Stepping Up the Beer Game: Pinoy-made Craft Beers can go world-class too!

(As published on Hardware Zone Magazine's November 2015 Issue)

Pinoys are certified beer lovers. From simple hangouts to big parties, beers are always a part of almost every Filipino gathering. Typical beer drinkers consume highly commercialized local beers; but these days, the craft beers produced by local microbrewers are gradually changing the drinking scene.

With the emergence of locally produced craft beers in the local alcoholic beverage industry, the Filipinos are offered with a more diverse selection when it comes to flavors and beer profile.

As defined by the Brewers Association, craft brewers are those that are small, independent, and traditional. Craft beer may be produced in small volumes but it actually steps up the Filipino beer game. These local craft beers can actually go up against imported beers because of their world-class quality.

I recently got to visit the state of the art brewing facility of a new local craft brewer in Imus, Cavite. While other microbrewers do brewing manually and in small workspaces, Great Islands Craft Brewery uses high-tech equipment in a big work area, making it the biggest craft brewery in the Philippines.

 Great Islands takes pride on its Master Brewer, Allan “Baldis” Agala who graduated from the World Brewing Academy – Siebel Institute of Chicago. Another brilliant mind behind GICB is Mags Villafuerte, an importer and distributor of alcoholic beverages and one of the co-founders of The Beer Club of Manila, a beer enthusiast group that aims to educate Filipinos about beer and beer styles. To complete the team is Mario McDermott, a passionate American beer brewer who used to brew beer back in his hometown in Texas before moving to the Philippines as a microbiology scientist in a multinational pharmaceutical company.

Great Islands presents a wide range of beer flavors. Two of its seasonal flavors are the Halo-Halo Ale, inspired by the famous Filipino dessert that is perfect for summer, and the Bicol Express Wild Chili Ale, inspired by the famous spicy dish from the Bicol region. Its all-year round flavors are the 7107 Wheat Ale and its bestseller, the Pearl of the Orient Indio Pale Ale. The latter goes perfectly with Filipino “pulutan” such as Sisig, Crispy Pata, and Adobo.

You can now enjoy these interesting local craft beer flavors in the following establishments: The Bottle Shop, The Perfect Pint, Chihuahua, Buffalo Wings and Things, Big Bad Wolf, and Belle and Dragon.

Moving loved ones closer through LINE Premium Call

Stronger connections through an exclusive promotion for Filipino users

On August 6, 2014, LINE, the world's leading mobile platform with 490 million users, has launched a new LINE Premium Call promotion exclusive for the Philippines during the "LINE More, Be Closer!" event held at Makati Shangri-la Hotel. For Filipinos, communication is vital in preserving and strengthening relationships. With an aim to build lasting relationships, LINE formally introduced LINE Premium Call, a globally renowned call service, along with loads of other surprises exclusive to its Filipino users.

Since its launch in the Philippines, the global messaging and call app continued to roll out exciting new features that brought its Filipino users closer together. LINE sees this as one of million reasons to celebrate its evolution from a budding messaging application to a full-fledged mobile ecosystem with pools of rip-roaring features. LINE Philippines has also launched partnerships with some of the country’s biggest names from various industries—including Jollibee, Bench, and Family Mart.

“With the launch of LINE service and TV commercial last year, LINE has become one of the leading mobile platforms in the Philippines,” said Greg Kim, head of LINE Philippines, during the event. “We have come up with a campaign exclusive for the users in the Philippines for them to connect and be closer to their beloved friends and families.”

Building stronger connections with affordable price

LINE Premium Call allows users to make low-cost calls domestically and internationally to both landlines and mobile devices from inside the LINE app. With over 490 million users worldwide, the globally renowned app helps users in the Philippines reconnect with their families and friends through enhanced call quality and better network conditions.

“Compared to other leading brands, LINE Premium Call provides the lowest price in all the Philippines’ most popular calling destinations because we believe that closer bonds among our loved ones should start with stronger connections,” added Kim. “LINE promises to enhance its services further through exciting new features and add-ons to give our users more ways to communicate with their loved ones.”

Better call quality

Since the launch of LINE free call service, LINE has been fully committed to consistently improve the quality of our LINE-to-LINE voice call, video call and LINE Premium Call. As a part of this commitment, LINE conducts ceaseless research and experiments under the testing environment that meets the rigorous international standards, including ITU-T[1] recommendations.

As a result, LINE’s voice call usage experienced a huge leap of 5.6 times and the clarity of the voice quality improved by 120% between late 2012 and the first half of 2014. Moreover, Japan’s leading newspaper Nikkei even recognized LINE Premium Call as the Best New Product of Q2 in 2014 based on its competitive price and quality. 

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[1] International Telecommunication Union’s Telecommunication Standardization Sector

LINE is my number one choice when it comes to communicating with my loved ones,” said Jessy Mendiola, one of this generation’s leading actresses. Likewise, host-actor Matteo Guidicelli said that nothing can match LINE in terms of call quality. The two rising Filipino superstars who are the brand ambassadors of LINE, featured on LINE TV commercial, joined the event to share their personal stories and to encourage other LINE users to use LINE Premium Call.

LINE Premium Call promotion

The event also marked the launch of LINE’s newest Premium Call promotion exclusive in the Philippines. LINE will be giving away coupons with 300 LINE Premium Call credits to diners of 23 Munchpunch affiliated restaurants in 100 branches from August 14^th to September 13^th. These call credit coupons will also be given out to online shoppers of Lazada website from August 14^th to 23^rd.

“LINE promises to continue its efforts in focusing more on features that these Philippine users will love while providing the best communication experience. Latest features including LINE Selfie Stickers, Hidden Chat and many other initiatives are all part of our ongoing effort. We always strive to provide everyone the best messaging and call experience. We hope more users in the Philippines are connected with their friends and family through LINE Premium Call,” Kim concluded.

At the event, there was a demo of the LINE Premium Call, which actually worked well. And I gotta try it on my own too! Anyway, I enjoyed the event and what I loved the most was the loot bag I got which was full of LINE premium items, my favorite of which was the stuffed toy! :) Here are some of my photos during the event:

LINE's brand ambassadors: Jessy Mendiola & Matteo Guidicelli

sad BROWN

I posed with Cony while I was holding Moon :))

ambush interview

please excuse my haggard self :))

xoxo,

city girl