From a circus animal to Marvel cameos, the brand's over 90-year journey tracks the Republic's rise

One useful piece of pub quiz trivia is that the first official can of Tiger Beer rolled off the line in 1965, the same year Singapore became an independent republic.

- Teo Kai Xiang

However, the brewery's story started long before 1965. In many ways, it runs parallel to the island's sprint from colonial-era entrepot to the bustling city-state that it is today.

Mr Shue Toh Ting, a 67-year-old retiree who spent his entire career at Asia Pacific Breweries Singapore (APBS), manufacturer of Tiger Beer, recalls a time before the 1980s when Tiger Beer was available only in hawker centres and kopitiams.

These days, the beer is not only easy to find in Singapore, but it has also become one of the island's most recognisable exports.

Brewed to meet a local craving for a lighter and cheaper pint, Tiger Beer has evolved through Singapore's war-time years to post-independence and rapid economic development.

The Straits Times looks back at the brand's lesser-known roots.

BIRTH OF THE TIGER

Raffles Hotel is said to be the birthplace of Tiger Beer, says hotel managing director Christian Westbeld.

"In 1931, nearly a century ago, a conversation between executives from Heineken and Fraser & Neave (F&N) played a role in the establishment of the then Malayan Breweries," says Mr Westbeld.

This is because of the hotel's Bar & Billiard Room's unusual connection to the tiger: One was shot and put down in the bar in 1902 after it escaped from a nearby circus.

"This story, coupled with the executives' conversation in the restaurant, seems to have in part inspired the naming of the Tiger Beer brand and its use of the Travellers' Palm — a symbol which has also inspired Raffles Hotel's very own palm logo in its insignia," Mr Westbeld adds.

That conversation saw F&N and Heineken sinking $1 million into Malayan Breweries, Singapore's first modern brewing plant, located in Alexandra Road.