The famous Green Day song – Wake Me Up When September Ends is what I always tell people when asked about my birthday, which falls on the 1st of October.
Coincidentally, this also marks one of the most happening month on the calendar, for it signifies the celebration of Oktoberfest here in Malaysia! This year, we have Paulaner as the official beer, tastefully served in a 1-liter Ceramic Oktoberfest mug (more on this mug later.)
GAB is celebrating with a series of themed parties all across Malaysia with Tiger, Guinness, Heineken, and as mentioned, the Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier, brewed exclusively only for Oktoberfest season.
we had great fun at previous Oktoberfest parties, expect the same this year!
Expect many evenings of good food and beer from around the world, great fun contests, promotions and activities as well.
The limited Oktoberfest 1-liter mug that comes with a metal lid is yours to keep when you get the official Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier, but reserve yours early for it is well, a limited edition. I think it’ll go well with my previous Oktoberfest 1-liter glasses.
official Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier
Now you may ask, what makes the official Paulaner Oktoberfest Bier different from the “ordinary” Paulaner?
Well, for one, the Oktoberfest edition is a lager instead of a wheat beer; and at 13% proof (about 6% alcohol), it is also slightly stronger than the usual variant.
In fact, all Oktoberfest are approximately 13% proof, and must be brewed within the city limits of Munich and must also conform to the Reinheitsgebot or Bavarian Purity Law which strictly governs the production of beer in Germany by limiting the ingredients that can be used.
Paulaner was first brewed by the monks from the Paulaner monastery in 1634, but still considered one of the youngest Oktoberfest beers standing at “only” 380 years young.
If you’re interested in the history of Oktoberfest, read on:
Oktoberfest Facts & Figures
This celebration initially started as wedding celebration in 1810 to commemorate the union between Crown Prince Ludwig (who later became King Ludwig I) and Princess Therese of Saxe-Hildburghausen at Theresienwiese (translated as Therese’s meadow / field) – it is for this reason that Oktoberfest is referred to by Germans as ‘die Wiesn’ or ‘the field’
Through the years, Oktoberfest celebrations have had a number of different elements and activities, including horse races, street parades (in traditional costumes), live music, dancing and of course the appreciation of authentic Munich-brewed beer.
Currently, Oktoberfest is a truly global celebration with almost 7 million visitors consuming over 7 million litres of beer and more than half a million chickens throughout the celebration (based on 2011 figures), which lasts between 16 – 18 days from the middle of September to the first Sunday of October.
For 2013, the Oktoberfest festival proper will run from 21 September 2013 to October 6 2013 – a total of 16 days of culture, cuisine and beers
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
14/10/2011 – Caesar’s Club
14/10/2011 – The Patio, Genting
16/10/2011 – Sid’s Taman Tunku
17/10/2011 – Camberwell Club
18/10/2011 – Jarrods & Rawlins, Bukit Damansara
18/10/2011 – D’Fortune Club, Dataran Menteri
19/10/2011 – Laundry, The Curve
20/10/2011 – QE II, Weld Quay, Penang
21/10/2011 – Golden Sand Resort, Penang
22/10/2011 – Cold Storage Special, Gurney Plaza
24/10/2011 – Mewah Club, Klang
25/10/2011 – Switch, Kota Damansara, PJU 5
25/10/2011 – Neptune Club, Petaling Jaya
25/10/2011 – Odeon Club, Kepong Baru
29/10/2011 – KK Waterfront, Kota Kinabalu
Visit www.facebook.com/OktoberfestMY now & find out where u can join the fun, games & band tonight!
I haven’t been to 798 Wine Bar at TCM yet so that’s the one that I am aiming to be for Oktoberfest, can’t wait, it’s gonna be a blast for sure.
The question is, how many Oktoberfest are you going to attend?
