Coffee shops are now corny, restaurants are passe and the archetypal bars are back numbers. Microbreweries - they're the craze that has Bengaluru in its thrall. Toit, Windmill, Vapour, Arbor, The Biere Club - these are the latest hot-spots in Bangalore.
The garden city has a brimming beer culture. But what sets it apart is the locally-brewed beer that is drawing people by the dozens. Fresh, smooth and not too bitter... This range of native beers is creating a new crop of tipplers who relish it on their way to a high. Combining beer with appetising food, these microbreweries as they are called, surely know how to run a roaring business.
Now Bangalore didn't invent India's microbrewery craze. They were first introduced in Haryana. But Karnataka has certainly been quick to own the trend. It started licencing microbreweries in 2010, and today, piggy-backing on the fact that beer is one of the fastest-growing consumer categories in the city, establishments like these are more than just a place to get together for a drink.
Bharati Jacob, managing partner, Seedfund Advisors, says: "It is a place for socializing. Even startups are taking their employees on an evening outshoot."
Each of these places create and sell their own beer and the clientele is often spoilt for choice.
Arun George, co-founder, Toit Brewpub, says: "We have wheat beer which is famous, we have ragi beer and are experimenting with basmati rice... And fruit beers like the mango beer, jack fruit beer."
On an average weekday, a microbrewery like this one serves at least 2,000 mugs of beer... Over the weekend, it's easily between 4,000 and 5,000 mugs. That's quite a hefty number, considering Bengaluru already has 18 microbreweries in operation, and at least three more waiting for licences.
While a microbrewery licence costs Rs 12,00,000, it's clearly big business.
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