OK folks, some of you might have read my previous post titled – “ALEmentary, My Dear“. On that post I talked about Kilkenny’s ALEmentary Knowledge Facebook game and how you can stand a chance to win the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 or the Google Nexus 7.
To increase the winning chances for you guys, I provided you with some screenshots and tips on how to improve your score on the game.
Well, a picture says a thousand words, but I think a video, with 30 “pictures” per second, says a whole lot more words than mere pictures and descriptions.
So here’s a game guide for you (don’t laugh at me and Haze ok, we tried our best, hehe)
Hopefully the combination of our guide and your skills will get you to win these babies
Grand Prize – Samsung Galaxy Note 2
First Prize – Google Nexus 7
5x Weekly Prizes – Exclusive Kilkenny T-Shirt
Play the ALEmentary Knowledgegame right NOW! Good luck and let me know if you win!
Kilkenny is a popular Irish cream ale, and with a heritage dated since the 1710 century,it is now easily found in most pubs and bars around the country. Rich, creamy, and with its aroma and flavor of toasted malt, it is also easily one of my favorite.
Now what are the secrets in brewing up a good barrel of Kilkenny? It’s all in the ALEmentary Knowledge. Which incidentally, is also the name of the Facebook application that teaches and challenges you to a test of brewing quality Kilkenny Ale.
And as with any challenge worth its salt, there are prizes to be won, so let’s look at them:
Grand Prize – Samsung Galaxy Note 2
First Prize – Google Nexus 7
5x Weekly Prizes – Exclusive Kilkenny T-Shirt
I don’t know about you, but I think the Galaxy Note 2 is a pretty sweet phone/tablet, and I certainly wouldn’t mind having it in my pocket (albeit it’s gonna be a bit snug, but I digress..)
In this post, I’m going to give you a short tutorial on how to play the ALEmentary brewing game, as well as some tips to become better at it and hopefully, you will at least beat the score Haze and I managed to end up with – 7790.
The game is a simple ‘complete tasks in one stage, move task to another within time limit’ genre similar to other business/time management games. There are a total of 5 stages to clear, and if you are raring to win this.. you’ve got to nail all 5.
Every stage is important, but some are more important than others.
The stages are:
Stage 1: Making Wort
Stage 2: Adding Hops
Stage 3: Fermentation
Stage 4: Packing
Stage 5: Pouring
There’s an in-game tutorial that teaches you how to complete each stage, go through that and you’ll be set to go. Now here are some methods we used to improve our scores.
First, don’t bother filling all 9 in one go when you start the game in Stage 1. That would means you put in the mashed barley in all 9 pots, add in the roasted barley and the water. This technique will only get you to about 50 pints before the time runs out.
Instead, focus on getting as many pots brewing as fast as possible, put in all 3 ingredients in one pot before moving to the next. Once the timer gets to red, proceed to the next stage and repeat this process. The idea is to have pots brewing as early as possible once the game starts.
Pro Tip: when you have less than 35 seconds left, don’t bother making any more worts, it won’t get through all the stages.
Another dangerous setback is right before you get to stage 3. You may have collected about 4-6 pots ready for stage 3, before you move any pots to stage 3, take a look at the temperature slider and make sure it is still in the green area. If it isn’t, press the burn button until it is green before you move the pots here. A wrong temperature will burn your current pots, rendering all your previous efforts useless.
Pro Tip: Don’t bother throwing away any burnt wort or hops if they aren’t interfering, but you shouldn’t have any burnt wort or hops anyway.
The 4th step would be to move the barrel into the truck. Beware of the slider again, if it passes green the barrel will overflow and will reflect in a lower point score.
Pro Tip: once it hits green, slide it to the truck as soon as possible, this ensures you to have more barrels instead of wasting extra precious ale (and time)
The last step is the most crucial. I always slide it all the way to the right till it hits the Kilkenny logo, then use the slow pour method (slide to left) to fill it up, you have to be careful not to let it overflow. This stage requires some practice, but it is crucial, since it is a multiplier that you use with the score you get from previous 4 stages. I managed a near perfect 99.975/100.
After quite a number of hours trying to beat this game Haze and I managed a total score of 7790. She’s better at making barrels, while I generally do better with Stage 5 pouring multiplier.
To be honest, most Facebook contest games aren’t terribly exciting, but we can’t stop ourselves from playing with this one. It has the element of frustration and excitement all roll into one, we still want to end up in top 10! Just need to be just a bit faster, gahhhh. Excuse me while I continue playing this.
The contest runs from 22nd November to 27th November, 2012, play it here - ALEmentary Knowledge.
Good luck!
By the way, another useless tip – having smaller screen might help since you reduce mouse movement.. hehe.
For the Beer fans out there, you might have noticed that it is now already Oktober, the month that is forever associated with a festival that many of us undoubtedly are familiar of – OKTOBERFEST!
For the uninitiated, Oktoberfest is a month long celebration of good beer, good food, and plenty of performances and of course, that calls for huge celebrations.
This year is no different than previous years, GAB will again celebrate Oktoberfest in various restaurants and pubs across the country on the whole month of Oktober.
Oktoberfest at Bulldog, expect more of these!
There will be quite a lot of places celebrating Oktoberfest. On these celebrations, Paulaner, Strongbow, Guinness, Tiger Beer, and Kilkenny will be on happy hour all night long on draught.
Furthermore, available exclusively during Oktoberfest festival are Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier, Hopf Ice Beer, and 111 Zwickl. You won’t want to miss out!
If you haven’t been to one, you should! I went to Oktoberfest at Bulldog last year and had a whale of time. There were tonnes of beer to go around and they are usually coupled with awesome food, and all with very good deals too, just in the name of the celebration.
