July 18 we went to Asia Brewery. Malou is the personal secretary of Lucio Tan, the owner of Asia Brewery. We would never have been able to get a tour like this without connections like that. We were treated to a day long tour of the complex, and were also treated to an excellent lunch at a local japanese restaurant.
The tour started at the main office, where we were given som information on what the complex makes.
First off was the bottling of Colt 45 beer.
A visit at the lab. We were treated to some energy drinks, in particular Cobra energy drink. This is a competitor to Red Bull, but at a much lower price, people that work night shift can afford to drink one or two (which should be maximum, the effect is quite strong) to keep alert.
The next section of our tour was at a sister company, Tanduay Distillers, Inc. This was the only part of the plant we were not let loose in, but were guided in a restricted area, with a view over the packing section.
The production of rhum is completely inhouse, including production of the glass bottles. There is a glass furnace on top of the bottle making machine, which lets out two gobs of molten glass at a time. This glass is led to the next free bottle making section of the machine.
Asia Brewerey also makes distilled water. Absolute distilled water is the second biggest selling bottled water brand, and again everything is produced inhouse.
The water itself is made using a vacuum distillation process. The PET bottles are made by first creating a blank in a high pressure injection machine. The next step is to heat the body of this blank, and blow it into its final shape.
Finally, we had a look at the section that makes cardboard boxes for packing the products.
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