing Director of Guinness Anchor Berhad.

Upon arrival, Guinness fans were brought through a journey through time of all things Guinness through the build up at the Guinness wall. With one foot on the concert area, the huge Arthur’s Day stage could already be sighted from a far. The Arthur’s Day stage, constructed from two stages, joined in the centre and spanning 150ft across, was an architectural marvel. Together with pints of freshly brewed Guinness, Guinness fans soaked in the lights, the sound and the atmosphere of people coming together for a global celebration.

As for the artists, they pulled out all the stops with more than an hour, pure ‘live’ band performances respectively, bringing to life the true meaning of what it is to experience a ‘rocking good time’! The massive crowd at Sepang International Circuit had their hands in the air and sang along when smash hits such as; Five For Fighting’s “Superman”, The All American Rejects “Dirty Little Secret” and The Wanted’s “Chasing The Sun” played.

“We had a superb time performing at the Arthur’s Day Malaysia celebrations and are amazed at the great turnout of crowd at Sepang International Circuit. It was great to meet our fans and it was surely a fantastic sight to see so many hands in the air, in unison cheering ‘To Arthur’! It was truly a spectacular moment and one we would always remember,” said Tyson Ritter, Lead Vocalist for The All American Rejects.

With the talented artists that take the stage, to the worthy awardees of the Arthur Guinness Fund, to the many millions of GUINNESS® fans around the world, people come together on Arthur’s Day to pay tribute to Arthur Guinness and the bold individuals just like him, through an epic night of music. With the 2013 festivities celebrated in style and a record number of people raising a toast to Arthur Guinness, plans are already in place to ensure Arthur’s Day 2014 is yet another night to remember.

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Is this time and season again! Getting ready to eat, dance, drink, cheers and keep repeating it!

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The Better Beer Fest at Taps means something to me. Because on that fateful day, I was introduced to hops. I tasted hops in my mouth. I ate it. I was enlightened, I saw the light, and it was probably from the ceiling. It was bitter as fuck, and I highly do not recommend anyone to try it out. So it’s officially my first anniversary with craft beer. Or rather, just Ales. Unfortunately, due to some commitments to a certain house warming party, the Better Beer Fest this year became just, a touch-and-go event for me, bloody hell.

Anyhow, on the next afternoon, the big boys of South East Asia craft beer had this secret meeting in an undisclosed location, a tiny craft beer retail shop in Publika. I invited myself there, because I got no shame like that. Well, James Bond never had any invites to secret meetings and he doesn’t seem to have an issue with just showing up!

The topics of dialog at the beginning were the usual ‘trading wars stories’ about beer and hops. A few words like Penguin, Tokyo, Pannepot (which oddly comes with occasion song, a theme song, I presume!) were mentioned repeatedly. If you have been drinking craft beer as long as I have, those words might as well be languages of Neanderthals. Not too painfully long after, refreshments were served, rather appropriately. It was an evening of heavy rain, dirty racist jokes and many many beers from the dark side. Lord Vader would have been proud of us, but we were not contend, we were still rather thirsty. And very bloody hungry too.

Shortly after, secret gathering number one adjourned to another secret dinner location in Kuala Lumpur, this time a nocturnal diner in the gutter of the city with roaches and geckos as live wall decorations. Such class! The recess didn’t last very long as thirst doesn’t quench itself. We retreated to another craft beer bar in Jalan Nagasari and many more beer fell victim to our insatiable demand to binge sample more beer.

When I woke up this morning, I tried to recollect on the different types of beers we tasted, I gave up after 20, but there is an undeniable certainty we had more. None of us managed to outlast the dusk; we left with the memory of a great night with acquintances of the same interest, to unselfishly share a valuable knowledge and a few bottles from their (both individual and retail shop owners) own private collection.  After all that, I still have no bloody idea what awesomeness lies within the brown paper bag with a penguin on it.

Well, all great adventures needs a rosebud.

Here are some of the drinks consumed throughout our 12 hours sampling programme; Dog A, Dog B, Red Horizon, Wallop, Mountain Goat IPA, Tricerahops, Goliat, San Diego South Ale, Paradox Jura, Black Maria, Mikkeller 黑, Old Engine Oil, Texas Ranger, NØGNE Spice Ale, To Øl Respertationbajer, First Frontier, Nevermind the Anabolic, Tokyo Rising Sun and a couple of home brewed beers.

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After all this way, at last I manage to try out The Westvleteren Trappist beer. This beer are always in my bucket list. I have goose bump opening the bottle. My heart is jumping up and down, that’s how excited that finally I’m able to try this beer!

Trappist Westvleteren 8
Nose:
Can smell the complex malty with herb/spice and light sour plum.

Taste:
The entry is carbonated with herb sweetness. Light grassy and have that dot of finishing of sour plum. As you drink a long the bitter of grassy hops do stand out a bit. A complex flavour and vapour of sweetness that come with light herbs kinda way.

Verdict:
Interesting flavour combination. This beer have been kept for 3 years, the beer is balance with flavour and aroma which really make it a good beer.

Trappist Westvleteren 12
Nose:
The nose is complex with sweet and pleasant fragrant of bouquet. Bubble gum like with petrol. Sound weird but this is how I felt.

Taste:
The carbonation of the beer is lovely. The entry have this biscuit/cookie like sweetness with nice carbonation. Can taste a light alcohol at the end. The beer character is complex with changes of taste. Can get a nice bouquet of after taste.

Verdict:
At last, after all this year I able to try it. I start to understand why all this beer is best kept for few years before you drink it. I think the 12 can keep for few more years to make it more rounded and balance. The taste and flavour are good.

I still have 1 bottle of 12 at home. Now I know what I’m storing and know the potential of the beer when it fully mature. Surprisingly the flavour will be more balance and the taste will be great. The next pose about this beer will be few years from now. By then I believe this beer will still give me the goose bump when I drink it. Thanks to Eiling for sharing this awesome beer with me! Cheers!

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