9:00AM : Get to work
9:45AM : Pointless meeting
11:10AM : Your proposal gets rejected
12:15PM : You eat an underwhelming salad at your desk
1:00PM : Your boss calls you by the wrong name
2:00PM : Jenny from down the hall calls you by the right name 3:20PM : You manage to land the client you’ve been after for weeks 4:58PM : You sneak out early – only to find you got a parking ticket

After a day like that, when your emotional psyche has been given the level of punch-out you can only replicate digitally by an 8-bit Mike Tyson, you deserve a beer. Whether it’s with the boys down at the local pub or cracked open within the safe air-conditioned confines of your home. Either way, there’s not much more soothing than the refreshingly textured flavours of man’s favourite drink.

Well, that’s what it should be, but in Singapore, it’s a little trickier.

You see, there’s really only a handful of beers that you’re likely to find on any street: Tiger, Guinness, Carlsberg, Anchor, or (if you’re feeling particularly masochistic) Raffles Lager. The thing is, with the exception of the international stout that is Guinness, they are all lagers. Light ones at that. Lagers are refreshing, sure, but they hardly encapsulate the full palette of what beer can truly taste like. For that you need IPAs, Ambers, and Cream Ales. You need Pilsners, Pale Ales and Witbiers. Beers with bitters, hops and malts. All of these incredible ingredients that make one pint stand out from the next.

That was something that was lacking in Singapore, and something that Daniel Goh, creator of ventures like The Good Beer Company, 99 Bottles, and Smith Street Taps, hoped to fix.

Sitting outside his two stalls on the second floor of the Chinatown Complex on Smith Street, Daniel is smiling, and he’s got every reason to. He’s surrounded by patrons and friends, enjoying quality beer, in an ambience that’s mixed with the lights and the sounds that can only be emanating from the hustle of the busy street below. It’s no empire, but it is proof that he has been able to carve out for himself a small niche market for these quality brews. And it only started 5 years ago.

It’s not like craft beer didn’t exist before Daniel opened these storefronts, it was just harder to get. Swanky restaurants in the east of Singapore might carry some interesting labels, but they’d carry a $20 price tag themselves, and they’d then have to be partnered with a $30 entree. $50 for the luxury of a good craft beer is a bit much. Daniel wanted to bring that cost way down, so there would no longer be an amusement park style restriction stating “YOU MUST BE THIS WEALTHY TO HAVE THIS BEER”. And he was able to make that possible by moving into these kinds of hawker storefronts. The low cost of rent allows him to keep the beers cheap. Well, relatively cheap. Bottles could still range upwards of $12. But that’s still only half what they’d be in a fancy restaurant, plus it’s the best of the best that’s being important from the U.S., the U.K., and other reputable brewing nations. Plus when a beer like that is paired with $3 chicken rice, then all of a sudden it’s not looking as bad.

It was a risk, but one that’s worked out. Daniel often dreamed of this becoming a reality back when he would work public relations for a video game company. This fantasy of bringing together his passion for beer with his newfound desire to be an entrepreneur came together rather quickly after that. Opening up The Good Beer Company in 2011 brought the sale of bottled beer to the chinatown market. He then followed it up with 99 Bottles, a more sophisticated bottle selling marketplace in Katong. In 2014, he expanded yet again, this time partnering with fellow Singaporean beer merchant, Meng Chao, to bring Smith Street Taps just a couple shops down from The Good Beer Company. Smith Street Taps marked the first hawker stall in Singapore that featured craft beer on tap. That was a risky move, because unlike its bottle counterparts, keg beer can go bad. Like a lot quicker than bottled beer.

This was their chance. They had dipped their toes in the sudsy, amber waters of the Singapore craft brew market for three years at this point, ultimately deciding that there was enough of a demand for good draught beer like this. Because ultimately, if you’re going to be drinking it on site, it doesn’t get better than when it’s straight from the keg. That’s how beer is meant to be drank. Shot out through a tap, filling up an ice-cold pint glass before delicately cutting off right at the top, allowing just the right amount of head to peek through. But once that keg’s tapped, you’ve got 3, maybe 4 days before those suds go flat. And at that point, you’re just stuck with some expensive syrup that no one wants on their pancakes.

But here, sitting outside on a Wednesday night, sipping back a Double-IPA, you can sense no amount of fear in Daniel’s eyes. Here’s a man who’s doing what he loves. It helps that he’s finally able to share this love with a city that’s softened up to the idea.

This initial success also brought with it some copycats. Others around Singapore have taken notice, and started to open up their own shops. Some, as close as even just around the corner, as OnTap opened around the corner in the Chinatown Complex in late 2014. Though to Daniel, he doesn’t see them as threats or competition. They’re just a marker for something that he’s always believed in, that there’s a demand for quality beer in Singapore. So next time you get home from a long day at work, skip the Tiger. Try something new. There’s a whole world of possibilities out there.

Cheers.