Now brewing: The Itchyworms’ ‘Beer,’ ‘Pag-ibig’ craft beers

MANILA, Philippines — “Bawat patak, anong sarap/Ano ba talagang mas gusto ko/Ang beer na ‘to o ang pag-ibig mo?”

Taking inspiration from their hit song Beer, the pop-rock band The Itchyworms has just forayed into beer-making. They will officially launch their own brand of craft beers tonight (July 13) through a music show at 123 Block, Mandaluyong City, co-organized by GNN Entertainment Productions and the band themselves. It will also feature live performances of Ebe Dancel, Ciudad, Blaster, and The Revisors.

The beer variants include Beer, a light and clean tasting blonde ale with a balance of tropical fruit flavor and the right amount of maltiness; and Pag-ibig, a hazy, cloudy, and flow sweet and bitter at the same time.

“We have a song (called) Beer that has been there for many years. Gusto naming panindigan aside sa manginginom kami, we have to make a beer. We just leveled up,” Kelvin Yu, the bassist of the band, shared to the press at a mediacon ahead of the official launch and music show.

The Itchyworms members who attended the press event were Jazz Nicolas, Jugs Jugueta, and Mikey Amistoso.

“We produced beer because most of the merch are T-shirts, caps, bags, tumblers, keychains and stickers. We want to launch merch that is unique. So what better type of merch, aside from shirt or cap or yung mga nagawa na, not edible (but) drinkable and consumable merch that is in-line with our product,” continued Kelvin.

Jugs quipped, “And we want to become rich. We want to become beer magnates here in the Philippines. So with these two flavors, tatalunin namin (other brewery companies).”

Kelvin furthered that they teamed up with Flat Foot Brewing Company to craft their brand of beer.

The band members attended a wedding where they came to know the brewing company. Jugs recalled, “They had a special brew for that night. Kulay pink yung beer. And then we asked if we could collaborate with them to make our craft beers.”

From there, they exchanged ideas and brainstormed on the kind and flavor of beer that they wanted to work on, shared Kelvin.

The STAR queried about the similarities between making a beer and churning out a song, Mikey told this paper that just like beer, they also “brew” to make a track. “Hindi yan nagagawa ng basta-basta. It takes a lot of process.”

Jazz, who penned the words for Beer, chimed in, “Kumukuha ka ng tamang sangkap tapos ipapasok mo sa isang kaldero, just like a song. If it’s not good, (you throw it out). And then (you do it again) one more time. Paulit-ulit hanggang gumanda and it becomes perfect.”

Jazz further recalled how the ditty Beer came to be. “When we were young and full of hope,” he quipped. On a serious note, he shared, “Our first album was mostly in English and we only have two songs in Tagalog. My dad told me, ‘You know what, your songs are deep.’ There were people outside our house playing guitar and jamming, sa kanto lang mga lasing. My dad said, ‘You see that? ‘Pag yan hindi nila kayang kantahin yung kanta niyo, hindi sikat yan.’”

It was a moment that prompted Jazz to compose a song about drinking session. “But in real life, I don’t really drink beer. The song is more of about love.”

On their drunk moments back in the day, Jugs told The STAR, “There was this one time we were drunk in Subic. There was an owner type jeep in front of us. We were jumping (on it). We were young at that time.

“Pumunta kami sa hood nung owner type jeep and we jumped on it. And then nalaman namin that the owner of the jeep was a policeman.”

Kelvin added, “Paglabas niya, he was really angry.”

Jugs went on to apologize, “Whoever was that, sorry po. Pasensiya na, bata pa kami nun.”