Since I’ve started running and generally adapted into a healthier lifestyle change, drinking alcoholic beverages comes only on the rarest occasions. But admittedly, many years back, I use to drink a lot but not anymore.
A few weeks back, I had the chance to not only drink beer for free but also visit one of the most sophisticated beer breweries in South East Asia, the Asia Brewery Plant in Cabuyao, Laguna. This Plant is said to produce 4 million hectoliters of beer per year. I’m not really sure how much a hectoliter is, but I’m pretty sure it’s huge.
The plant visit was initiated by people of Asia Brewery for media to get the first hand taste of knowing how beers are made, more particularly the Colt 45 Extra Strong Beer. To date, Colt 45 is the strongest among the strong beers in the market, containing 7.6 % of alcohol.
More than its strength, what makes Colt 45 special is the taste and aroma it gives. Before we tour the plant with all those enormous tanks that holds the beer inside, Mr. Bob Ilagan, Plant Manager of Asia Brewery gave us a short lecture on the brewing process of beer. In the lecture, we were surprised that it would actually take approximately 21 days to finish brewing a beer to perfection. Among the ingredients like the malt, water, yeast and adjunct, the Hops are what matters the most.
Colt 45 is the only strong beer that holds triple hops while other competitors hold only two. The hops of Colt 45 are “nugget”, “magnum” and Halertou which is the most special and most expensive type of hops available. At the lecture, we even had the opportunity of tasting the raw hops and raw barley cereals. After the short lecture on brewing beers, we had the chance to taste the un pasteurized Colt 45, fresh from the tank and chilled to perfection. As for me who rarely drinks, the taste of it was so fantastic. I tried to control my crave because the day was still early and we haven’t toured the plant yet.
Barely Seeds...
Colt 45 in its truest form. Unpasteurized straight form the brewing tank...
We visited several warehouses where the tanks filled with raw beer were being processed. Every day, dozens of trucks came in and out of the plant to deliver beers all over the country and abroad. And every day more trucks came in to stack the raw materials needed to make them. Most of these raw materials are imported because we don’t grow them here locally. In order to get the best raw materials, the temperature should be précised or else you don’t get the best quality to make beer taste good.
Brewing tank...
After the tour, we boarded the Asia Brewery Bus to Manila. Even the Bus was unique because it s the actually the transport service of the Philippine Azcals Football team. It has all the amenities to make the travel to be as comfy. It has a built in Bar and wide screen entertainment system. Having a few drinks , there is nothing like racking yourself on reclining seats with 40 inch wide screen TV, watching “Battle Ship” while all of us doze off to a blissful trip back home.
Bus with built in bar...
We road the Philippine Azcals Tour Bus...
1 comment:
Hi, being a Pinoy brewer I would like to correct somethings. Hop while vital to the brewing process is not what matters most. It really depends on the style.
It doesn't really matter if you have 3 or 5 or even 100 kinds of hops in your beer. The famous Pilsner Urquel has 1 kind of hop only although in different additions.
Also, Hallertau is not the most expensive hop nor the most special.
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