With full backing from the Department of Tourism (DoT) Region 3, the craft beer festival aims to highlight local micro- breweries that will showcase their latest beer creations, according to regional director Ronnie Tiotuico.
Beer lovers will have an opportunity to taste and enjoy a large number of the latest craft beers. But that’s only for starters because what is beer without food, as a selection of gourmet international and local food provided by celebrity chefs will also be off ered, Tiotuico added.
And to create a unique ambiance for the festival are performances from live jazz bands and blues music led by top performing instrumentalist Conrad “Titus” Del Rosario III who spent 31 years in Germany in the pursuit of his love – music.
Craft beer
Michael Schittek, a German national from southern Germany who now operates the Pinatubo Craft Beer Brewery in the Friendship area here said, he started brewing hand crafted beer two years ago, that’s when he thought of retiring in the Philippines.
Schittek said he and his wife Mildred and their 10-year-old son were living in Switzerland for 15 years prior to moving here in the city. “I will retire in the Philippines but I will continue to make beer,” he said.
“We started with a very small shop (near the VFW restaurant in the Balibago area) but it became too small so we have to expand and moved here,” he explained.
Schittek, who is a chemical engineer, said his hand crafted beer is German knowledge but Filipino made. “We did not import any materials,” he said, including the stainless steel vats which were welded and fashioned in nearby Mabalacat City.
Schittek explained that if the beer is Pilsen or Lager, it needs to mature for about four weeks but ales don’t need much time to ferment and can be bottled immediately after only two days of carbonation.
Schittek narrated that 500 years ago, water was contaminated in Germany that is why Germans drunk beer which have fi ve percent alcohol that kills the micro- organisms.
“That was how beer started in Germany because water was really not safe to drink they did not know about boiling water but knew that when you drink beer you won’t get sick,” he said.
“The German government realized how important beer is and they put this purity law in place to make sure manufacturers are not spoiling beer which is mainly made up of water, malt, and hops,” he said. “They did not add yeast then because it was unknown. They did not know that the yeast will do the job of transforming sugar into alcohol until 1860,” he pointed out.
“That is why the German breweries are always close to bakeries because the baker makes the bread with yeast and then the brewer uses the yeast for beer,” he said.
German beer has been brewed in accordance with the purity law for 500 years. German brewers have created a diversity of beers that is unrivalled in the world. Today Germany has over 5,000 different beers.
Local breweries
Robert Palad, head brewer of Laughing Carabao Brewery in Tarlac which is only four months in operation, said what makes their beer different is: “we make use of local ingredients” from Tarlac.
“We incorporate them in the beer. For example, we have two beers for now – the white mango ale which is derived from Bamban mangoes and the Iniruban pale ale which is a type of rice (duman rice) from Camiling roasted but with sweet flavor,” he said.
Palad said they also try to help uplift the tourism of Tarlac with their hand crafted beers.
“I was an engineer in Japan, so during those days I learned home brewing and then went on as an intern in a Japanese brewery where I learned about the business of hand crafted beer,” he said.
Cris Paras, sales and marketing head of Nipa Brew in Manila, said some beers are heavy in the belly. “So we treat it so that with the heat of our climate in the Philippines you can drink a lot and be comfortable,” he said.
“We also incorporated local flavors like some local fruits and spices,” he said. Nipa Brewery in Metro Manila started in 2014, he added.
“We do not copy recipes from abroad because we create hand crafted beers for the Filipino beer drinkers and their taste preference is our focus,” he said.
The Crazy Carabao Brewing Co. from Sta. Rosa, Laguna was also present. “This is what the Pinoys want so we have beers that are traditionally really bitter or heavy but we treat it for the Filipino palate so that you can drink a lot and not feel bloated,” the brewer explained.
US organizer
Ted Lerner, organizer of the first ever Angeles City Craft Beer Festival in the Philippines, said their aim is to introduce hand crafted beer to people that are not familiar with craft beer. “That is why we are bringing to Angeles this revolution that’s basically happening almost everywhere in the world,” he said.
“The idea is get people to understand that beer doesn’t have to be just one thing. Beer can be made in many different varieties and in better quality with more fun drinking experience,” he said.
Lerner said the festival will bring together 17 different micro-breweries from all over the Philippines where they will offer 100 different kinds of hand crafted beers.
“There’s just this limited choices in the Philippines. The idea now is to introduce something better, something different and that’s the idea that hand crafted beer is the way to go,” he said.
Craft beer breweries are small, independent and use traditional methods in beer-making which are made by hand with no preservatives or chemicals.
