Chris Shanahan: Changi airport brews it up for weary travellers

Why do airport transit lounges offer few diversions other than gotcha-priced shopping? Changi’s new terminal three shows that it doesn’t have to be that way.

To this traveller, a microbrewery tops Changi’s impressive list of comforts. Its gleaming copper brew kettles on the mezzanine level provide a siren call to bored, thirsty travellers below. Who could resist?

As I tasted through the range, service manager, Charles Soh, said that the airport brewery was one of three Brewerkz facilities in Singapore. While the beers on offer in early July came from one of the other breweries, Soh expected the Changi facility to be operating before the end of the month.

There’s food available, too. And if you don’t feel like downing a half litre of a single beer ($S13.63/$A10.39) for $S12.99/$A9.91 you can sample four of the eight brews in elegant little tasting glasses

Brewerkz currently offers a diversity of styles — Golden Ale, Pilsner, Singapore Pale Ale (a favourite after two visits), Irish Red Ale, India Pale Ale, Fruitbrewz (strawberry), Oatmeal Stout and Olde Ale — all brewed by Canadian Scott Robertson.

The standard’s high across the range — despite a cloying note to the Fruitbrewz — and a sip or two provides a splash of colour in a dreary, half-way-around-the-world journey.