Ang Mo Liang Teh (or 紅毛涼茶) is a Singaporean bottle shop started by Jerry Yang, that specialises in local and imported craft beers at very affordable prices.

This is Part 1 of our two-part interview with Jerry, where we learnt more about Jerry's journey starting Ang Mo Liang Teh and what craft beers mean to him.

Follow Ang Mo Liang Teh and Jerry's adventures: Website | Instagram | TikTok | Facebook

Part I — A Taste of Home

“Heartlands” isn’t the first word I’d associate with a craft beer bar in Eon Shenton, the heart of Singapore’s Central Business District. But the first thing you taste at Ang Mo Liang Teh (AMLT) — long before Jerry cracks open your first beer — is a kind of neighbourhood nostalgia every local knows. Here there are no carpeted floors, no wall sconces or dim mood lighting; none of the posh stuff you’d expect from a fancy city bar.

Beer dragon wheatpaste mural by Singaporean mural artist, tobyato

Instead: worn fabric couches, wooden outdoor tables and chairs (from Courts, maybe IKEA). Bright lights. Here and there, pop culture memorabilia from the ‘80s / ‘90s / ‘00s: stickers, posters of superheroes, even some board games. Walls left white, save for a water dragon mural (a homage to beer and also his birth year, the Chinese year of the Dragon) is a commission from local illustrator tobyato (@tobyato on Instagram) that spans one side of the room. The room itself is simple, clean, like a “mama shop” you’d find the first floors of HDBs across the island; maybe the size of two bedrooms. I’m immediately reminded of my own.

More than anywhere else I’ve had a drink, walking into Ang Mo Liang Teh feels like coming home. 

That’s by design. Jerry explains:–

“My concept was to really do it like a hole-in-the-wall, HDB kind of concept. Most of the craft beer places here will give you an upscale, posh, and fancy bar vibe. But I wanted to bring more of a local, residential kind of feel.”

Looking at his customers alone, it’s clear that Jerry’s succeeded in doing just that. Everyone’s in flip-flops and shorts tonight, despite the skyscrapers and offices that surround us. And Jerry’s too humble to bring it up during our chat — but through a savvy series of promotions and partnerships, he’s drawn locals and expats alike from all walks of life to his burgeoning bar: from corporate workshops for ExxonMobil, to Covid frontliners and NSmen celebrating NS55 (the 55th anniversary of national military service in Singapore), and local celebrities like Patricia Mok and Sam See — one of Asia’s top comedy headliners.

Ang Mo Liang Teh’s passion for everything homegrown is no gimmick. Jerry’s gone the extra mile to support Singaporean brands and talent — award-winning local brewery Brewlander and 1925 Brewing Co feature front-and-centre in his fridges. As mentioned earlier, the water dragon mural is a commission from local illustrator tobyato. Jerry’s also taken to supporting local business, as Singapore Pro Wrestling’s main beverage sponsor in both cash and kind. As this IG reel shows, they’re very grateful! 

And what about the name, “Ang Mo Liang Teh”? It’s derived from the Hokkien dialect for “the Caucasian man’s herbal tea” — local slang dating back to Singapore’s colonial past, as the British popularised the consumption of beer across the island.

"The vision is to really bring craft beer to make it more accessible to the masses.
Because I think that's how I fell in love with it. Only by tasting different beers, then you’ll come to think — ‘wah’ — and understand that there's so much diversity in craft beer, so much flavour."

Jerry isn’t just interested in selling more beers to Singaporeans, however. There’s a deeper drive to show people how to drink better, to appreciate the finer flavours that craft beers offer. Ang Mo Liang Teh’s website states this simply — “...we started this bottle shop because we were tired of drinking crappy and boring commercial beer and believe all beer drinkers should experience the difference.” — and walks the talk with a blog that covers the 101s of craft beer in layman’s terms (in fact, it’s how I heard about Ang Mo Liang Teh in the first place)! 

Speaking to Jerry, it becomes clear that this comes directly from his own personal experience. Namely, his very first encounter with craft beer. “This whole career journey has been very self-centred, I would say, because it is really self-discovery,” he confesses, continuing: “Because when I first had my very first craft beer — I remember it was an Aussie IPA — I didn’t like it! And I thought to myself, oh f***, this is so bitter — this is craft beer? I couldn’t take it.”

But as with any good hero’s journey, this fateful experience turned out to be his gateway to a new world of flavour: “I went on to try many other different styles: lagers, pilsners, and eh, I found those are actually quite okay. So I came to learn that the bitterness of IPA is actually just another profile of flavour, right? And there are so many different flavour profiles that you can try with craft beer. Not like commercial beers, where you just get one standardised taste.” 

"With all the time in the world, we were able to try out different styles of beers and their unique flavour profiles. We are not connoisseurs or claim to be, we see ourselves more of aficionados. What works for us, might not work for you, and that's the beauty of craft beer."

Right on cue, a customer comes in from outdoors to announce that she’s come to her own epiphany: “Jerry ah. I don’t like the sour beer. Very siap siap (sour). Can I have something else?” Of course, Jerry’s happy to oblige, and I get to watch him in his element as he expertly walks her through his selection, sprinkling in Singlish and references to local flavours — “this one macam (is like) hawthorn flavour like that…” — until she finds her next beer to experiment on.

(I’m convinced from her manner that she’s a regular, but Jerry corrects me: she’s a first-timer! This is the most memorable moment of the first evening I chat with Jerry: it’s a real testament to how he’s created a safe space to enjoy craft beers.)

And in a surprise twist, Jerry eventually returned to the one Australian IPA that started it all: “Well I moved on, I tried even more stuff and then a few months later, I came back to the same IPA again. You know what? And then you can appreciate it much better, after having a few different varieties of stuff, right?”

This ‘eureka’ moment is at the heart of Ang Mo Liang Teh’s ethos: it’s not about telling you which beers are good — but recognising that everyone has their own unique tastes; then showing you how to find out what they are, and the craft beers that you’ll then enjoy. 

Jerry’s voice is only finding more of an audience over time. In the later half of 2022, he was given a coveted opportunity to speak on craft beers at the Food&HotelAsia (FHA) -Food & Beverage Expo, which counted over 55,000 attendees, including reps from leading F&B manufacturers and rising brands across the region.

That’s not to say that it’s always been smooth-sailing for Ang Mo Liang Teh. In Part 2 of our conversations with Jerry — where we’ll get a glimpse at the grit, the gamble, and the sacrifice it takes to launch a craft beer bar in the middle of a world-ending pandemic.

@verrine