Tag: indian craft beer

The craze of craft beers is spreading like wildfire with each passing day. Witnessing the growing demand for craft beers, the market has seen offerings for quality variations subsequently. Even though India’s craft beer industry is in its budding stage, this industry is flourishing rapidly. This growth is driven by millennials who discover craft beer to be more bona fide and premium, compared to normal lagers.

The ingredients without which you can’t create a perfect beer are malts, hops, yeast, and water. These essential ingredients need to be blended in an utmost balance so that we get to experience the fresh and unique profile of the beer. The ratio in which these ingredients are added also plays an important role and therefore it could vary as per the style of beer one wants to create.

As far as hops are concerned, there is a belief in the western world that this ingredient is the major deciding factor between a typical commercial lager and a craft beer. Hops are basically here just for mankind’s beery satisfaction. Once the cone-shaped flowers of the plant are harvested and dried in the fall, they play a huge role in the beer brewing process. Every single beer on the market today contains hops. If they didn’t, they would be a “gruit” which is basically a beer that, instead of hops, uses witches-brew-sounding herbs like bog myrtle, yarrow, heather, or juniper.

Brewers adore these small vine-grown buds for a few reasons. To begin with, they taste great. Hops confer a vital bitterness to beer that may well be excessively sweet or out of balance without them. What’s more is that there are more than 80 varieties of hops and they leave behind an entire parcel of flavor within the shape of citrusy, tropical, spicy, pine-like, homegrown, and earthy aromatics.

In the craft industry, hops are now known for more than the purpose of preservation and bitterness for balancing the flavors. Hops are added at different stages of the brewing and fermentation process to bring out aromas in beer that no one could imagine. Moreover, hops offer assistance to keep up a beer’s foamy head and lend antibacterial qualities that help avoid deterioration. So definitely, hops are the supporting actors in this movie.

Craft beer involves a tremendous amount of science and the antimicrobial property plays a basic role in its making because it moderates down the speed of gram-positive bacteria but doesn’t obstruct the development of Gram-negative bacteria. The antibacterial activity plays a key role in providing the much required microbiological stability which in return helps in maintaining the beer’s physical properties for a longer period of time. When a beer contains a high percentage of Alcohol by Volume (ABV), there is a large number of malts to do so. To bring the balance between the sweetness of malts and the high sharpness of the amount of alcohol, hops can bring the two together for perfect harmony.

With the exceptional taste, high-quality ingredients, and impact on your local community, you have many reasons to be a proud craft beer drinker. So, when you grab a craft beer and wonder what makes your beer taste so bitter and smell different, then it’s mostly the hops 🙂

What excites you more? A beer with all kinds of flavors or a beer with a single flavor. Take your pick, take anyone! The good news is that today in India we have a variety of flavors to dive into.

A large chunk of our population is still alien to the history of craft beers and what goes behind the whole craft process.

India’s tryst with Beer began centuries ago, as far back as 1500 BC. The beer brewed was made out of basic ingredients such as fermented barley and rice-based beverages with local fruits and spices which is commonly called Tadi. The said beverages continue to exist in selected regions of India.

Today, the beer we consume is majorly brewed with malted barley, hops, yeast, and water. The beer consumption culture in India can be traced back to the time when the British shipped their beers halfway across the world.

During the 1700s, the ales made their way into the Indian market when hops were added to preserve the beer for a six-month-long journey from Britain to India. This led to the creation of a new style of the infamous IPA or ‘India Pale Ale’ which is now building up the bitter taste in the palate of the Indian consumer.

The Independence of India from the British empire saw IPA make its way out with the English men. The departure of IPA led to India’s pioneer brewers brewing the style that had globally replaced pale ales – pilsners and lagers and our country was flooded with pilsners and lagers for the longest time. The ales and the lagers were under commercial beer brands with majorly three variants i.e. Strong 8%, Mild 5% & Light below 5%.

While we waited for the growth of the craft beer revolution to happen, it truly began 11 years ago with Indian microbreweries crafting and serving fresh beer on-site in what we call Brewpubs. ‘Doolally’ was the first-ever microbrewery that made its way in the Indian market with its first brew ‘The Belgian Wit Beer’ in 2009.

As of 2021, India has quite a few documented beer styles and a handful of organizations with their own unique classifications. As beer styles continue to evolve, we understand the complexity and depth of the craft beers which only makes us appreciate every drop of beer made by the brewers in India.

The first microbrewery opened in Pune and soon the revolution started with more than 100 micro-breweries throughout the country brewing many different styles. Some of the few are namely the American Pale Ale, IPA, Double IPA, Amber Ales, Saison, Session IPA, Sours, Wheat Beer, and many more!

With so many types of beer to explore, we know diving into the world of craft beers might be a little intimidating. But hey finding your way through the ever-growing number of beer styles has never been easier with our Craft beer blogs in the picture now:P

So here’s a cheer to the craft of the art 🙂

Whether you end your day with an ice-cold Corona or reach for a bourbon barrel-aged stout, if you’ve cracked a beer anytime in the last several years, you’ve probably noticed a surge in the number of alternatives to macro-brews. Those choices make up a category called “craft beer.”

For years, beer consumers in India have been served mass-produced brews that they acknowledged for lack of choices. The craft beer storm has been brewing in India for a while now and it’s safe to say that we are within the golden age of beer.

Currently the young entrepreneurs in the country have taken up the road less travelled to expose the gravity of craft beers. The endeavor is to serve quality brews at competitive costs, which would in turn help them build a larger following of craft brew lovers.

Since ages people have been consuming lagers as a standard form of beer for unwinding after a long day after work.  Beer industry in India has witnessed a fundamental change over the last decade in terms of people experimenting with finely crafted brews which have an eccentric taste in terms of their ingredients and aroma.

Craft beers are driven by the quality of the product, which in turn calls out a major chunk of the youth of India, as the target audience. The Gen Z’s want nothing but less than a handful of options for everything they seem to be intrigued towards. And craft brews hit the nail right in the coffin!

Looks like the brewers in the country have their priorities in place when it comes to providing the customers an experience where they get a product which is brewed locally, but is at par with craft beers across the world!

One of the most enduring and loved experiences in the country sides of Europe and the USA, is a visit to the ‘local’, the pub that is, and when that village also has a brewery, the experience is high.

The charm of the countrysides in Europe and the USA is matched by ours in the foothills of the western-ghats in Latambarcem in North East Goa, the home of Maka, brewed at the quaint brew-house of Latambarcem brewers.

And a trip to The Village Brew House brewing truly international craft beers is a day-long fun and froth experience.

There is no better way to explore the universe of craft beer than to visit the Maka planet. The brewery tour gets you up close and personal with the makers of Maka and to the beer itself. You can see the tools, the instruments and the machinery that goes into the making of beer, go back in time to learn about beer processes from our brewmasters and of course, enjoy Maka beer, fresh from the tap or bottled.

And for those who just want to enjoy Maka in home surroundings with friends for company and games to lift your spirits, it’s all there for the asking. Simply chose what works and add it to your entry package.

But irrespective of what you would like from the buffet of offers, we are sure you’ll experience the present and the future of craft beer making in India, in the scenic countryside of Latambarcem, on the foothills of the western ghats.

To have your personalised experience of fun and froth at our crafted world of Maka, book online on our website or email us.