CONNOR’s Stout Porter Brewery Tour

Finally it’s we get a chance to visit CONNOR’s Stout Porter Brewery at the Carlsberg Malaysia factory recently. Well we always enjoy CONNOR’s on its own or with food but we hardly take note about what are the ingredients and how its brewing process. So today I am going to take you to CONNOR’s Stout Porter Brewery Tour. 

CONNOR’s Stout Porter Brewery Tour

Hey do you know that CONNOR’S Stout Porter is brewed not blended? To achieve the perfect brew, CONNOR’s uses with 4 types premium malt such as lager malt, caramel malt, brown malt and roasted barley. During the brewing process briefing by Mr David Bidau, Supply Chain Director I managed to try the 4 type of the malts. 

4 types of premium ingredient in CONNOR’S Stout Porter ~
lager malt, caramel malt, brown malt and roasted barley

Here are the 4 types of premium ingredient in CONNOR’S Stout Porter; the Lager Malt, I tried the raw malt and it taste like malt. But after brewed Lager Malt gives the malty flavour and ties the stout by enhancing the body and mouthful substantially.

Caramel Malt, I like the Caramel Malt, it has a roasty and sweet finishing. The Caramel Malt is added to give its signature bittersweet aftertaste and a mild note of caramel. The Brown Malt is the dark brown malt that provides the intense dark colour to the brew a dark chocolaty flavour. Lastly is the Roasted Barley that gives the gentle roasty undertones to CONNOR’S Stout.

CONNOR’S Brewing Process briefing by
Mr David Bidau, Supply Chain Director, Carlsberg Malaysia

Basically there are 4 major steps in CONNOR’S Stout Porter brewing process:

Milling: the milling process that takes about 1 ½ hours of blending 4 types of different malt (lager malt, caramel malt, brown malt and roasted barley) and physical crushing of malt kernels to prepare for mashing.

Mashing: process is to add water to the crushed malt, the starch will the broken down to simple sugars that gives the natural sweetness. The whole process takes about 1  and half hours.

Mash Filtering: then the final mash will be filtered to produce the wort.

Wort Boiling: the wort from the mash will then go through a boiling process then hops are added at the later boiling stage for its slight bitterness and flavour to develop. 

Factory site visit by Mr David Bidau, Supply Chain Director, Carlsberg Malaysia

The rest of the steps are cooling, fermentation & maturation and then filtration. After understanding the basic of CONNOR’S Brewing Process by Mr David Bidau, Supply Chain Director, we adjourned to the factory site to see the actual process. 

Alvin Yap, Draught Beer Services Manager, Carlsberg Malaysia
demonstrating the Art of Pouring the Perfect Pint

Phewww… done with the factory tour, now it’s time to chill and enjoy CONNOR’S Stout Porter. I also learn about the Art of Pouring the Perfect Pint from Alvin Yap, Draught Beer Services Manager of Carlsberg Malaysia. He demonstrated a few rounds to get us familiarize and then each of us have the chance to tap our own perfect pint.

It’s my turn to tap the Perfect Pint, I look a bit serious la lol…

Here are the 4 steps of Pouring the Perfect Pint. Firstly, use the room temperature CONNOR’S Stout Porter pint glass and then hold it at 45 degrees, 1 inch under the tap. Then pull the handle fully forward and slowly straighten the glass as it fills when it’s half full. Let the stout run straight down into the middle of the glass while maintaining the distance of 2 or 2 ½ inches between the surface of the stout and tap. Lastly fill the glass until its full, then leave the surge to settle allowing the creamy head to foam. 

Tadah! Here is the perfect pint of CONNOR’S Stout Porter, enjoy…!

Bring the pint to your lips and sniff the stout first before your take your first sip. Do you know that there are 600 flavour in a stout? 

First you get the roasted notes then the slight chocolaty, toffee and malt. Now you can sip and taste the caramel sweetness, then gentle roastiness and lastly the bittersweet aftertaste. 

Group Photos with the bloggers at CONNOR’s Stout Porter Brewery Tour

Overall I had a great night catching up with friends and the CONNOR’S Malaysia team over food, pints and pints of CONNOR’S Stout Porter. It was a good experience to get to know more about the process of brewing and the ingredients in our drinks. And now I can tap my perfect pint, anyone wants to hire me as bartender… just joking. I think I need to practice more that will give me more reasons to visit their brewery again. Thanks CONNOR’s for organizing this Brewery Tour.

Gary Tan, Brand Manager; David Bidau, Supply Chain Director; Juliet Yap, Marketing Director; Alvin Yap, Draught Beer Manager, Carlsberg Malaysia

For more information about CONNOR’S please visit their Facebook Page