A truly Bacolod beer

Published on: 1st December, 2009

Bogsbrew

The enterprising architect Bugoy fulfills a long-held dream – and produces Bacolod’s first truly-local beer, complete with muscovado.

Here, now, is beer  brewed, mastered, and bottled in Bacolod.

Although it was conceptualized decades back when Felix  “Bugoy” Hagad was still in the UP where a classmate was experimenting with beer making, Bogsbrew Beer is decidedly Bacoleno.  To start with, Bugoy  is true-blue Bacoleno. Then, the ingredients: pure Negros springwater and the indisputably Negrense muscovado. Add the fact that it is produced in Bacolod. What can be more Bacolod than that?

Bogsbrew started coming out of the production line in 2008, but the idea sparked in Bugoy’s mind in the 80’s when one of his  classmates at UP College of Architecture tried his hand making his own beer.  It was a flop, of course, Bugoy recalls,  but that got me thinking:  what if I try it myself?

The idea was shoved in the backburner for the meantime, as more pressing matters had to be attended to, he also recalls.  A few years later,  in the States, where his girlfriend and now wife Cathy was working on her masteral thesis, Bugoy  got acquainted with one of her classmates who was in the business of brewing beer.   This rekindled the almost- forgotten idea in his head, he says. Still  it took  him about 20 years after this encounter to successfully brew a batch.

Bugoy says Negros is an ideal place to brew beer, because of two things:  sugar and spring water.  Beer is created by fermenting sugar and starch, and this happens in a pool of water, he adds, and  Negros has been blessed with an abundance of both.  I far as I know, ours is the only beer made with muscovado, and this imparts a uniquely caramel- toffee flavor to our beer, he also says.

Negros also has mountain spring water, which brewers all over the world know will give the beer its own character.  No two sources of spring water will be the same, as these will not have the same concentration of minerals, he adds.

Bogsbrew  beers are currently available at Café Bob’s Deli, Café Uma and Trattoria Uma, and Tipsi bar at the East Block.

It comes in several variants:  India Pale Ale, Aussie Pale Ale, Czech Pilsener, Canadian Blonde, Mexican Cerveza, Euro Lager, and Negros All-grain.  They have  different recipes and distinct characters, Bugoy says,  but they are all made with muscovado and refined Negros sugar and bathed in Negros spring water.

Readers Comments