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...

Brewed Something New

My first attempt at a Belgian-style Blonde Ale here in Bangalore went off without a hitch yesterday. I think we'll call it Summerfest as it should be pretty refreshing and a real drinker in this hot weather. I used Weyermann Pale Ale, CaraBelge and Vienna malts from Germany and some flaked barley from England. Hops were Czech Saaz and American Centennial. But what really gives this beer the Belgian character is the special yeast strain I used (no. 3944). A new one for Craftworks that came courtesy of my friends at Toit brewery. The original gravity was a respectable 13.8° plato and the fermentation is peaking as I write. The quickest way to find out when it goes on-tap at Craftworks is to follow BangaBrew on Twitter. Cheers !

Beery Factoids

• The International Bittering Unit (I.B.U.) is a numeral rating that brewers use to indicate how much bitterness is in our beer. The figure translates to how much alpha acid (the bittering component in hops) is present. One I.B.U. is equal to one mg. of alpha acid in one liter of beer. The higher the I.B.U. number, the more bitter the beer will be. Of course the amount of residual or unfermented sugar in a beer will play a large part in how we perceive that bitterness. Industrial lagers typically have about 10 IBUs, Hefeweizen 15, Pilsners 35 and American-style India Pale Ales over 50.
• In ancient times, before brewers knew what yeast was and what it did we referred to it as “God-is-good” because of the divine things it produced.
• UK breweries still using dray horses for beer deliveries: Hook Norton, Samuel Smith and Wadworth.
• UK breweries still using wooden casks: Samuel Smith, Theakston and Wadworth.

Beer Style Spotlight ~ Hefeweizen

The most popular beer I brew at Windmills Craftworks is a German-style Hefeweizen (pronounced Hay-fah-vite-zen). This shouldn't come as much of a surprise as the refreshing nature of this beer style suits India's hot climate and spicy food very well. So I'm thinking a little more about this great beer and my interpretation of it, is in order.

Hefeweizen is an old style of beer. Most associate it with the Bavaria region in Southern Germany and rightfully so. The style was certainly popularized there and production is greater there today than anywhere else in the world. It was probably first brewed in the early 1500's in the Bavarian forrest near the Czech border. Hefe means yeast in German and weizen, wheat. All this adds up to a yeasty wheat beer. In Germany weizen beers must be made with at least 50% malted wheat by law but are usually just above 60%. They are always ales and never lagers. They should be a bit more carbonated than other beers. They are fermented warmer, quicker and to a greater degree than most other beers. They are also fermented with a special ale yeast that produces lots of phenols. Phenols are basically organic chemical compounds that are similar to alcohols but have a different molecular structure. They are volatile which means that they are easily vaporized or evaporated. The largest group of phenols are the flavonoids. They are present in many foods (citrus, berries, tea, red wine, dark chocolate, etc. ) and have names like Guaiacol, Eugenol, 4-Vinyl Syringol and Aceto Vanillone. And as the word flavonoid might suggest, they are quite distinctive on the pallete. Most tasters perceive clove, nutmeg, banana, vanilla, a slightly smokiness and medicinal flavours. Phenols are also a very big part of the flavor profile in whiskey from Islay, Scotland but I digress...

Hefeweizen came close to disappearing a few times in Germany. The first was was due to over-reaching regulations by the ruling nobility in Bavaria on just who could brew and where. Next it would be the advent of refrigeration in the 1870s. This allowed brewers to make the newly-popular, cold-fermented lagers in the warmer months that were previously the dominion of the warmer-fermenting ale strains. Last to take its toll would be changing consumer preferences post World War II. It would take until the mid 1960s for the popularity pendulum to swing the other way. These days weizenbier is more popular than ever and accounts for about 12% of beer consumed in Germany as a whole and about 35% in it's Bavarian backyard.

Wheatfield with Crows - Van Gogh had a thing for wheat fields. I like this one.

