Engkanto opens Bridgetowne taproom as Philippine craft beer expands

Engkanto Brewery has opened Engkanto Taps Bridgetowne beside Opus Mall, giving the Philippine craft brewer its first location serving Quezon City near the Pasig border. The taproom opened on Wednesday, June 17, and adds a permanent presence in a district that already draws steady foot traffic from Bridgetowne’s retail and entertainment mix.

The new site fits a broader shift in Metro Manila, where craft brewers are moving beyond packaged beer and into dedicated drinking spaces, neighborhood identity, and festival culture. Bridgetowne had already hosted the MNL Craft Beer Festival 2025 at Bridgetowne Central Park, where more than 30 independent breweries from across the Philippines gathered, and Engkanto’s arrival now puts one of the country’s best-known names directly into that same corridor.

Engkanto is using the taproom as more than a bar. Its official taproom page says beer flights are available, letting guests sample four beers in smaller portions, a format that gives newer drinkers a low-commitment way to compare styles. The brewer’s lineup includes Live It Up Lager, Paint Me Purple Ube Lager, High Hive Honey Ale, Mango Nation Hazy IPA and Green Lava Double IPA, giving the Bridgetowne room a broad cross-section of the brand’s house beers rather than a narrow draft list.

The opening also extends a physical expansion that began when Engkanto launched its first-ever taproom in Sta. Rosa, Laguna, in December 2024. On its own site, the company traces its roots to 2016 and says founder Ian Paradies started the brand because Filipinos were underserved when it came to beer. Engkanto also describes itself as the most internationally awarded local craft brewery, a claim reinforced by the six awards it won at the 2024 World Beer Awards, including World’s Best Beer in the Flavored Honey and Maple Syrup category for High Hive Honey Ale.

That award history gives the Bridgetowne taproom a sharper commercial edge than a standard neighborhood pour house. With the Philippine craft market growing rapidly in Manila and Cebu as drinkers look for locally inspired premium beer, the brewery is betting that visibility, sampling, and location matter as much as volume. Engkanto’s Bridgetowne opening lands in a district already accustomed to craft beer crowds, and now it has a branded taproom to match.