It had to be a small-scale project because Jadhav had limited funds. He scoured the Internet for viable business options and got his answer: a microbrewery. “My project was submitted to the bank before I finally visited my first microbrewery in Harbin, China,” says the director of Martin Judds Microbreweries (plural, because “some day there will be many”) Pvt Ltd, who began to make his Knights beer with an initial investment of Rs1 crore. The name of Jadhav’s firm came not from a global tie-up but from a Coke tradition of nicknaming colleagues by their last names. “My friend Maruti was called Martin and Jadhav became Judd,” he says.
The new beer entrepreneurs, of course, have enough exposure to microbreweries. Sandeep Bhatnagar, managing director, Ambicon Consultants Pvt. Ltd, has been marketing microbrewery equipment and cajoling state governments to update their excise policies since 2003, when he came back from Finchley in the UK. There he lived next door to a microbrewery. Talekar and Agarwal got the idea from their favourite watering hole, Brewerkz, Singapore’s award-winning microbrewery restaurant. Narayan Manepally, co-founder of Geist (Guy-st), a craft beer that will be launched in Bangalore next month, brewed beer in his home garage in Portland, Oregon for many years.
Manepally and his partner Paul Chowdhury, who have known each other since Class IV, fell out of touch, then met at an old boys’ reunion in Bangalore after they both returned from long stints abroad. They went ahead and bought land in Goa to set up a microbrewery.
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But after delays, a keg full of rules and a government change in Goa, entrepreneur friends advised they find a contract manufacturer to make their beer. That’s why Geist is conceived in India but made in Belgium.
The beer, which is priced at Rs125-130 for 330ml, will be available in four variants—Blonde, Strong Blonde, Whistling Wheat and Dark. Chowdhury says they received lots of encouragement from fellow Bangaloreans such as Kiran Mazumdar Shaw and Nandan Nilekani (they took their beer to Nilekani’s 50th birthday party).
Manepally and Chowdhury—both engineers—will also launch two fruit beers Agrumbocq (with mandarin juice and the aromas of grapefruit and lime; we’re talking pinkish head) and Applebocq (apple, cinnamon, bitter coriander-orange and a touch of wheat.)
Jadhav’s brewmaster quit just after his plant was commissioned in October 2007, so the entrepreneur learnt to brew himself. Sandesh Bhandare / Mint
A handful of state governments have revised their excise policies to include microbreweries and brewpubs (these can only sell their beer on the premises). Haryana was the last to revise its policy in March; Assam and Chattisgarh are expected to follow soon.
It’s not unusual to tweak craft beers until you get them just right. “They have the personal touch of the brewer—haath ki kamal—that sort of thing,” says Manepally.
“You can go wild in terms of creativity,” says Galaxy’s general manager Vivek Sharma whose liquid learning has leapfrogged recently (“there’s no glycerine in beer”; “beer doesn’t give you a beer belly”; “freshly-brewed beer is healthier”).
Jadhav is already revising his formula based on market feedback. “Because it’s a 100% malt beer, the head is a little less so we’re working on improving that,” says the entrepreneur who recently tied up with a marketing firm. He’s stopped selling his strong and light Knights beers in Pune and now retails in the bigger Mumbai market where he hopes to sell an average 2,000 cases every month until February.