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Cebu, Philippines
- Authors
- Name
- Alex S
Places
Cebu, the Queen City of the South, is a large city in the Central Visayas region of the Philippines. Famous for its traffic, year-round sun and low cost of living, it's garnered popularity with some looking to escape the dreary and expensive post-covid West. But, what's the beer scene like?
In a word, limited. Filipinos certainly have a taste for beer and the local brands are actually relatively drinkable for macro-lagers: Red Horse and various shades (and to some, perhaps upsettingly, flavours) of San Miguel (no not that San Miguel). However, draft beer is relatively hard to come by and craft beer even less so. Somewhat more surprisingly, even the ubiquitious Guiness has struggled to make in-roads here.
Turning Wheels
By far the best place to drink quality beer in the city is its sole craft brewery, . Situated in the Mabolo distict, Turning Wheels offers a comfortable shipping container ambience that will be familiar to many Western craft beer drinkers.
On the taplist, you're likely to find a selection of relatively punchy IPAs and pale ales, often a red ale and one or more darker beers. Generally these are pretty good and a welcome change to the beers you're likely to find anywhere else in the city (even in an upmarket supermarket). The IPA's probably lean more towards the West Coast style (perhaps the fruitier hops are harder to come by here).
Sal's kitchen is on-site and delivers a hearty accompaniment of tacos, burgers, fries and other similar fayre.
Other Places
Turning Wheels is really the only notable place in Cebu currently but here are a few other beer-related ideas in the city:
Go check out a traditional BBQ place and made do with some Red Horse or San Miguel. It's nothing spectacular but the vibe and the price may well be enough to compensate.
and serve Turning Wheels' beer along with some pleasant food options (or some solid coffee in the latter case).
out towards Banilad has some german beer on tap and you can sit inside giant wooden barrels and drink it which helps I guess.
The large Costco-style membership supermarkets in the city (S+M and Landers) are the only supermarkets where you'll find anything beyond perhaps a Tiger or a Heineken for sale. They're a little pricey to join but you should find Engkanto (a Filipino craft beer brand) as well as some European options. Sadly no English beer to be found anywhere in the city (and believe me I've tried) but we can't have it all can we :-)