Craft brew brothers
THOSE who say that business and pleasure don’t mix clearly haven’t seen how the men behind Craftpoint Brewing Co., a small local craft beer brewery, work.
For one, it’s hard to tell exactly when a drinking session stops and the business meeting begins when Aldous Bernardo, Marvin Moreno and Chip Vega sit down to work on their products—and for good reason, since, as Bernardo puts it, their best R&D (research and development) happens once they’ve knocked back a couple of beers.
“Our R&D is really research and drinking—or research in drinking,” Bernardo says.
The trio decided to open their own brewery in Moreno’s garage three years ago after meeting each other at a gathering of craft beer enthusiasts. Since their first two ales—Summer Session, a blonde ale, and Liberation Pale Ale—they’ve been able to develop around 20 craft beer varieties and have moved their production to a larger space in Edsa Beverage Design Studio, a collaborative working space in Mandaluyong City.
Their production has also increased by around 10 times, adds Moreno.
“Before we would make around 20-30 cases in a month,” says Moreno.
“Thirty—if we don’t drink!” adds Vega.
“Yes; now we produce the same amount in just one brew,” Moreno continues.
Another indication of their business’ growth: the trio have been able hire four more people to help them manage distribution to their partner establishments, as well as find new accounts.
“The past years have been challenging, especially with the influx of new [craft beer] breweries,” says Vega. “Since we opened, around 40 more also sprouted.”
The good thing about having more competition, however, is that it helped the business partners realize exactly what Craftpoint’s identity is: a “creative endeavor.”
“We try to push what people think beer is,” says Vega.
They do this by infusing their concoctions with unusual flavors and giving them equally unusual names—champorado (The People’s Champ), sampaguita (Saison D’Orleans), vanilla chili (Love & Lust), even aratilis (Rastripel).
To further indulge their passion for creating new beers, they started the Beer Explorer, an exclusive subscription program for their clients.
“We initially had this thing where we would make a beer a month, and we would feature it at The Bottle Shop. But we really enjoyed making the beers and getting feedback, and that led to the Beer Explorer,” says Vega.
The Beer Explorer lasted six months, from January till June this year.
Craftpoint will exclusively deliver to subscribers a pack of their featured beer for the month before releasing it to their other partner establishments.
For around P1,000 a month, subscribers receive a six-pack; a printed “primer” on craft beer, which contains information on Craftpoint, the brewing process, and even tips on beer storage and tasting; a comic strip by Pol Medina Jr. titled “Bukayo” which has as its main characters Bernardo, Moreno and Vega; and short product reviews written by craftbeer bloggers.
Vega says that while they had to stop the Beer Explorer “to fix first the bottlenecks” (such as delivery logistics), Craftpoint is gearing up to “relaunch the program in a big way” next year, and will be a permanent service of the brewery.
The three are also using the remaining months of 2016 to relocate their brewery to a larger space to be able to accommodate the growing demand for their beers.
Craftpoint’s products are being sold at various bars, restaurants, hotels and even supermarkets, from Quezon City all the way to Los Baños in Laguna.
With the right investors, the trio’s ultimate goal—one that has been “in the horizon” since they started out, says Moreno—is to open their own all-craft beer bar.
“Our growth hasn’t really been meteoric, which sits well with us because we want to stay independent; or, at least, solidify the company first independently, so when the time comes that investors get interested, we wouldn’t be at a loss in telling them what the company is all about,” says Vega.
“We just want to maintain our creativity,” adds Moreno.
Cheers to that.