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30 days, 150 kinds of beer: Drink wisely at the Eastwood City Beer Festival
Beers, beers everywhere at Eastwood this month. Photos courtesy of Megaworld/Eastwood
There’s an attraction to thinking you can go to a beer festival, October being upon us, and take a sip of all the 150 varieties available.
Don’t be a hero. Your liver will never forgive you even if the arrayed cornucopia of hops, wheat, barley, and the garnishings of honey calls you with tiny, inviting voices. Pace yourself, beer aficionado. And armed with this tactical information long nights of revelry can be had at the festival. Oh, Stella Artois. Oh, Heineken.
As part of the Oktoberfest celebration Eastwood City in Quezon City, the largest of Megaworld’s lifestyle malls, is sponsoring a month-long beer festival in partnership with tenant restaurants like PUBliko Gastropub and The Distillery.
The most interesting thing is that there’s a modest variety of local craft beers available, like Rue Bourbon’s flavored sweet beers that range from salted caramel to watermelon, wild berry to kiwi (I preferred the roasted hazelnut), and Katipunan Craft Beers’ Indio Pale Ale – a brew that you drink with the intention of feeling like a man in the 1900s, with its definite kick and “citrusy hop notes.”
At the press launch last September 27, Miguel Buling, one of the founders of Katipunan Craft Beers, expressed how tight-knit the community the local craft brewers is, and appreciated how far their small business has progressed, from their days experimenting like mad scientists at their friend’s apartment kitchen.
Katipunan Craft Beers’ Indio Pale Ale
“We essentially learned to homebrew from a book,” said Buling, who, together with his four high school friends from the Ateneo De Manila High School, formed the beer company in 2011. “[It] eventually became a passion that really brought us together. We tweaked the recipe meticulously and would share beers with friends and fellow homebrewers to get their feedback.”
He laughed and shook his head, “At a party last year, we brought a case and sold everything we had. It was mostly to very supportive friends, but we realized then that this was something we could grow. And so from then, it's been a series of baby steps to get to the stage we are in now.”
Craft brewing is definitely still in its infancy in the country and, because of that, Katipunan Craft and the other craft brewers tend to collaborate with each other a lot, helping each other out whether it’s with the acquisition of ingredients, putting together their homebrewing setup or—the best phase of the brewing process—trying each other's finished brews.
“We think it's only a matter of time before more homebrewers make the leap towards selling their creations,” exclaimed Buling, “and that's very exciting for us.”
At the opening ceremonies at Eastwood, I tasted only five kinds of beer (I know, I wussed out, but it was only 2 p.m., mind) and things were kicked off by celebrities' being handed a hammer for the ceremonial tapping of the keg, plus the unveiling of a giant beer barrel (it was just a normal kegger, though).
What exactly does it take to start your own homebrewing set up though? Buling counts three things: ingenuity, passion, and determination. Much like the character of DEA agent Hank Schrader from US TV’s hit show “Breaking Bad”, who was also a homebrewer, this is a hobby, but it’s a serious hobby nonetheless. Commonly, people who brew craft beers have day jobs.
“If you're not very passionate about it, you might give up at the first hurdle,” he pointed out. “Perhaps [it’s] the unavailability of any of the basic ingredients here, the lack of homebrew-specific equipment, or the climate that's not very suitable to fermenting beers. But if you are [determined], you'll find there's quite a few kindred spirits who are very willing to help.”
Buling’s advice? Ask for aid. You are not alone in your love for beer.
He nodded: “Don't hesitate to reach out to fellow homebrewers. You'll likely discover something most of us know anyway: if you need help getting something done, just bring a beer.”
If all else fails say a prayer to St Arnold of Soissons, the patron saint of beer (and savior of drunks and tipsy ladies). I kid you not.
Aside from the four craft beer brewers of Katipunan Craft, Rue Bourbon, Craftpoint Brewing, and Bone and Barrel available at the fest, the highlight of the festival is the other 146 mostly imported beers.
Not a giant, but it's still beer by the barrel.
Here’s a short guide to the kinds of beer you can have at the festival:
Lagers. The German word for “to store,” lagers are the most mainstream and popular kind of beer that has its origins in Central Europe. They’ve got a crisp, almost sharp taste depending on the brew and finish smoothly with aftertastes varying from smooth to coarse. Pilsens, the roughest of the bunch, also have a citrusy bitterness to it.
Ales. What the Vikings drank, ales are one of the oldest kinds of beer (the word also means “aged”) and they come in a wonderful diversity of colors that range from golden to dark sienna. Generally sweet and full-bodied in flavor than lagers, the popular Irish Guinness and the Scottish pale ale (William Wallace) are among the most-drunk ales in the world. And, yes, they come in pints.
Wheat and flavored beers. Usually brewed from wheat with moderate hops, flavored beers are generally fruity. Try the cider variety of Savanna Dry for a classic fruit aftertaste or one of the German wheat beers (Schneider or Konig Ludwig) if you want to lengthen your sobriety level for the night since they’ve only got a moderate amount of alcohol.
With big beer-centered events this month, there are also a host of performers that will play tunes while the public drinks it up: Ebe Dancel, Never the Strangers, Tricia Garcia, Sheila and the Insects, Taken by Cars, The Dawn, She's Only 16, The Bloomfields, and stand-up comedy by Comedy Cartel.
Meantime, I’ll have a Hoagaarden or a Dos Equis, since all this talk of hops has made me thirsty. — BM, GMA News
The Eastwood Beer Festival is ongoing and lasts until October 26, with a finale on October 25. Log on to www.megaworldlifestylemalls.com for a schedule guide and location of which resto or pub carries what beer.
Photos courtesy of Megaworld/Eastwood Mall
Lagers. The German word for “to store,” lagers are the most mainstream and popular kind of beer that has its origins in Central Europe. They’ve got a crisp, almost sharp taste depending on the brew and finish smoothly with aftertastes varying from smooth to coarse. Pilsens, the roughest of the bunch, also have a citrusy bitterness to it.
Ales. What the Vikings drank, ales are one of the oldest kinds of beer (the word also means “aged”) and they come in a wonderful diversity of colors that range from golden to dark sienna. Generally sweet and full-bodied in flavor than lagers, the popular Irish Guinness and the Scottish pale ale (William Wallace) are among the most-drunk ales in the world. And, yes, they come in pints.
Wheat and flavored beers. Usually brewed from wheat with moderate hops, flavored beers are generally fruity. Try the cider variety of Savanna Dry for a classic fruit aftertaste or one of the German wheat beers (Schneider or Konig Ludwig) if you want to lengthen your sobriety level for the night since they’ve only got a moderate amount of alcohol.
With big beer-centered events this month, there are also a host of performers that will play tunes while the public drinks it up: Ebe Dancel, Never the Strangers, Tricia Garcia, Sheila and the Insects, Taken by Cars, The Dawn, She's Only 16, The Bloomfields, and stand-up comedy by Comedy Cartel.
Meantime, I’ll have a Hoagaarden or a Dos Equis, since all this talk of hops has made me thirsty. — BM, GMA News
The Eastwood Beer Festival is ongoing and lasts until October 26, with a finale on October 25. Log on to www.megaworldlifestylemalls.com for a schedule guide and location of which resto or pub carries what beer.
Photos courtesy of Megaworld/Eastwood Mall
