Hold the Bulalo: This Craft Beer Pub Crawl Should Be Your Next Reason to Visit Tagaytay

(SPOT.ph) For decades, people from Manila have been taking the trip down south to Tagaytay to enjoy the colder mountain air, the gorgeous views of Taal lake, and the hot bowls of bulalo. Now there’s another reason to take the trip: craft beer. A trip up to Tagaytay through the Santa Rosa-Tagaytay road yields several places where one may sample a selection of locally-brewed craft beers of varying styles, turning the familiar road trip into a Southern Tagalog pub crawl.

Also read: 
Great Craft Beer Brings Clever Dishes to New Heights at This Resto-Brewery in Tagaytay  
Cheese and Beer Make for a Surprisingly Good Pair; Here’s What You Need to Know
Lolo Dad's Chef Ariel Manuel Opens New Tagaytay Restaurant: Sinta

Go on a pub crawl for craft beer in Tagaytay:

STOP ONE: BrauBass for German-style beers in Silang, Cavite

BrauBass is the relatively new craft beer venture from David Sison, founder of Mama Lou’s Italian Kitchen. The two are right beside each other on the Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road, and they basically share a kitchen. Braubass serves German dishes to go along with its very German beers: bright, crisp lagers that adhere to the Reinheitsgebot, the purity law that limits all beers brewed in Germany to just four ingredients: water, malt, yeast, and hops.

So, what you tend to get from BrauBass are very clean beers with astonishing clarity, each designed to really get the most out of every ingredient. On our visit, we had a flight of very different lagers: the Helles Bock, a double strength lager with rich malt flavors; the slightly darker Vienna Mia, an Austrian-style beer with caramel notes; a dunkel; a dark beer made with toasted malts made in the Munich style; and a Kellerbier, an unfiltered beer style that offers up more of the flavor of the yeast.

BrauBass provides a great baseline for a craft beer tour, providing more traditional, European styles of beer that are flavorful but also familiar and accessible. We all drink lagers in the Philippines, and these are heavily upgraded versions of the beer you've been drinking all your life.

BrauBass is at Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road, Purok 4, Silang, Cavite.

STOP TWO: Craftbeer Sanctuary—Home-brews and buko pie in a lovely outdoor setting

Just three minutes drive from BrauBass into Tagaytay City proper is the Craftbeer Sanctuary. The establishment fully takes advantage of the colder air that comes with the higher elevation, with a lovely outdoor garden setting that feels, for lack of a better word, chill. There’s a wider selection of beer than at BrauBass, with bottles from Antipolo’s Santiago Craft Beer, a couple of taps from Batangas’ Barrio Sambat, and the Sanctuary’s own set of brews.

The beers of the Sanctuary and Barrio Sambat are done at a homebrew scale, which means that they’re going to tend to be a little more experimental. These are people at the start of their brewing journey, and they’re going to be trying things out while the yields and risk are still low. So you might get something like Barrio Sambat’s Honey Hibiscus Saison, with its floral and peppery notes, or the Sanctuary’s Tropical Bomb New England IPA, a hazy beer that tries to get big aromas from its hops. This also means, of course, that not every beer here is going to be a success, but as they get more experience, they’re only going to get better.

While you’re here, you might want to pick up a buko pie. The Sanctuary serves IL Felino Artisinal Buko Pie, which is arguably the best in the area. They make it on site, and if you’re willing to wait, they can give you one right out of the oven.

Craftbeer Sanctuary is at Km. 60 Santa Rosa-Tagaytay Road, Barangay Francisco, Tagaytay, Cavite.

STOP THREE: Papa Bolo—one of the most gorgeous structures in Tagaytay

Papa Bolo was founded by Cavite 8th District Representative Aniela Tolentino, who says that she took interest in the craft brewpubs of the US, and wanted to bring it to her home city. And even if you aren't into craft beer, the place might be worth a visit. It is one of the most gorgeous buildings in Tagaytay. The booths, which are made to look like barrels, is probably one of the Instagrammed spots in the city at this point. The rooftop offers a great view of the city, and is just a great place to have a drink.

Each of Papa Bolo's three floors have taps serving six of their beers. The highlight is Piña Niña, an ale fruited with local Tagaytay pineapples. It's an utter delight of a beer: bright and tropical, very much capturing several aspects of the fruit. One of their beers is a rotating seasonal, and the other four are a pilsner, a pale ale, an IPA, and a night-ending double IPA that will likely have you sleeping on the trip back to Manila.

The head brewer, Mike Wayne, is a Canadian import who has decades of experience in the industry. His style definitely leans American, with a focus on big hop flavors and a bitter profile. If you see him around in the brewery and exhibit any curiosity about the beer, he'll probably give you a tour of the place himself.

Papa Bolo is at the corner of Crisanto De Los Reyes Avenue and Tagaytay-Nasugbu Road, Tagaytay City, Cavite.

Hey, Spotters! Check us out on Viber to join our Community and subscribe to our Chatbot.