Wine Talk, Craft Beer Tasting

Craft Beer Tasting and Boutique Beer Delivery, KL

Words: Sarah & Ross Jones

Within the past few years, the craft beer market has exploded in Malaysia. Without going on too much of a hunt, KL beer lovers can find craft brews from Australia, Scotland, Japan, and the US at various venues around the city. There are now bottle shops, bars, and even supermarkets that carry very familiar labels beyond our local favorites (no names mentioned!).

Wine Talk, Craft Beer Tasting
Citrus Mistress

Now, with even less effort, the beer connoisseur can order beer online, and have it delivered to their door. Even better, this is offered from a reliable old Yum List friend, WineTalk. The wine delivery service has expanded their range to still include all things grape-y and now add a great selection of things hopp-y.

Wine Talk, Craft Beer Tasting
Worthy Brewing Craft Beer from Wine Talk

The world was once divided between the wine people and the beer people. The wine people quaffed, using words like “bouquet, varietal, terroir, and vintner” and acronyms like “DOC,” and “AVA.”  It seems that the beer people after years of being deemed the “common folk” have demanded the same complexities for their beverage of choice. They now use “style, hoppiness, gravity” and also have great acronyms like “ABV” and “IBU.”  Now this all may sound very complex and segregated, but both parties have great respect for each other. (We’ll talk about the Scotch people in another (longer) post-they’re a very peaty bunch). For those of us that enjoy both wine and beer, WineTalk has done a great job bridging the divide.

Wine Talk, Craft Beer Tasting
Craft Beer Home Delivery by Wine Talk

Craft beer, by definition, is a beer that is brewed in smaller batches and is often brewed using a particular style, whether it be a lighter style (pilsner, lager etc.) a medium style (pale ale, India Pale Ale etc.) or a heavier/darker style (stout, porter). Craft brews have also dominated less known styles like flavored beers, and rural styles originally brewed in farms, like saison and unfiltered ales. Each of these styles brings distinct flavor that is highly personal to beer lovers.

Wine Talk, Craft Beer Tasting
Ashland Amber

WineTalk introduced their beer service late last year with small announcements on social media and this year introduced it more formally with an event held at La Bodega (Jalan Telawi, Bangsar) on 23rd of January. This tasting event offered ten beers from the US state of Oregon and a variety of tapas from La Bodega. The resident sommelier of WineTalk, David Stephan, poured beers and talked tasters through the variety of styles offered, bringing his in depth knowledge of flavors to craft beer. He provided drinkers with a variety of styles from light, like the Hop Valley, “Double D,” blonde ale, and working to a heavier dark style of beer like the Alameda “Black Bear” stout. He took particular notice of the India Pale Ale style (IPA), offering four of these (Hop Valley “Citrus Mistress,” Worthy IPA, Alameda “Yellow Wolf” IPA, and the Caldera “Hopportunity Knocks”). IPAs are particularly revered by craft beer lovers due to their intense flavor of hops and the variety of flavor that different breweries create with this single style of beer.

Wine Talk, Craft Beer Tasting
Beer Tasting

All of these beers were accompanied by Spanish style tapas from La Bodega (thankfully, food was served due to the flow of excellent beer.) The Spanish style tapas: tortilla espaňola, croquetas, ensaladilla, Moroccan chicken, and patatas bravas paired nicely as sophisticated bars snacks for sophisticated beer. It should be noted that the event had a partnership with Uber to make sure that participants had a trouble-free ride home.

Wine Talk, Craft Beer Tasting
The Crowd Loves a Good Beer

So, the bottom line of this Yum List post: WineTalk is bringing a great variety (beyond the 10 Oregon beers) of craft brew to KL. They have these available to order on their website and also have mixer packs available to try a variety of styles if you are new to craft beer. Also, keep an eye out for upcoming tasting events from WineTalk. They are a great opportunity to socialize, chat about wine or beer, and buy delicious wines and beers at a great deal. The price on this particular event was RM120, and included small plates and enough libation to keep one conversational for quite a while.

The next wine event will be Saturday, March 5th, at 4pm in La Bodega, BSC. For details of online purchases and the next event visit www.winetalk.com.my

18 Comments

  1. An interesting and well expressed review of “boutique beers”, but some are
    just far too expensive for the ordinary folk to be partaking of/in.
    Many hotels and clubs here have “boutique beers” on tap, but the price
    is double the standard beers – eg; 4XXXX, West End (SA), Tooheys, Vic Bitter
    and Carlton etc.
    The Aussie young social set enjoy them when they descend on the hotels after work, until they do a wallet check – ha ha. Then they tend to change their drinking intake for the lesser “lights” as we say – the run of the mill beers on tap.
    There is a famous bar in San Francisco called “Sam’s Bar” which boasts 150 beers
    on tap !!! Just imagine all the work with cleaning of beer lines.
    I think I’ll stick to my usuals here and when I was travelling I stuck to what the
    locals liked – Bintang in Indonesia, Tiger in Singapore, Shingha (??) in Thailand,
    “Budweiser” in the USA and in Europe the main beer of the country which I was in.
    The Japanese had a good tap beer also – I’ve forgotten the name.
    The only beers I didn’t like were the English beers, but you could buy German,
    Australian, Danish and US brand name beers in stubbies or cans. If lucky they
    were on tap – and they were served as they should be – icy cold!!!
    Cheers
    Colin

    • I’m not such a big beer drinker myself but I do like to try a sip of these boutique beers. I imagine it’s much like wine – I’d prefer to have one nice glass rather than three cheaper glasses. I know many of my Aussie friends however might be of a different opinion. 😉

    • Oh I try them but many just don’t suit my palate.
      Colin
      PS: Did you enjoy the Clare Valley report. So strange though, it was
      like a ‘Ghost Town”????

    • Loved the Clare Valley report – especially discovering that one of their vineyards actually invented the screw top for wine! I think many small towns these days look like a ghost town.

  2. Interesting! So many different types of beer these days. Too bad I’m off the bottle now. 🙁

  3. Not into beer, never have been…but many do like and love it.
    I would rather pay for a wine that I liked than have a cheap on I didn’t like or visa versa..sometimes the cheaper ones are nicer – depends.

    • I’m not such a beer lover myself either, but I do enjoy tasting some of these craft beers. They have such a variety of flavours.

  4. If I attempt to pour like these it’ll be all over the table, especially after the 3rd beer.

  5. Wow, there are just too much to try, i can only drink a few sips.

  6. Alléluia Alléluia…Dicaprio won an Oscar. The Yum list posted a beer article. well, that is a fabulous way to start the week 😉 Sweetheart is a wine love. Me,  a beer lover  (my ancestors are partly from Germany, maybe the answer) …I love discovering new beer, especially craft beer. Thank you dear, you are a star ; -)

    • And what a great speech he made too. I have to side with hubby in terms of beverage preferences, but I do enjoying tasting some of these craft beers.

  7. Hello, great post. The craft beers are very popular in the US. Thanks for sharing. Happy Monday, enjoy your new week!

    • I’ve seen many US craft beer labels over here. They’ve made it around the world.

  8. MMMM Beeeer! Thanks for the great post – will be tasting these very soon in KL!

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