Brooklyn Defender IPA

If you've read any of the other beer reviews on this site you'll have noticed how much I love the stories behind the beer I talk about. Whether it's the drink itself; where the name came from; the style; or the history of the brewery(s) that created them, most beers have a story to tell. Some are complicated... some are entirely fictitious... And some, like Brooklyn, criss cross the globe before settling down to say "let me tell you about my travels."

With a name like Brooklyn, one that evokes a deep sense of local pride in one of the five boroughs of New York, the beer we find on the shelves here in Malaysia is surprisingly global. One of the leading names in the craft beer revolution through the 90s and 00s, Brooklyn Brewery haven't bowed to any conventional thinking in how they market and sell their beer.

Part owned by Japanese brewer Kirin since 2016 and with a partnership with Danish giant, Carlsberg, that's longer than most craft breweries have been in existence, Brooklyn also own or have partnerships with breweries in Scandinavia, South Korea, Lithuania, UK and Hong Kong. 

And that American beer in your hand here in Malaysia? That was brewed in China.

Global histories like that are nothing new in the brewing world, but they tend to belong to major brands and commercial lagers, not legendary craft breweries. While some may sniff at the close relationship built with "Big Beer", Brooklyn themselves make no apologies for the decisions that allow them to spread the word about good beer to markets that have until recently had the choice of mediocre local pilsner or Guinness. Sound familiar?

It's easy to be righteous about your choices when you have them. But in many parts of the world those choices don't exist. We're certainly not going to complain when choice is increased.

So after almost a decade of the fight for better beer in Malaysia being led by just a handful of passionate beer importers and craft bars, they now have an ally in the shape of *checks notes* Carlsberg. Wait...what?

OK. that's not strictly correct. It's not like Carlsberg have started banging the drum for pastry stouts and triple IPAs or anything. They've merely brought in an associated brand hoping it will sell. In fact they haven't really leveraged the Craft Beeryness of the brand at all. The Brooklyn Bar in Genting aside, (in which a mortgage is required to buy a beer), most of the bars in which you can (or could) buy a Brooklyn have been those that normally cater to the "Ten mugs of ice cold Carlsberg for as cheap as possible" crowd. Not your usual craft beer target audience. 

So as expected, plonking a tap of lovely IPA on the bar next to a commercial lager and then selling it at twice the price without any explanation to what it was, didn't really work. Even those Carlsberg associated bars that had bottles of Brooklyn available seem to have stopped stocking it. Again, price was the issue. Those of us who occasionally wander into a craft beer bar aren't going to be surprised by how much an IPA costs. But if all you've ever drank is gallons of frozen pilsner from a tower, you're probably not going to go for a beer you've never heard of that costs a lot more.

So after bringing in Brooklyn a few years ago, things did seem to stall for the brand on these shores. Possibly the wrong locations... definitely a lack of information. 

But, the thing is, Carlsberg haven't walked away from this fight as I thought they might, having seen similar mistakes made when they tried to launch Grimbergen in the country a few years ago, (which disappeared pretty quickly).

Although I haven't seen a shift in marketing yet or, in fact, that much marketing at all, they definitely seem to have had a rethink about how and where it's sold. In particular they seem to have doubled down on direct sales in stores and online portals, with a revaluation of the price that has made it one of the best value imported beers on the market. It's now easier to get into the hands of those that know what they're getting. Perhaps a bit of that Brooklyn attitude is rubbing off. If they can have a rethink about on-trade sales and how it's marketed, there could be good times ahead.

So IPA on tap remains the province of a small (but growing) number of craft beer bars in the country for now. But if we can get to the point where you can walk into one of the thousands of Carlsberg linked bars, cafes and restaurants in the country and get a Defender on tap? Blimey!

And we should look forward to that prospect, because it's a great beer. I know many in the craft scene here turn their noses up at it. Perhaps because it just hasn't been available in the bars they go to, or its associations with Carlsberg? It's difficult to know, but they really should reassess. In blind tests I've forced upon unwilling friends, Defender has come out favourably against more respected IPAs that you can get in the craft bars in town. 

And honestly, you shouldn't be surprised. Brooklyn are legends of the Craft Beer industry. They do this stuff well. That it's brewed in China and sold by Carlsberg shouldn't be an issue. If it was imported from the US and sold in a craft bar, it would be celebrated.

When put up against some of the other IPAs you can get in your local store (and admittedly, the choice isn't huge in most supermarkets) the dryness of Defender really stands out. It doesn't have the pine or biscuit notes of the big west coast styles or the fruitiness of the east coast hazys, but is closer in spirit to a more traditional UK style IPA, with citrus flavours and a huge dollop of bitterness to the fore. 5.5% means it's strong enough to take note of but easy enough so you can indulge in a few on a hot day.

So lets hope Brooklyn and Carlsberg keep the faith. I for one would love to be able to get an IPA on tap on those occasions when I find myself too far away from a craft bar. Maybe one day soon?

You can read about other IPAs available in Malaysia here.