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Discovering the history of these very local stouts is difficult since actual fact long ago fell prey to marketing nonsense, while small local brewers were eventually consumed by large behemoths like Carlsberg, Heineken and Guinness/Diageo.
Most brewers now try to link their product to some historic beverage from the UK (The original home of stouts and porters), but depending on their current marketing needs, others will link them to Irish, Danish or German heritage, whether or not any such heritage actually exists. Malaysia's own Royal Stout proclaims to honour great feats of the Danish Kings during the 19th Century, without ever offering any information to back it up. But it sounded good to Carlsberg Malaysia's marketing team, so they went with it. If you create a new stout and your marketing team decide to claim it's based on a recipe handed down by intergalactic space weasels, who's to stop you?
But whatever the background, these stouts remained popular down the years in the hot conditions of South East Asia for a number of reasons that may at first sound odd to stout drinkers from Europe.
In the west, strong dark beers are considered "winter warmers" or end of the night drinks. They generally wouldn't think about something like that for a 35c daytime drink. But in many of the countries of the region, electricity to run a fridge or chiller is a relatively recent development, outside of the big towns and cities at least. And in many of the more remote towns and villages, you still may struggle to chill beers, because even if you do have a generator, it's normally only used in the evening and rarely used for a fridge.
What does this have to do with beer? Well, the thing about dark beers, especially strong ones, is that the warmer they get, the more flavoursome they become. Therefore it's perfectly acceptable to drink a warm strong stout when you would never consider doing the same with a pilsner. (Warm Carlsberg... urgh!) So you can take a slab of stout along to your mate's tropical BBQ and not have to worry that they aren't ice cold. And of course, because the beer is strong (often 6% and above. 8% is common), if you do want it slightly colder, you can add ice (delivered by an ice vendor and kept in a cool box) and it won't overly impair the taste (like it would with, yup, a pilsner. Watered down Carlsberg... urgh!).
So for decades in the region, strong stouts were the go to beer and in many cases in rural areas of places like Cambodia, Vietnam and Philippines, that's still the case.
And so, finally, we get to Malaysia, which for many years was exactly the same as the rest of South East Asia, enjoying heavy locally brewed stouts like Guinness Foreign Extra, ABC and more recently Danish Royal Stout (now less Danish, but apparently still quite Royal). These were all around 8%, heavy, slightly sweet and were massively popular. It's fair to say that Malaysia loved stouts. (Sadly, in recent years, the Malaysian brewed stouts have taken a Governmental tax hit that took aim at their ABV, resulting in all the local strong beers lowering their alcohol content to below 6% to avoid huge tax bills. But's that's a different story.)
The Malaysian love of stouts took a new turn when draught Guinness was launched in 1980 and the local market very quickly established itself as one of the top 10 markets for draught Guinness globally, often reaching the top 5. This may not seem like a huge deal, but there are a few points of interest.
1. Malaysia has a much smaller population than the other top ten markets for Guinness
2. Being a majority Muslim nation, only a 3rd of that small population is actually legally allowed to drink alcohol.
3. Unlike most of the other big markets, Malaysia only sells draught Guinness in bars and not in cans at local stores.
So with those restrictions in mind, the fact that Malaysia remains one of the drink's biggest markets just goes to show how much Malaysian's love Guinness and stout in general.
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Heineken Malaysia (formerly Guinness Anchor Berhad) brew Guinness under licence and do it so well in 2006 it was voted the best draught Guinness outside of Ireland. They also brew Guinness Foreign Extra Stout, a bottled none nitrogenated stout (like a strong version of Guinness original in the UK).
Carlsberg, understanding that stouts were a huge market in the country, introduced Royal Stout to go up against Foreign Extra and Connor's to take on the legendary might of Guinness Draught.
The thing is, Connor's didn't really stand a chance. Malaysians are famous for their loyalty to big established brands, and you don't get much bigger, in any sector, than Guinness. Connor's wasn't bad and in many ways was quite similar to it's more famous competitor. Both nitrogenated, creamy, Irish style, sweet stouts, but Connor's was slightly less bitter, a tad more sweet, and lacking slightly in body in comparison. But in no way was it a terrible drink. If you found yourself in a Carlsberg bar and fancied a Guinness, it was a reasonable substitute, yet often customers would shun it even if they were in the mood for a dark beer. It seemed many thought it was "Guinness or nothing!"