Check out the video above to get an idea of what’s awaiting.
Check out the massive beer mugs in FA’s hands
At every GAB Oktoberfest celebration, you’ll also get a 1 Litre Oktoberfest Mug with every purchase of 1 Litre Tiger Draught, look at the photo collage above, the bottom right mug is about the size of the Oktoberfest Mug you’ll be getting (held by FA, the lady in red).
All GAB brands are involved in the celebration, including one of my favorites - Guinness. In fact, I suspect that this might be even genetics as it too was my late dad’s favorite choice of drink. The black creamy beer with the distinct aroma and slight bitter taste that simply has no competition for the past 250+ years.
Everyone can enjoy this awesome goodness, bottled or draught
I’m also a huge fan of Kilkenny as well, and this brand too will be on happy hour all night long during Oktoberfest with GAB. Yes!
At whichever location, it will certainly be an entertaining night, with games and a special appearance by Die Dorf Fest Kapelle, a “Bavarian Style’ Oompah band who will be performing for the night.
KY & Haze having a Kilkenny over supper
For the definitive green beer fans, Heineken too is one of the beers featured in this celebration. Ale, Lager, or black beer, we’ve got everything covered.
So, fellow beer lovers, here is the list of Oktoberfest celebrations in Malaysia with GAB:
7/10/2011 – 798 Wine Bar, TCM
8/10/2011 – The Beer Factory, Sunway Giza
9/10/2011 – SOULed Out Sri Hartamas
11/10/2011 – Jupiter Club
12/10/2011 – Royal Selangor Club
12/10/2011 – Metro Club
13/10/2011 – The Beer Factory, Old Klang Road
13/10/2011 – Season’s Club
14/10/2011 – Cold Storage Special at Solaris, Mont Kiara
Most of us associate Kilkenny as one of those premium beers you get from fancy pubs and restaurants, places like Bernard’s and Sid’s Pub, and indeed this is true, Kilkenny draught can be found in all those places.
But now, one the fastest growing beer in this country has just gotten even more accessible, we have Kilkenny in the bottle!
Kilkenny can now be found at food courts like Ming Tien!
I was just at Ming Tien the other day, taking a break out of all these home cooking activities and just decided to have a light meal and a bit of relaxation during the week. We ordered a couple bottles of Kilkenny to go with asam laksa and takoyaki.
Penang asam laksa, takoyaki, kilkenny
The beer came in a bucket of ice to keep chilled, and two small glasses. I actually like small glasses cos you don’t ever let the beer go warm (I don’t drink fast enough I guess).
The best part was, it only costs RM 18.80 for the two bottles. A pretty good deal for premium beer if you ask me.
So far as taste goes, it was still the same Kilkenny good taste that I’m familiar with, but with one small distinction: The draught version is nitrogenated to give it a smooth, creamy head. However, the bottled version enjoy the ability of staying chilled in ice bucket and only pour as you drink, I really can’t pick a favorite here. At the end of the day it is still essentially Kilkenny.
KY & Haze having a good beer over supper
The laksa though, wasn’t exactly premium and can’t hold a candle to it’s Penang counterparts, or even the Kedah laksa at Alison nearby, but they don’t sell Kilkenny there, hehe.
Takoyaki wasn’t the best either, but at least it was a decent snacks since my favorite fried dumpling stall at Ming Tien was not in operation that day.
You can also find Kilkenny at selected pubs and bars, food courts, restaurants, and cafes such as Kepong Food Court, Frontera Bar & Grill in Jaya One, Station 1 cafes and more.
Address: Ming Tien Hawker Center
Jalan SS24/8, Taman Megah,
Petaling Jaya, Selangor GPS:3.114334, 101.611658
The holiday season is coming, the malls are already having x’mas decorations, and we’re all looking forward to the festivities. Hohohoho
To me though, this is also a time to catch up with some old young friends over a several glasses of drinks.
I was chatting online with Pinky over some work and suddenly realized that we actually haven’t properly met again ever since she came back from Melbourne. Earlier in the conversation we were just talking about beer, and in particular, Kilkenny.
So I asked her to join us for dinner at Bernard’s where they serve Kilkenny draught.
KY at Bernard’, Centrepoint, BU
To some, Kilkenny might still be a pretty foreign brand (Haze never had it until now). I actually first learnt it from Suan and FA not very long ago. The Irish cream ale has a head that’s risen, pretty similar to Guinness draught, it is also very smooth and carries a full flavor.
Pinky, Haze, and a couple pints of Kilkenny
A small amount of roasted barley gives this beer the distinct reddish tint that also adds to the flavor. I like it, the girls do too.
If you are a beer fan and haven’t had a taste of Kilkenny, give it a try. There are now over 200 locations where it is served, a pint usually goes at around RM 20, there are places that have 3 for RM 50 too.
pesto pasta with grilled chicken, chinese style pork chop
Dinner was a Chinese style pork chop served with steamed rice (RM 23) for me, and the Pesto Pasta with grilled chicken (RM 20) for Haze.
I liked the capsicum sauce served with the pork chop but thought the meat was a little too lean though, you’ll like it more if overly fatty pork isn’t your craving.
The pesto pasta though, was excellent. I mean, just look at the piece of grilled chicken thigh there and tell me if it wasn’t beautiful? I am going to order this next time, definitely goes well with the Kilkenny!
What will be under your tree this year?
Address: G9A-14, Centrepoint,
Jalan Leboh Bandar Utama,
47800 Petaling Jaya
Selangor GPS:3.137988, 101.610124 Tel:03-7710 3188
Oktoberfest at Bulldog, expect more of these!
