We were invited to tour the brewery at The Brewery at the Palace last week. It was our first time to visit The Brewery. I always thought it was sort of a club like the other establishments in The Palace and I thought that it was an expensive place to hang out at, but I was wrong. 🙂
Now that we have actually been to The Brewery, it turns out that J actually likes the beer, and, contrary to the general impression, the pricing is very reasonable. Freshly brewed, cold, delicious beer starts at P100 for a glass (300ml). Couple that with a Zomato Gold membership, and you get 2+2, which means 4 drinks for the price of two!
THE BREWERY
Before anything else, we were first given a short tour of the brewery. The place is a real brewery, and all the brewing is done on premises. Their in-house brewery goes up to the second floor.
Their Brewmaster is Oliver Ellrott, who is from Germany. This guy knows beer! He talked about the different kinds of beer. The Brewery at the Palace brews its own beer, more on that below.
THE BEER
The place / location is called The Brewery. Their beer brand is called Compadre Craft. The restaurant and bar is named Draft Restaurant and Bar. But it’s too fussy to make the distinction, so I just refer to this whole place as The Brewery at the Palace. 😀
Right now, they have four types of beer, and some special beers. The beers are fresh, all made in-house, and taste so much better than the bottled stuff. It’s so different! I’m not a big beer drinker because I prefer whisky, but I enjoyed these.
Regular Beer:
- Pilsner (P100 for 300ml ; P160 for 500ml) – light and likable
- Wheat Beer (P100 for 300ml ; P160 for 500ml) – light, fruity and smooth
- IPA (P130 for 300ml ; P200 for 500ml) – India Pale Ale; if I had to pick, this was the one I liked the best, and it was also the most popular one among my tour companions; this was refreshing, especially with its citrus-y finish
- Stout (P130 for 300ml ; P200 for 500ml) – this reminded me of black coffee, but it’s beer 🙂
Special Beer:
- Christmas Brew (P150 for 300ml ; P250 for 500ml) – the beer is ice cold, but it tastes warm with the aromas of cinnamon, star anise, orange, ginger, nutmeg, cloves, etc… Mr. Elrott told us that he was particularly proud of his Christmas beer. He should be. Drinking it gave me that warm and snuggly, red and green plaid-covered Christmas feeling (aside from the buzz), hahaha.
- Seabrew Red IPA (P150 for 300ml ; P240 for 500ml)
If you want to try most of these beers in one order, you can order a Beer Flight for just P130! That gives you sample sizes of the four beers. If you want to also sample the special beers, it’s just P190 — that gives you sample sizes of the 4 beers and the 2 special beers.
For our beer sampling, our Beer Flight had the four beers (left to right: pilsner, wheat beer, IPA, stout) + the Christmas beer:
I didn’t quite get the exact price, but you can get these beers by bottle to drink at home. Don’t throw away the bottles — you can reuse them when you go back to get a refill (you don’t need to buy a new bottle next time). I was told that the beer is best consumed within three weeks.
THE FOOD
Chef Bernadette Unigo heads the kitchen. Some of the dishes that I liked, and which I think would go well as pulutan with these beers are:
Chicken Cracklings (P195) – the chicken skin is very thin, not greasy at all, and it’s so crispy! The secret – they dry the skin for 7 hours first before frying it. 🙂
Chicken Fingers (P240) – so good, especially when eaten warm. It’s simple chicken fingers, but it’s done well — the coating is crispy, the chicken inside is juicy. Again, it is not greasy. Their frying skills are A+. It is served with honey mustard and gochujang aioli.
Aside from these, they also have “real” food if you’re feeling hungry. They have rice dishes, paella, pizzas, steak, dessert, etc…
SUMMARY
I highly recommend The Brewery at the Palace if you love good, fresh beer! J is a convert now, and since he works nearby, he often drops in just to have some beer. Seriously, the beer is good. The food prices are average for a mid-range restaurant, and I was surprised because owing to the location, I had expected the prices to be outrageous. Instead, the prices are reasonable.
Also, I find the beer at The Brewery to be great value for the flavor and for the sophistication. How much do other pubs charge for bottled beer? About a hundred pesos? For the same or only a few pesos more, you get a quality, fresh brew, at a nice place with a good crowd. What’s better, is that they are currently included in the Zomato Gold 2+2 on drinks promo. On our return visit, we drank 4 beers but only paid for 2! That’s definitely a heck of a lot better value than drinking at other bars / pubs!
The lighting design / decor and the music playlist is done by Rico Blanco. And FYI, this is the only establishment in this area (The Palace) that allows kids in. The nearby clubs all require patrons to be of drinking age, I was told. Families usually dine here in the afternoon / evening.
Paid parking is available in the open parking area in front.
The Brewery at the Palace
The Palace, 10th Avenue Corner 38th Street, Bonifacio Global City, Taguig City
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBreweryAtThePalace/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/thebreweryph/
