Alive is another craft beer brand everyone’s been talking about.

Alive Brewing Co is a craft beer brewery operating in the West of Singapore, founded in 2020, right before the first pandemic lockdown was announced. Despite being a relatively new establishment, Alive has already made a name for itself and is widely regarded as one of the best craft beer breweries in Singapore by the craft beer community. This includes our contributors like Blee who proclaimed that Alive Brewing was “second to none in SG” in his humble opinion.

The brewery was founded by Ryan Yue and Qing Yang, two long-time friends who played in the same school band in JC (Junior College / senior high school), and who then left their jobs to pursue their passion for brewing and craft beers.

The founders set up Alive Brewing with the mission to bring all the delicious styles of beer they had tasted from around the world and present them to Singaporeans in the freshest way possible. Like every established craft beer brewery, a range of styles are offered, such as ales, lagers, stouts and IPAs. Alive’s offerings are commonly found in many craft beer pubs worth their salt – some of our favourites being Ang Mo Liang Teh (bar owner Jerry strongly recommended I try some Alive beers) and Get Some.

Bottled beers from Alive Brewing have attractive labels with memorable names such as “One Night in Cologne” (a Kölsch – a malty, bready style of German light ale), “Every Mood Through a Window” (a bright, citrusy, piney IPA), and “False Sense of Security” (a session IPA with a fruity scent but a surprising classic IPA taste). The founders' passion for brewing and their commitment to making high quality beers have made Alive Brewing a very popular name in the local craft beer community.

Today, I have with me a half-pint of Alive Brewing’s “Relax Juice” Tropical Session Ale.

This isn’t meant to be a pretentious brew. As we have covered before a “session IPA” is intended as an easy drinker – having a lower alcohol content (of around 4-5%) so that the drinker could have multiple “sessions” of drinking without becoming too zonked. Designed to be very easy to drink, they do have a lot of hops – just as IPAs go – but they’re also balanced with lower bitterness and a lighter body than traditional IPAs.

While waiting for a habitually late friend to show up, I got my half-pint of this Relax Juice off the tap at Get Some.

Alive Brewing, Relax Juice, Tropical Session Ale, 4.2% ABV – Review

Appearance: Canary yellow.

Nose: Bright, crisp and refreshing. Opens gently before revealing notes of citrus, light honey, lemon cake, steamed barley and lightly toasted granola. The nose is straightforward and forthcoming without much to mull over. There is also little to no hop bitterness.

In the mouth: Rich and tropical with a velvety texture similar to a hazy NEIPA. Once again, the palate is lightly sweet and gently citrusy. It’s mainly pomelos and grapefruit, and a mild bitterness that would remind you of citrus rinds. Gradually develops into a gentle embrace of cereal and malt notes that unfold into mildly savoury notes of coconut water and light pink guava juice.

The finish: Long and lightly malty, with a trailing sweetness of dried goji berry (枸杞) and fading barley note.

My Thoughts

🌞🌛

Fantastic balance of complexity for a low ABV craft beer. This is also really easy-to-drink with very mild bitterness and a fairly refreshing texture that would not fill you up too quickly. I regretted ordering a half pint because I could go on drinking this stuff for the rest of the evening and possibly in the morning too.

I’ll be on the lookout for more stuff from Alive!

@CharsiuCharlie