Beer Archives - Maka Di Beer

All good stories almost always begin with “Once upon a time” and this one begins in Britain in the 1950s. Beer a traditional favourite was mixed for the first time with ginger ale and called ‘Shandygaff’, which was shortened to ‘Shandy’.

Over the years, many of us have been initiated into beer via Shandy (with lemonade mixed with beer)

At Latambarcem professionally made and bottled shandy was there for the taking. A game-changing collaboration took place when we brought our pure unfiltered crispy Maka lager and the lemonade from Borecha to make vintage shandy, the quintessential low alcohol refreshing sparkling summer drink.

This is also in keeping with a global trend of the best breweries brewing beer mixed drinks. Bavaria, the home of “German purity law” loves to mix its beer with soda and bottle it. This genre of drinks is called biermischgetränke, or beer mixed drinks, such as Radlers and Diesels.

Said Aditya Ishan Varshnei, the CEO of Latambarcem Breweries “The world over people are looking at easy drinking low alcoholic solutions. The lager and lemonade combo (lager-ade) which we are introducing as Shandy is an offering we believe will do well in Goa and elsewhere, as a low alcohol functional beverage, when we enter other cities”.

So folks the summer got chilled. The Maka Shandy is here.

This is the beer story that shapes the Maka story!

Hops: Beer’s flower child & scale changing innovation

Hops are the flowers or cones of a plant called Humulus lupulus. Beer gets its aromas and bitterness from hops apart from its preservative properties. That allowed industrial-scale production of beer. Aromas and bitterness are dosed according to the specific beer profile. From citrusy, floral, earthy, mellow, spicy, fruity, we can chose the variety, quantity and addition time of the hops during the brewing and maturation process.

The Star

Malts: The star of beer, Egyptian moms drank it too

Malts add sugars for fermentation and generates flavour. It is the malt profile that gives the beer its body and malty uniqueness.

Malt is germinated cereal grain that has been dried through a process known as malting. The grain is made to germinate in water and then stopped by drying with hot hair.

Malt beer is considered to be nutritious and is sometimes given to nursing mothers. In ancient Egypt, nursing mothers drank their form of malt beer (zythum) as a laxative and an antidiarrheal.

Latambarcem Brewers imports all malts from Poland and Great Britain. The two roll barley malt variety give us the highest efficiency and best flavour profiles.

The Protagonist

Yeast: The master of fermentation

Yeast is the most important change agent in the making of beer. And is the main protagonist of the most important aspect of beer making- fermentation.

Discovered in the late 1860s by Louis Pasteur, yeast is the acting agent for change from malt juice to beer by consuming sugar and producing alcohol and carbon dioxide. Importantly, yeast contributes to a prominent beer profile to every single beer.

Yeast also gives aroma to beer, as a by-product of the fermentation process, in addition to the hops.

The Secret Agent

Even our water is Craft

Water is the ingredient with the highest volume. It is the secret agent in the beer-making process. As the name suggests, special water crafted for every beer that is made. Every brew needs the right beer profile to get the optimised and desired quality end product.

We at Maka, craft our own water as per beer style because every brew asks for the right water profile to get the optimised and desired controlled quality of the product.

The water is first made devoid of any minerals to make it totally neutral. Then minerals needed for the specific beer type is added. This is how water is curated or crafted.

The water is adjusted to make it exactly like the water from the region where the particular beer type comes from.

Tag: Beer

Shandy: The collaboration that has just chilled the summer

The soul of beer- A master class on malts, yeast and the secret agent