Manila Microbreweries

Alcoholic beverages in the Philippines are easy to find, and none is as ubiquitous as beer. But microbreweries in Manila are difficult to find. Once upon a time Paulaner Brahaus existed at the Dusit Hotel. It is now called Fiesta San Miguel, which is anything but a microbrewery given that San Miguel is the largest beer operator in the Philippines. In Glorietta stood The Brewery, a stalwart in the ‘90s accompanying the Hard Rock Cafés heyday as the bar to see-and-be-seen in. Grappas Ristorante in Bel Air Village, Makati, stood its ground before finally capitulating to the non-demand for specialty beer then. Microbrewed beer is like the unicorn for alcoholic beverages in the Philippines and this list will help you go find the needle in the haystack that is microbrewed beer.

 
Pivo Praha Czech Microbrewery, part of the Bravo Best Foods branch in Makati, is one of the only commercial microbreweries you can find in Metro Manila. Pivo Praha means Prague beer and the microbrewery offers four type of pilsner: a classing, light, dark, and weizen (wheat beer).

 Bogsbrew hails from Bacolod in the Negros Occidental Province of the Western Visayas Region of the Philippines (apologies for sounding like a beauty queen introducing herself right there). The Negros Island Craft Beer company that makes this Bogsbrew is one of the first known craft microbreweries in the Philippines serving its beer commercially. The craft beer uses organic Negrense muscovado sugar (a specialty of the region) and pure spring water. The Primo version, a light adjunct lager of sorts, also by Bogsbrew lists malted barley, organic rice, corn, Negros Island muscovado sugar, wild bee honey, and natural mountain spring water as a few of its ingredients. You may find Bogsbrew in Manila at Penpen’s Filipino Kitchen, CAB Café, Ritual, Bob’s Restaurant as of now.

Katipunan Craft Ale’s Indio Pale Ale is a commercially available beer, brought to you by 4 young boys who decided to leave their corporate slavedrivers to become microbrewers of craft beer. If you want to try their beer on tap, then you’d have to reach them through social media and maybe they’ll let you visit their brewing setup. With plans to expand their business because of its popularity, it doesn’t seem like such a grand idea that you’d be able to taste their new beer experiments in their brewhouse and restaurant in the next few years. If you’re too shy to ask for a brewery visit via the social networks, then stock up on this soon-to-be-famous beer at Sa Kanto and Ritual.

 Another craft microbrewery to look out for is Great Islands Craft Brewery by Allan Baldis Agalda. His beer is already making waves in the close-knit and supportive craft beer community where he lets fellow beer geeks taste his experiments such as red chili beer, green chili beer, and a more daring Bicol Express Wild Chili Ale. He also creates other beers not involving chili such as an Imperial Red IPA and a few of the classic types that every hophead should love.