A Franconian Foray

Not too long ago I was in Germany for BrauBeviale, a brewing industry trade show that takes place in Nürnberg and a little beer hunting in Bamberg. I also had the pleasure to tour the Weyermann Malting Co. and attend a really great party there. BrauBeviale is a nice contrast to the American Craft Brewers Conference and as you would expect, a good opportunity to discover European brewing supplies, manufactures and equipment that is not well known in the American market. There was an abundance of excellent complementary beer on the trade floor and many vendors cooked up sausages for hungry attendees.

Brewery-fresh, Self-serve Pilsner Urquell complements of the Mueller Co.

Nürnberg is an attractive town. It’s hard to believe it was so heavily bombed in WWII. Here is a good pub/brewery guide for those making the trip. Sadly the Andechs Wirtshaus at the Deutscher Kaiser hotel was closed. A real blow for me as Andechs is one of my favourite German breweries. I sure felt cheated out of a few liters which I did my best to make up for on an excellent pub crawl with Frau Lang from Rhön-Malz. We made one pub discovery - Nürnberger Alm completely by chance, just walking by and as as it turned out, they had the best selection of beer that I found in the city. The wild boar with dumpling plate I had to eat was pretty damn tasty too.

At the European Beer Star awards tasting

Bamberg, with it’s World-Heritage city center was all I hoped it would be and more. Drinking Rauchbier (smoked beer) at the source is really the only way to experience it at it’s best (see an earlier post for more info). The bottles of Schlenkerla that I brought back to Bangalore were something of a disappointment. I guess it just doesn’t fare well in the bottle. The Ungespundetes (unfiltered kellerbier) at the cozy Spezial Brauerei pub on the other hand was probably my favourite and most memorable beer of the trip. Honorable mentions to Andechs Helles, Forsthaus Templin Bock - both on the Brau trade floor and Löwenbräu Weissbier at the brewery in Buttenheim. It was here that I had the pleasure to meet Hans Modschiedler - a brewmaster and early pioneer in bringing craft beer to India at the now defunct  Rockman Beer Island brewpub in Gurgaon. It’s sad this one didn’t survive. I’m sure the beers brewed by his hand were the “real deal” and quite good!

The best beer of the trip at the Special Brauerei

The original malt extract evaporator at the Weyermann Malting Co.

While it’s a little late, best wishes for a hoppy and prosperous New Year to all! My crystal ball is hinting at change, opportunity and an exciting year.

Craftworks News

• A new batch of Stout is on-tap and this one is really tasty.
• I’ve revamped the Golden Ale because we just don’t have the extra 4-5 days that it takes to dry-hop this beer. Rather than just try and “pull a fast one” we are calling it what it is, a new beer - Helles Ale. As the Golden was an Ale version of a Pilsner, the new beer is an Ale version of a Helles (German for light) lager. But rest assured there is still a pretty good hop smack and it’s still finished exclusively with the best quality Czech Saaz hops.

It's Beer Season

The brewhouse at Big Pitcher

Now that we are past the the annual brewery license renewal date (July), we have several new breweries in Bangalore with beer flowing (see the updated side bar). This brings the total number of brewpubs to 17! The reason for the sudden explosion is that the excise department (regulator of micro breweries) doesn't pro-rate the license fee and the 50% advance payment for excise duty on annual capacity. In other words, open a brewery in June and you will be required to pay a years worth of fees for one month of operation only to pay another years fee a month later in July. It's not really the right way to go about licensing new breweries but it is what it is. 

On a more optimistic note, representatives from all of Bangalore's craft breweries met with the excise department to voice our concerns over unfair and vague regulations. I'm happy to report that we met with some success. No longer will annual capacity be defined by the size of your brew kettle x 365 - none of Bangalore's craft brewers, brewed everyday anyway. It will now be the total volume of all fermentation tanks x 21 (half way between the number of days it takes to produce an ale and a lager). This makes much more sense and most brewers will benefit from the new approach. The exception will be breweries where fermentation capacity far exceeds sales. Moral of this story - build a brewpub in Karnataka, size it right. This should also curb the installation of tiny brewhouses where it takes multiple batches to fill a fermenter - which is just a silly and inefficient way to do things in a brewpub - and something the old definition promoted. From a regulatory point of view, this now makes Karnataka the best place in India to open a brewpub. Maharashtra allows for off premiss sales (something we have to work on in Karnataka) but the production cap is too low and the taxes are too high there.

