Cold and crafty

On a sunny Sunday afternoon, Aditi, a young medical student, was standing in a long queue, arms outstretched, plastic glass in hand, waiting for the bartender to pour her some beer — her third that day. After a week of night shifts, this was her way of rewarding herself. Behind her was Kaj, a Danish engineer enjoying his first real taste of Mumbai’s social life since his move to the city a few months ago. Clearly excited, Kaj was also feeling a twinge of nostalgia. It was a while since he tasted handmade craft beer, a staple in his country. So, he like Aditi, had traded a lazy Sunday for a more spirited outing at last week’s Tapped: Craft Beer Festival in Mumbai.

Organised by up-and-coming micro-breweries across the country — Pune’s Doolally and Independence Brewing Company, beer importers Yeast India Company, Mumbai’s Gateway Brewing Company and Bangalore’s Arbor Brewing Company — the day-long fest was a small yet significant step in promoting alternative beers. So far, the market is so small, says Riday Thakur from Yeast India Company, there’s no competition. So they are encouraging more independent brewers and micro-breweries to enter the fray. “It’s almost like a movement,” says IIM graduate Suketu Talekar, who left his job at P&G to open Doolally, India’s first micro-brewery.

The kinship was rather evident too. Gaurav Sikka, managing director at Arbor Brewing Company, couldn’t get permission to fly down his kegs from Bangalore so he created a pale ale, Bombalore (a combination of Bombay and Bangalore), with Rahul Mehra of Gateway Brewing Company for the fest. Besides, all of them served out of the same space, not separate stalls, making it hard to tell one brand from the other (clearly intentional). The beers though were distinct in flavour. Between them, the micro-breweries had covered the entire spectrum from light apple cider to darker wheat beers. United in their distaste for common, glycerine-laden brands, entrepreneurs like Doolally’s Talekar watched many a happy customer clink glasses, and said with a hint of pride, “Every glass of craft beer consumed, is one less glass of mass-produced beer.”

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