While food and mixology celebrate experimentation, why should Indian beers be left behind? Summers are typically associated with lighter ales, but this year the rulebook has retired with some of the most innovative pints launching this season.
From a beer made with wine grapes to lagers brewed with ingredients such as idli and poha, there’s probably never been a better time to try experimental brews from India’s craft brewing scene. Here’s a roundup of some of the most interesting beers to try from across the country this summer.
India Grape Ale by Fort City Brewing, Delhi
Delhi’s Fort City Brewing has created a brew calling it India’s first-ever India Grape Ale. It hovers between a crisp ale complete with flavours of a Mimosa rounded off with grape tannins as an aftertaste. The unconventional grape-meets-beer India Grape Ale is vibrant, aromatic and layered with flavours offering a pronounced white wine character with notes of stone fruit, citrus blossom and subtle acidity.
According to Gautham Gandhi and Ashish Ranjan, co-founders of Fort City Brewing: Chenin Blanc grape juice, harvested at peak ripeness at Fratelli Vineyards, was airlifted to Delhi and co-fermented with the wort to start the brewing process on the same day itself. The limited-edition release is probably the best answer to what happens if wine and beer came together in a glass.
Poha Lager by Public Beerhall and Snackbar, Mumbai
A breakfast staple probably shouldn’t work inside a beer glass, yet here we are at Mumbai’s Public Beerhall and Snackbar admiring their Poha Lager. Poha or flattened rice is the main ingredient in this lager-style beer. As Neville Timbadia, co-founder of Public Beerhall says, “Since we serve Indian food at the restaurant, we wanted a beer that would complement the menu and the Poha Lager fit in perfectly. It’s quickly become our bestselling beer within two months of its launch.” Your 9am beer craving is in the process of being bottled because of the popularity of the Poha Lager. The Public team plans to bottle this lager in cans and sell it at wine shops in the near future.
Idli Lager at We Idliwale Barroom, Pune
What happens when idli and lager beer have a love child? Now we know thanks to this Idli Lager pouring in Pune. “When we announced this on our Instagram page on April 1, people thought it was an April Fools’ joke,” says co-founder Abhishek Joshi and adds, “It began as an idea to cut down on our wastage because we make about 2000 idlis per day.” It led the team to hand over their unused idlis to Abhishek Chinchalkar, who runs Bombay Duck Brewing to turn into an Idli Lager. Initially intended to be a limited release, the response to the lager was exactly what the team envisioned, prompting a fresh round of Idli Lager to be stocked for a longer period at We Barroom in Pune.
Indic Gruit by Biergarten, Bengaluru
A beer without hops in 2026? Of course it’s possible, as Biergarten Bengaluru’s Indic Gruit just proved. Biergarten’s Indic Gruit might be one of the boldest beers currently pouring in the city, because it eliminates hops—considered to be a key ingredient. Instead, this Saison-style brew leans on indigenous botanicals including citrus peels, herbs, and bitter barks to build flavour and bitterness into its brew. Part of the brewery’s Trial And Error series, the bottle feels ancient and futuristic at the same time as it mimics the traditional way beer was made before hops were discovered. Rustic, dry, sparkling and herbaceous, the Indic Gruit will perhaps make seasoned zythophiles take notes.
Coast Tribe by Great State Aleworks, Pune
Brewed by Great State Aleworks in collaboration with Vietnam’s Heart of Darkness brewery, Coast Tribe is a coconut and mango cream ale that basically packs beach vibes into a pint. What makes it stand out is the style itself. Cream ales remain oddly under explored across India despite being built for hot-weather as they are lighter, crisper and easier than heavier ales. If you’ve never tried one, this is a good opportunity to get your hands on a cream ale. Coast Tribe has a creamy texture but doesn’t lean on sweetness and is far removed from a typical dessert beer. Instead, expect ripe mango notes, soft coconut, a silky texture, and a clean finish that will have you reaching for more as the long Indian summer drags on.
Pop Fiction by Geist Brewery Co., Bengaluru
Aralu is another regional ingredient that made its way into beer making. In Karnataka, aralu is popped rice that goes into a lager by Geist Brewery. The result is Pop Fiction—a beer with a nutty, toasted profile that pulls heavily from regional nostalgia. Founder and CEO Narayan Manepelly says the inspiration came from childhood memories of Aralu Mosaru, a simple dish of popped rice and curd his grandmother would make during special occasions. Not to worry, the beer tastes nothing like curd rice. Aralu, with its husk intact, is steeped in water and then heated over hot sand that gives it a toasted character reminiscent of popcorn or roasted peanuts.
Cherry Sour by Igloo Craft Beers, HyLo BKC Taproom, Mumbai
Most brewers would run the other way if asked to mix in black salt in beer since it adds a sulphury note to the brew, and is considered an off flavour by many. Chaitanya Khanapure, founder of Igloo Craft Beers, picked the ingredient to create a Gose-style (German ale) beer called Cherry Sour as a hat tip to recreate the flavour of the salted, spiced dehydrated cherries associated with Indian summers. Fermented along with red cherries sourced from Himachal Pradesh, Cherry Sour is tart, salty, funky, and unapologetically Indian in the way it approaches flavour. The beer is currently pouring at Hylo Taproom in BKC and through Igloo’s growlers.
Priyanko Sarkar is a Mumbai-based writer covering the F&B industry.