Craftworks News
The roof-top beer garden is open! We will be serving three beers on-tap from a special keg-cooler that was flown in from the US. This keeps the beer lines short and beers tasting as they should. The food is all North Indian style (my favourite) buffet. Hopefully this extra capacity will make it a bit easier for folks to actually get in. Winterfest - our special holiday ale, is fermenting away and slated for release by December 5.

Craft Brewers Association of India News

Things have been moving slowly but surely. The group last met at Big Brewsky earlier this month. The association changed it's name to The Craft Brewers Association of India to avoid confusion with another group. Our non-profit status has been established with the state and all other requirements are well under way. Our logo has been finalized and the website is up.

At The Craft Brewers Conference

I recently returned from Denver where I attended the Craft Brewers Conference. It was quite the gathering of brewers, suppliers and manufacturers. This was also a World Beer Cup competition year. While the conference is a yearly event, the competition is biannual. I was pleased to be one of the 219 judges to select the best beers from a staggering 4754 entries that hailed from 1403 breweries in 58 countries. In categories that ranged from Berliner Weisse to Barley Wine. India had four participating breweries, all from Bangalore (Arbor, Biere Club, Toit & Windmills Craftworks) and while none received any awards, it was good to see the country represented. A complete list of winners can be found here. I highly recommend sampling any of these great beers in their home towns when traveling to taste them at their best.

As I missed the last two conferences, this was a great opportunity for me to catch up with lots of old friends, sit in on a few technical seminars, visit some amazing breweries and drink some truly stunning beer. The most memorable were Sierra Nevada’s Ovila on-tap at Falling Rock Alehouse, New Belgium's La Folie in pre and post soured versions at the Brewery and the gold medal winning Kellierbier (Pils) from New Mexico's Marble Brewery in a final-round judging session. I haven't been to Denver in a while so discovering the Belgian beer bar Cheeky Monk was as much a pleasure as the draft Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus I tasted there. Many Colorado breweries are making world-class beer these days and have long since outgrown their micro beginnings and are now large regional producers.

A bit-o wood at New Belgium

One of my favorite seminars of the conference was put on by the German glass manufacturer Spiegelau where beer was sampled and compared in their beer style-specific glassware to that in a standard shaker pint. The difference was pretty remarkable. I was especially impressed with their newish Stout glass. I'll be writing more about these in a future post that deals with tasting in greater depth but one thing I found was that not only did Left Hand's wonderful nitrogenated Stout taste better in this glass, all beer tasted better in it! And if that wasn't enough, Spiegelau very generously gifted six glasses to all attendees.

The Craft Brewers Association of India is Formed

Last week representatives from six different Bangalore breweries met and formed the Brewers Association of India. Some of the goals of this new organization are to promote craft beer, lobby the State for more liberal laws, share helpful information, socialize over a few beers and possibly the staging of a group beer festival. The next CBAI meeting will take place Wed. Nov. 6th, 5 PM at the Biere Club. Commercial brewers (including those in planning) and allied trade companies that are interested in joining the CBAI can contact me for details.

Craftworks Beer News

• A new (white) IPA is on-tap. It's a bit lighter than our standard IPA and brewed with 32% wheat. All this makes for a refreshing beer that still has a pretty good "hop smack".
• The next batch of Oatmeal Stout is fermenting away. This one was intentionally made a little lighter and drier.

The Craft Brewing Scene Heats Up

The Brewsky crew at their soon-to-open JP Nagar location

Bangalore is already India's craft brewing capitol and things are about to get more interesting as several new breweries come on-line. The importers of Geist have two brewpubs called Brewsky launching soon. One in JP Nagar and the other in Sarjapur. A new brewpub called Three Monkeys is going into the Gopalan Mall and they have already lost their first brewer. Both the Bier Club and Punjabi by Nature have new branches opening soon in Whitefield and Prost in Kormangala is now pouring. Toit has plans for a second location and will see two new breweries "bookend" them on 100 Foot Rd. One is part of the Vapour chain and I don't know much about the other. One thing I do know is that these newcomers will have to be good to compete with Toit. A 5HL German system has just been installed in the Sheraton Hotel. And I've even heard rumors of a brewpub going into the Inorbit mall, just down the street from Craftworks. I say the more the merrier but prospective brewery owners should consider that it's not easy to brew great beer - as some have already found out - and it's not an inexpensive business to get into. One would be well served by looking into the regulations before getting too far. Most states in India still do not yet allow brewpubs or microbreweries. The few that do and what I know of the regulations are:

Karnataka - Brewpubs only. 50% of installed capacity paid yearly in advance at the rate of 17Rs./liter. Wholesaling of kegs is not allowed. This is a major impediment to growing a small successful brewery especially for start-ups with less than ideal locations. One can only hope that things will improve but considering the difficulty that all of the existing breweries experienced this year in just renewing their license, I'm not very hopeful...

