James
Gatlabayan
Founder – Head Brewer
A son of Antipolo City, Rizal, James grew up and still lives being surrounded by trees and mountains full of flora and fauna. He grew up in an environment where his family grew their own vegetables and animals as a supplement to their everyday dietary needs.
Being in a family full of engineers, James grew up being inspired to Build rather than Buy. This led him to be a natural advocate of DIY; starting different hobbies in very different fields using equipment he made himself.
James graduated in BS Entrepreneurship and delivered the Valedictory Address as the recipient of the Novus Ordus Award, the highest institutional honour awarded to a graduating student of Thames International Business School.
Professionally starting a career in Industrial Sales under his brother’s company, James eventually ventured out and started Sky Eastern Marketing to further hone his skills in Sales and Trading.
His greatest hobby, brewing Beer eventually led him to start Santiago Brewery & Malthouse, his own home brewery in 2014; with equipment he built with just Php 5,000.
He also pioneered the commercial malting of grains used for brewing and founded the first and only commercial Malthouse in the Philippines.
Through the help of the DOST Setup Program, James was able to secure a 0% interest loan of Php 3m to scale up his DIY equipment to a professionally-made commercial microbrewery in 2018.
GENERAL INQUIRIES
info@santiagobrewery.com