Monday, March 23, 2009

Visiting the GAB Tavern

If you drive down the Federal Highway from Subang to KL and back often enough you'll notice a big compound with a few buildings. On top of one of the main buildings is a big red sign board that says "GAB" which stands for Guinness Anchor Berhad.


Guinness Anchor Berhad is the company that houses a lot of good booze brands under it. Heineken, Tiger, Guinness and Anchor to name a few. That big compound is also the brewery where they make all their beer and somewhere in that compound is "The Tavern".


A pub for everyone who works at GAB to get free flow beer every day!


Not too long ago, Heineken invited a number of Nuffnang bloggers to the Tavern for the first time to have dinner and drinks with their staff. When I say "drinks", I mean nothing less than the freshest beer in the country. The beer at the Tavern comes fresh out of the brewery that makes it housed in the same compound!


We learned a whole lot about beer. Let me give you an example.


Now you guys would think that a bartender's job is easy right? I mean just get a beer mug and pour beer from the tap. Well... not really... if you want to do it right.


When you pour beer from the tap you have to pour from a 45 degree angle in the beginning and then slowly straighten your mug as it fills up. This is to make sure that the foam at the end just reaches the top by the time you're done.


If the mug is not full or overflows after the foam settles then you've basically failed your bartending test.


We all took turns to try and some of us like Huai Bin here even found it hard enough to get beer into the mug. He eventually ended up filling half the mug with just foam so much that it looks more like a cappuccino than beer to me.


LOOK AT THAT!



Kenny on the other hand was the champion that night. He invented the art of filling up a mug with 20% beer and 80% foam!

How he developed that skill... I have no clue.


Ironically the girls there that night did a far better job pouring beer than the guys.


Cynthia did a great job. It wasn't a "perfect pour" but it was far better than the effort of all of us guys combined.



Princess too did a better job despite having to reach higher for the lever and despite us depriving her of a stool she badly needed.

Cindy from Malaysian Dreamgirls was the only one who managed to get the "perfect pour" right out of all of us but I didn't manage to get a picture of her doing that. I was too busy quietly chanting and hoping that she messes up so she doesn't make all of us look bad.

After KY and the rest of the guys had their turn on the beer tap it was my turn, a chance to redeem the pride of us men there that night.

I failed terribly. 

I flooded my mug with so much foam it looked like an exploding volcano. At the fear of wasting beer in front of all the kind GAB people there that night I attempted to suck up all the overflowing foam but again failed miserably. 

So we got fed up of trying and decided to just do what we bloggers do best. Camwhore!


If I poured beer for all of you whenever you ordered it, it would only be half full. We spent the rest of the night drinking free flow Heineken and ended up chatting with the Heineken team who invited us: Jasmine and Iryne. 


They showed us some cool things that Heineken was doing online like this new online multiplayer game they had on their website.


Last year Heineken had a big public screening of the UEFA Champions League in South Africa. This year’s screening though is going to be in Thailand so the online game is a massive virtual raft race from South Africa to Thailand.


You can join fleets and compete with people from all around the world and the winner will win a free trip to Thailand to watch the UEFA Champions League finals at an event there. Heineken parties are just the best, I’ve been to so many even back in KL and they never disappoint. 


You get to customize your raft too. Mine had a nice deck chair for me to chill on while I “float” away to Thailand.

Anyway we ended the night all a little high from the booze but happy. 


Heineken parties just never disappoint. The next one in KL is going to be on the 25th of April at the Hap Seng Star Mercedes-Benz Auto Haus on Jalan Sultan Ismail. They’re bringing in an international alternative rock/hip hop group called The Bumblebeez but here’s the best part: They’re going to be setting up huge projectors to project mock Roman architecture, making the entire place look like Rome from the inside. SERIOUSLY!


If you wanna know more about some Heineken events coming up, click here.


As I lay in bed that night I kept trying to figure out what it was I found so difficult about pouring beer from a tap into my mug. Seriously!


One day... one day I shall master the art of pouring beer... 

one day...


6 comments:

value investing in malaysia said...

maybe u just need to place the tip of the tap onto the mug (inside, near the top)and hold the mug at 45 degrees. like that, the foams would not developed that much.

good luck.

KY said...

I was so happy to have met the top 20 blogger in Malaysia, Desmond Kiu, at the event!

Boss Stewie said...

value: hahaha yeah that works but u need to level the mug gradually as the mug gets full or you won't get it right either

ky: yeah me too! so lucky!

des said...

Its a pleasure to meet you guys too


LOL

Huai Bin said...

It does look much easier than it seems. Foam doesn't taste that good. :)

I've got a picture with Desmond! :)

Boss Stewie said...

desmond: hahaha :)

huai bin: you're so lucky !!