BEER — FILIPINO TASTE
The difference between Boondocks and other craft brewers in the country boils down keeping the beer familiar to the Filipino taste. Boondocks’ current lineup of beers is crafted to match what Filipinos love and what is available in grocery lanes
When you think of beer, the first thing that comes to mind is the classic commercial beer being sold in the sari-sari store and reminiscing on the stories of your family members and friends wallowing under the spell of San Miguel in the late hours of night.
Fred Calope, co-founder and brewer at the Boondocks Brewing Company, shared his thoughts on how different a craft beer can be compared to a standard commercial beer.
The main difference is the use of what brewers call “adjuncts,” which by definition are additional ingredients added to the primary concoction of beer (malted barley, water, yeast and hops). Some commercial breweries may add adjuncts to bring down costs, but usually the result alters the overall character of the beer.
Calope explains, “Craft brewers and small breweries will use an adjunct for something else besides cost.”
Additional adjuncts, whether grains, sugars or fruits, are added specifically to make the characteristics unique to different beer styles. These beer styles include lagers, IPAs (India Pale Ales) and wheat beers.
The difference between Boondocks and other craft brewers in the country boils down keeping the beer familiar to the Filipino taste. Their current lineup of beers is crafted to match what Filipinos love and what is available in grocery lanes.
Although craft beer is an interesting way to get special tasting beer, there’s still a dearth in the market when it comes to unusual beer styles.
“I don’t think our market is there yet. There are growing communities, but it’s not enough to sustain one particular brewery,” Calope remarked.
According to him, the inspiration for his craft brewing company came from his stay in the United States and his love for his home country.
“Prior to brewing beer and making my source of livelihood I was lawyer, and still am.”
Calope is an attorney specializing in US immigration laws; he worked in the United States and in the Philippines before he decided to create Boondocks Brewing Company.
“I met up with some friends who knew me from college days in the States. I got asked the question, ‘What do you miss about the States?’ I said I miss good sandwiches and the sheer variety of good beer.”
Moving back to the Philippines for good in 2010 with his wife and children, Fred shifted from lawyering to beer brewing after months of finding an alternative lifestyle.
The name Boondocks is a colloquial term from the Filipino word bundok, from the time when the Americans called the rural areas of the country in the early 20th century.
Calope chose the name since it reflects his provenance. He originated from Laoag, Ilocos
Norte, and then returned as a
balikbayan from the United States. Now, as people are stuck in their homes because of a pandemic, many are missing those nights of hearing the snapping sound of
tansan as one opens a bottle and unforgettable moments spent over drinks. The current bane of a virus has affected businesses, and even Boondocks also faced the same problems as the others.
“When we realized that everything’s on lockdown, there won’t be any sales, and bars and restaurants, we decided to can a bunch of beer and sell it,” according to Fred.
With distribution limited to areas with no liquor ban, Boondocks now relies mostly on delivery services to sustain business.
“Our pivot to direct to customer sale of our beer has surprisingly replaced a good chunk of our former sales from bars and restaurants. We are still in the early days, but we will shortly outstrip our sales.”
If the usual poison of choice is getting boring these days, it won’t hurt to try out something different. Craft beer is still beer but with a different
taste.