Maharashtra - Brewpubs & micros. Maximum production of 200,000 liters per year (way too low!). Wholesaling of kegs is possible but with the low production cap, hardly worth the trouble.

Haryana - Maximum production of 700,000 liters per year.

Goa - Brewpubs & micros allowed. 90% of yearly installed capacity paid in advance at varying tax rates, with the highest being 28 Rs./liter for brewpubs and 31 Rs./liter for micros depending on alcohol content and retail cost per 650ml. Way too complex and expensive!

http://www.goaprintingpress.gov.in/downloads/1213/1213-26-SI-EOG-1.pdf

West Bengal - Brewpubs only.

Punjab - Brewpubs & micros. Maximum production of 700,000 liters per year.

The Brewhouse at Toit

The process of opening a small brewery in all of these states is far from easy. The regulations are cumbersome and poorly thought-out. Taxation is excessive and most states want a large percentage of the excise tax paid in advance - which is the wrong approach. What the states should do is collect a "brewers bond" once from each brewery when a license is applied for - as is the case in many other countries. This bond would roll over from year to year if there is compliance and proper payment of tax and seized if not. Taxes should be paid quarterly and based on beer racked to serving tanks or kegs from fermentation tanks. The excise department should also inspect breweries for compliance and audit the books unannounced periodically. 

While there are many obstacles to opening a brewery in India, poor infrastructure also makes it a more expensive proposition than it is in many other countries that have reliable power, good water supplies and sewage treatment plants. A considerable sum will have to be spent to remedy these deficiencies. Some other considerations - malt takes three months to get here from Europe, is taxed excessively and with the rupee tumbling, getting quite expensive. There is a global shortage of the choicest hops making them difficult or impossible to obtain. And last but certainly not least, it can be difficult to recruit a talented brewmaster - the guy (or gal) who is responsible for beer quality and on whose shoulders the brewery's reputation rests.

Craftworks Beer News

• Porter is back on-tap and will replace Stout for a short while.
• A new batch of IPA is on-tap. I used Warminster Maris Otter malt in this one instead of Wyermann Pale Ale malt. The consensus is good.
• Our 50th brew will be on-tap soon, an extra special Anniversary Ale (ESB) to commemorate our first year of operations!
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

India's First Rauchbier

Also known as smoked beer, is now on-tap at Windmills Craftworks. The inspiration for this beer comes from Bamberg Germany, which just happens to be the home of my primary malt supplier, Weyermann. It's a copper coloured brew made with seven different kinds of malt. Most notably 29% Rauchmalz (malt that is kiln-smoked with beechwood). It's smooth, malty and of course quite smokey. It won't be everyones "cup of tea" but I think it's important to introduce some lesser known beer styles to India.

The most famous and highly regarded Rauchbiers unsurprisingly still come from Bamberg. This interesting city of 70,000 has eleven breweries and a city center that has been desiginated a UNESCO World Hertiage Site. The Schlenkerla and Spezial brauereis there both make excellent examples of the style and are some of the last breweries in Germany that still malt their own grain. Schlenkerla, which officially goes by the name Heller-Bräu Trum KG is also the only producer of the style that makes a beer with 100% smoked malt. 

The old town hall

While the Hofbräuhaus in Munich is probably the number one brewery pub destination for beer pilgrims visiting Germany, the Brauausschank Schlenkerla has to be number two. This venerable public beer hall has a long history. It was formerly a brewpub in medieval times known as Zum Blauen Löwen (At the Blue Lion). This can be dated by a document from the period so it's reasonable to assume that some kind of smoked beer has been brewed at this location for at least five centuries!

The brewhouse or sudhaus at Schlenkerla

The Christian Merz Brauerei, makers of Spezial can lay claim to being the oldest in town. It was founded in 1536. They use about 70% rauchmalt from their own maltings in their beers which include lager, weizen, märzen, bock and ungespundet (unfiltered lager that has had the bung removed from it's keg).

