The secret to brewing Soul Night Moon is a variety of weed, one found growing along pipes in Geylang back alleys. The roots are harvested by hand and fermented under anoxic darkness in an artisanal HDB bathroom brewery. 36 chambers of fermentation are finely controlled according to a precise formula depending on the day's humidity, temperature, and the exact orientation of the moon. A full fiscal year will have passed before the final batch of Soul Night Moon is lovingly decanted into recycled glass bottles and sealed. The final product is pale orange and a little bit cloudy; it is safe to drink and entirely certified for export by the Singapore Food Agency.

Critics commonly compare Soul Night Moon to the blissful vapidity of tap water, with undercurrents of bitterness, iron, and salt -- "perfect", says Youtube's Beer Geek Nation, "for the unimaginative Singaporean palate". Those who are more familiar with the stuff know of its magic, and speak of other properties, such as a tendency to never stay still and 'rush' into containers when poured. Above all, there are the claims of our beer's oneirogenic properties: some drinkers dream of becoming a strand of the running weed, harvested and stuffed into bottles, only to emerge as glasses of fire-water to be drunk by their very same selves.

"To drink Soul Night Moon is to engage in an act of self-affirmation, to run the wheel of existence itself from life to death and back again, to be reborn as the thing-in-itself of existence," waxes the poetry of one HWZ reviewer.

"Shiok la," claims another.

"If the dream was truly recursive," writes a third, "how the fuck am I awake?"

Regrettably, such lyricism has not caught on among overseas drinkers. Soul Night Moon remains today an off-menu item in a certain Amoy Street gastropub, where it is only served during the night of the new moon. Drinkers are advised to keep an open mind, and approach the experience with a certain cognitive dissonance. Like many things in this city, so steeped in banality, Soul Night Moon is best drunk without really believing you are drinking anything at all.