All the new microbrewery beers have variants—and tasting notes. So, Applebocq is “characteristic of tart apples (old variety). A sweet product with a touch of wheat”. This is the precise moment I start wondering if we should all just stick to Tiger.
At a beer-tasting organized for Lounge at Galaxy’s brewpub (this is such a hard job, dear reader), I scribble tasting notes. There’s water to cleanse the palate as I guzzle my way through a light lager (sorry, but it’s too light); a premium lager (smooth, nice); a dark beer (highest alcohol content but too sweet for me); and an unfiltered wheat beer (my favourite; 80% barley, 20% wheat). Galaxy sources its barley from arid regions in Rajasthan; the hops come from the high altitudes of Lahaul-Spiti.
What type of beer do most Indians like anyway? Everyone has a different answer. “Indians don’t like bitter beers with a lot of hops,” says beer consultant and former microbrewery manager Karen Larrabee, who has worked in India for a year now. “My gut feel is that our Blonde will do the best since it’s closest to what’s available in the market,” says Geist’s Chowdhury. Adds Talekar: “The Indian palate likes pretty much anything wheat.” Most experts say the Indian beer palate can currently distinguish only between mild/strong beer.
Whether microbrewery beer will taste better than industrially-produced beer and whether consumers will be willing to pay a premium for this presumably better brew are two key factors that will determine which way this new business swings, says Talekar. “Right now, there are no benchmarks to predict if this business will be successful,” he adds.
Perhaps that’s why restaurateur A.D. Singh says that though he’s snagged a space in Pune where he wants to open a microbrewery garden by next September, he believes that “at this point, making beer for this capacity and selling it only on your premises is not feasible”.
“Technically, we don’t have the knowledge base to do it. I don’t think anybody does in India,” he adds. Industry sources say the Rockman Group’s brewpub, Beer Garden in Gurgaon, has also been delayed due to technical reasons. “The microbrewery business is not feasible,” agrees Nikhil Kumar, a Belgian beer importer.
One man who has all the expertise you can hope to encounter is 59-year-old Subroto Cariapa, Galaxy’s brewmaster. His resume reads like a who’s who of the beer industry. After completing his PhD in permutation technology from Prague, Cariapa worked at Heineken, Pilsner Urval (Czech; “the world’s best beer”) and Frydenlunds Brewery in Norway. In 1976, he came back to India.
Over the next two decades, he says, he developed the London Pilsner brand; followed that up with Cobra, Knockout, MBL and that army favourite Pals lager; helped Anheuser-Busch build a state-of-the-art brewery in Hyderabad and introduced us to Budweiser.
Now he’s leading the microbrewery march.