Two hundred some odd years ago, before malt kilns were heated with cleaner burning fuel, wood was often used to arrest the malting process and dry the barley that was destined for breweries. That malt and the beers produced from it would have typically had a distinct smokiness from the burning wood, much the same as when todays brewers use a decent percentage of Rauchmalz in their mash. This makes Rauchbier something of a throw-back to a by-gone era. A time capsule beer. It's interesting that these strong flavours remained popular over the centuries and that the brewers of Bamberg kept this beer style alive. Most Rauchbiers are brewed with a bit more hops than the average Bavarian brew to counterbalance the smokiness and mine is no exception, despite that the 2013 Brewers Association Beer Style Guidelines says "Hop bitterness is low and hop flavor/aroma are absent". They also say that the original gravity should range from "11.8º-14º plato" and the alcohol "4.9-5.5% by volume". The Beer Style Guidelines are updated yearly by the B.A. with input from beer judges and this one is probably due because it mostly represents a Rauchweizen and omits the Märzen and Bock variants. My version clocks in at 5% alcohol and 15.3º plato, which is slightly high for the style but makes the beer extra flavourful. In Germany these beers are fermented with either a lager yeast or a weizen strain, but me being American allows for some "liberties" to be taken so I fermented with an ale strain, albeit at a slightly lower temperature to reduce fruitiness. So my version of the beer intentionally lacks the phenol character that weizen yeast produces and is more like a smoked Märzen/Oktoberfest Alt. It's also much more inline with the BJCP beer style guideline. For those wanting to read more about these special beers and the region I recommend the Franconia Beer Guide. It's an is an excellent resource, especially if going to Bamberg with a little imbibing in mind. Prost...

With one of these smokers a creative craftbrewer could produce their own rauchmalt 

Other Craftworks Beer News

• A new batch of Stout went on-tap last week. I tried a different yeast strain in this one and added a bit of brown malt for complexity. It's a little drier and more drinkable than previous batches.
• To be the first to find out when new beers go on-tap, follow BangaBrew on Twitter.

Beery Factoids

• Alt or Altbier (old beer) is a style of top-fermenting German Ale from Düsseldorf. 
• The most popular strain of malting barley in England is Maris Otter. It was developed in the 1960's at the Plant Breeding Institute in Trumpington on a street called Maris Lane. 
• A quick way for brewers to determine the alcohol content of their beer is to measure the starting gravity (sugar level) before fermentation in degrees plato, subtract the final gravity (in plato) after fermentation and multiply that figure by .4167. You will then have a good idea of how much alcohol is present by weight. Multiply the alcohol by weight by 1.25 to get alcohol by volume.
• The 1970 album John Barleycorn Must Die by the band Traffic refers to an old British folk song (printed versions go back to the 16th century) where a barley crop is assigned human characteristics and brutally treated. The abusers plough him into the ground, he rises up and becomes strong, only to be hacked down, soaked in water, spread on the floor to dry and ground to bits. But John Barleycorn is a great survivor and his blood, when consumed soothes the soul and is a great comfort to the working man.

Prohibition Visits Karnataka

The recent election in Karnataka came with a surprising twist, at least as viewed by my non-native/ expat eyes - A mandate that all establishments that sell alcohol must close for four days (except the big hotels that have a CL9 liquor license). I thought this was overreaching, unnecessarily punitive and completely ineffectual. But if I had to choose only one word it would be "absurd". At first I thought the idea was that the state wanted a sober electorate but I later learned the mandate was to prevent vote buying! Well, with a little more thought that still didn't make much sense as any would-be vote buyers could just stockpile booze before the ban or just use a different form of currency (like the petrol or groceries that I heard about). And why the single day closure several days after the elections on the day ballots were counted? To make things worse, establishments in Indiranagar, like Toit Brewery had to close an additional two days because of a local temple festival. The net result of this farce was that many thousands of small business owners and the employees that work for them lost a lot of money. The state also lost a lot of tax revenue. 

The US gave prohibition a go from 1920-1933. The "great experiment" is widely regarded now as a great failure. It didn't really stop anyone from drinking. What it did do was remove a revenue stream from the government and hand it to a bunch of thugs. The ban also made it possible for a lot of poor quality, completely unregulated and sometimes dangerous booze to get consumed. 

When it comes to alcohol sales Karnataka sure takes a back seat to anything that resembles a progressive way of doing things. Wether it's the ridiculous 11:30 PM daily closure Bangalorean's have to deal with, the dismal state-run liquor depot that we have to buy from (that keeps prices up, selection down and disrespects fragile products by storing them at improper temperatures), or the the poorly planned micro-brewery regulations and excessive taxation that goes along with them. One can only hope that the future will bring some sensible changes to Karnataka but with none of these issues decided by public vote it sure is difficult to imagine how or when such things would happen. It would seem the worlds largest democracy is sometimes not so democratic... 

Please note, the opinions expressed here are mine and not necessarily shared by the management at Windmills Craftworks. Cheers...