When I started brewing in the US in the late 1980s the few American brewers that made a weizen beer, myself included, tended to use what ever our house ale strain was to ferment our wheat beer. The result was generally pretty light-weight, completely devoid of phenols and not very interesting unless the brewer was a bit of a hop-head. These days I wouldn't dream of making a weizen beer without the appropriate phenol-producing yeast strain. Some excerpts from the 2012 American Association of Brewers beer style guideline for South German-style Hefeweizen are: "The aroma and flavor is decidedly fruity and phenolic; Banana-like esters should be present at low to medium-high levels; Hop flavor and aroma are absent or present at very low levels; Weissbier is well attenuated (fermented), very highly carbonated and a medium to full bodied beer; The color is very pale to pale amber; And no diacetyl (buttery flavour) should be perceived." Original Gravity is 11.8-14º Plato, Apparent Extract/Final Gravity is 2-4º Plato, Alcohol is 3.9-4.4% by Weight (4.9-5.5% by Volume), Bitterness is 10-15 IBU's, Color is 3-9 SRM (6-18 EBC). The Hefeweizen I brew at Windmills Craftworks is very much in line with these parameters. There is however one slight difference between mine and one you might sip in a Munich bier garden, I do my mashing or converting of the grains starch to sugar at a single temperature and not the multiple temperature step mash typically practiced in Germany due to the design of my brewhouse. And I do my fermenting in a more modern type of fermenter - a closed cylindroconical uni-tank that can be pressurized, compared to the traditional open-air fermenters commonly found in German weizen breweries. There are advantages and disadvantages to each. 

Fermenters at Windmills Craftworks

My American-made fermenters can be cleaned-in-place and sanitized more easily with a pump and internal spray ball. I can also cap or seal my tank when fermentation nears completion, build up pressure and carbonate the beer naturally in the same tank. That's why they are called "uni-tanks". Open fermenters give a brewer more options in choosing a yeast as some strains are reluctant to flocculate (settle out) and are more easily harvested for reuse by top skimming. But open fermenters can't hold pressure so the beer needs to be transferred to another tank that can and fed some more sugar to gain carbonation. This addition of extra priming sugar (about 9-13%) would typically be unfermented beer (wort), raise the gravity by 1-1.5° Plato and is called Speise in Germany.

I've been using 100% German ingredients in Windmills Hefeweizen. Malted barley and wheat from the Weyermann Maltings in Bamberg and Saphir hops late in the boil, however true to style the hop finish is not that perceptible. I ferment this beer a little warmer (23°C) than my other ales to coax a bit more phenolic character out of the yeast and have also found that raising the starting gravity (amount of sugar in solution before fermentation) a little goes a long way in increasing those flavours as well. 

I think the Craftworks fermenters are a bit easier to clean and sanitize than these!

Beery Factoids

• There are several types of of Weizenbiers that range from the light-weight, sour-style made in Berlin that is often served with a shot of sweetend raspberry or woodruff syrup mixed in, to those made with with smoked malt in Bamberg (Rauchweizen).
• The German beer purity law or Reinheitsgebot that stipulates beer can contain only water, barley and hops came to be in 1516 but originally it didn't contain wheat or yeast, as we humans didn't even know yeast existed back then. It would take many years and the Provisional Beer Law (Vorläufiges Biergesetz) of 1993 for yeast and wheat to be included.
• While German brewers still adhere to the Biergesetz, newer E.U. regulations supersede it and foreign brewers are now permitted to export beer to Germany that contain non-sanctioned ingredients.
• Bavarians never drink their Hefeweizen with the slice of lemon that some (foolish) Americans do.
• Gose is a style of sour wheat beer from Leipzig Germany that is made with unmalted wheat and has much in common with the spontaneously fermented lambic beers of Belgium. It can be a bit salty and is sometimes flavored with coriander.
• The deck at Windmills Craftworks is a great place to relax and chill-out with a Hefeweizen.

Prost !

Got Me A Stout

No, sadly I’m not talking about one of these cute Stout Scarabs. I’m talkin’ about the black stuff, Ireland’s national drink. This is the first Stout I’ve brewed at Craftworks and it will replace Porter temporarily. Unless of course the vast majority prefers it to the Porter and would like to see it on-tap permanently. This is, after all, the worlds largest democracy. Getting back to the beer - it’s big, black, smooth and roasty. The recipe is pretty simple and pays homage to Guinness by only using U.K. pale malt, flaked barley, roasted barley and the smallest bit of sour malt. Hops are only used at the start of the boil for bittering and are completely absent later as a finishing/aroma addition. This is quite a contrast to everything else I brew (Weizen excepted). Original gravity is 15.8° plato and the alcohol is 5.3% by volume. 

Happy St. Patrick’s day! Slainte...

Other Craftworks Beer News

• I’ve been playing around with some different yeast strains in ongoing efforts to keep improving and am happy to have my favorite London Ale strain fermenting away. 
• My first German-style Dunkelweizen is almost gone and was well received.
• My second go at a classic Extra Special Bitter, brewed with 100% English malt and hops, has recently gone on-tap. 
• The new hop crop has arrived and I was very lucky to once again score some of the most scarce and sought after IPA varieties. So our India Pale Ale will continue to have that intense hop finish and will probably remain the hoppiest beer in India.
• And remember, the quickest way to find out when something new is pouring at Craftworks is to follow @Bangabrew on Twitter.