The market for draught stout was far too big for Carlsberg to cede 100% control to their only rival, so in 2015 Carlsberg rebranded and re-launched Connor's in the hope of increasing market share. The new Connor's had a Union Flag emblazoned on the logo and was described as a "British Stout Porter" based on a recipe from 18th Century London. All of which was almost certainly marketing bollocks, although, as we saw above with Royal Stout, Carlsberg certainly have form when it comes to marketing bollocks.
For a start, a recipe from 1700s London? Stouts and porters are essentially the same thing. A Porter is a dark, rich beer invented in London and made famous around the docks of the Thames as a warming beer for hard working dockers and sailors. A stout porter, later just simply a stout, was, as the word suggests, a stronger version of a porter. Therefore, it's highly unlikely that a recipe for a stout porter from 1700s London bares any resemblance to the 5% abv, fairly moderate beer Connor's is.
As for the big leap towards calling it a "British stout"? A strange move for a Danish company. (Though less strange considering it was a decision from Carlsberg Malaysia for a uniquely Malaysian beer). The thing is, this style, a sweet, nitrogenated, moderately strong stout, is universally seen as an Irish drink, and let's be honest, by that, I mean Guinness. Come on, Carlsberg, you originally called the drink "Connor's" for a reason.
So Carlsberg were taking some risks with this rebrand, but the risks seemed to work. There was certainly an uptake in sales and the perception of the drink as merely an inferior Guinness changed. The beer itself had also had a refresh with bolder coffee and cocoa notes added to the usual creamy and slightly sweet style. They have even put coffee beans on the new cans to emphasize the change. Whilst I certainly prefer Guinness, I must admit to a soft spot for Connor's. Despite the branding risks and historical liberties taken, I think Carlsberg actually did an OK job.
Which leads us to the newly launched Connor's Draught in cans. As I mentioned above, Malaysia is one of the few global markets that doesn't have draught Guinness in cans. This is mainly due to expense. The prohibitive tax laws here mean importing beer into the country puts a hefty margin onto the sale price of the product. Craft beers can, to an extent, get away with this as it's seen as a more premium product anyway. Guinness, however, is not. So while various attempts have been made to introduce draught in cans to the Malaysian market, all failing for various reasons, in the end a gap in the market has been left wide open.
Carlsberg noticed.
Finally there was an opportunity to one-up Guinness at their own game. Enter Connor's Draught in cans. The first thing to note about this newly launched beer is that it's nitrogenated, just like its tap equivalent and more to the point, it's a "surge" nitro beer. This means it's not just nitrogenated, but on opening the can there is a surge of nitrogen released so when you pour it a rolling, creamy head slowly appears, just like Guinness.
This is interesting, because one of the reasons behind the expense of Guinness draught in cans is that, unlike kegged draught, which is brewed globally, canned draught is only brewed in Dublin because Guinness claim the technology to create that nitro surge via their infamous widget can't be replicated in their international breweries. (or is too costly to do so). And yet Carlsberg Malaysia have come up with a nitro stout that pours incredibly similarly to draught Guinness. And, more interestingly, they don't use a widget.
What witchcraft do they use? Well, you, err... shake the can.
I'm not joking. You take the unopened can and shake it vigorously. As you shake you can feel the can tighten as the nitrogen bubbles inside expand. Once the can has expanded and you can't feel the liquid sloshing inside (it only takes 2 or 3 seconds) you can pop the can open. On the first attempt you expect an explosion of beer as you'd get with a typically carbonated brew. But it doesn't happen. Yes, you may get a slight surge of beer on your fingertips, but lets face it, the same thing normally happens when you open a can of draught Guinness too.
And when you pour the frothy Connor's the same hypnotic nitro surge appears in the glass, just as if there had been a widget involved. To be honest, it's impressive and is such a simple solution it's difficult to believe it hasn't been used elsewhere. I certainly haven't come across this method for nitro beer anywhere else.
The beer itself is just like it's kegged brother. A large, creamy pale head over a dark, stout body. Coffee and cocoa aromas are present with a more sweet than expected taste, followed by slight bitterness.
I'll be interested to see how this new canned beer succeeds. For the time being it's certainly the best option for those of us in Malaysia who fancy a draught Guinness experience at home, and it's close enough that you don't mind that it isn't the Irish "black stuff".
I'm usually quite dismissive of Carlsberg, but they've outdone themselves with Connor's and should be congratulated. Give it a go.
In the meantime, you can read about the last time Guinness draught in cans was launched in Malaysia, here. And how the launch ultimately failed, here.
*The cat in the top picture is our eldest moggy called, and this is true, Widget. Which makes it all the more amusing that's she sat next to a Connor's looking pissed off. For the sake of completeness, you can follow Widget on twitter at @CatWidget
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