General manager Vivek Sharma, flanked by the two brewmasters, show off the range of craft beer at Howzatt

The brewmaster is brewing his favourite nectar and he’s making it fresh at Howzatt, a cosy pub in suburban Delhi. The smell of malt swirls in the air where gleaming steel tanks stand in the backdrop, while fresh batches of premium lager and dark beer are tapped into a set of shooters with rich white foam threatening to brim over.

A gulp of the lager, with its beautiful Champagne colour, proves easy on the palate leaving a strong aftertaste of malt. And a more careful sip of the shot of dark beer — you could almost mistake it for a shot of extra frothy cappuccino — gives a warm, fuzzy feeling, and with a few more sips, a nice buzz.

“The dark beer brewed from roasted malt has more character. It’s a hit with the ladies,” says Vivek Sharma, general manager at Howzatt, one of the select microbrewery-cum-brew pubs that are producing fresh beer while serving it in the pub.

A five-litre barrel at Rockman’s comes for about Rs 2,500 Pix: Jagan Negi

While microbreweries and micro-brewed beer are the new buzzwords in the world of beer connoisseurs, a steady trickle of microbreweries,brew pubs and regional craft breweries are carving out a space for themselves in a world dominated by mass market breweries.

They churn out craft beer (made using only malt, hops, yeast and water) that is known for its flavour, complexity and strong character. Expect unique brews such as the India Pale Ales, blondes and golden ales to pop up in your hunt for the perfect pint.

“You can taste hints of vanilla, apple and other such fruity accents even in beer. It is wonderful to discover that there can be a parallel to the world of wine drinking,” notes Nikhil Kumar, the owner of Nilarya, a beer importing outfit in Bangalore.

While microbreweries bottle their beer and retail them, at pub breweries beer is brewed and sold off the tap on the premises of the pub. Regional craft breweries meanwhile bottle their beer to sell them off the premises and even export them.

Now quite a few places are offering beer off the tap. In Gurgaon there are several and another is slated to open on the Mehrauli-Gurgaon Road. Also, there’s a regional craft brewery in Delhi run by TVB Group Breweries that produces fresh beer and sells under the Little Devils label.

Then look out for First Brewhouse, a busy brew pub, and Martin Judds Microbrewery, both in Pune.

Down south in Bangalore, is a beer company called Beerworks that is all geared up to opening up its own microbrewery in Goa. In the meantime, it has tied up with microbreweries in Belgium and Germany to use their infrastructure and bottle their own brand of beer, Geist.

Falling in line with the trend of moving away from mass-produced beer, Nilarya in Bangalore is importing about 12 micro-brewed beers from the US and Belgium.

The flexibility of brewing without worrying about consistency is what adds much character to the products from these microbreweries. “The brewmaster’s credibility is core to it. He can be creative and play with the taste and colour. Keeping the DNA same, he just tweaks around a bit to pleasantly surprise you. The key is not to over-surprise,” says Sharma, grinning.

David Home, chairman, TVB Craft Breweries, is all set to introduce a chilli-flavoured beer, Pix:Jagan Negi

Sommelier Magandeep Singh insists on the finesse of the brewmaster. Adds Singh: “He can make it less fizzy, more malty and the like. The charm of it lies in the fact that micro-brewed beer is as much a signature as fine wine is.”

March of the microbreweries

There’s an altogether different experience that freshly brewed beer offers. From Howzatt where the brew is Singaporean, we hop over to the German-style beer served at Rockman’s Beer Island on German Street (located on the fourth floor of the slick Ambience Mall in Gurgaon).

Inside, at The Bavarian pub, a row of shots containing four different brews are placed in the lightest-to-darkest order. And downing the shots — fresh wheat beer, lager, strong lager and dark — in the dark woodwork bar with soft lighting makes for a cosy and intimate beer experience. It’s fascinating to watch the real stuff tapped out fresh even as everyone insists that it is healthier because of the absence of additives.

Rockman’s opened up to beer drinkers in early 2009 with the aim, says unit manager Sandeep Pundir, to reproduce the German beer chugging experience. They therefore brew their beer in accordance with the world’s oldest food law — the Bavarian Purity Law — under which beer has to be produced using only hops, barley and water.

Balasaheb Jadhav bottles the premium lager churned out at his Pune microbrewery, Martin Judds, under the label Knights. Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

The oldest of the microbreweries, however, is Martin Judds which is located on the Pune-Nashik Highway. Balasaheb Jadhav, its owner, started operations in October 2007. His brand, Knights, which is available in Pune is a premium lager. “I am coming up with speciality beers such as wheat beer, dark lager and India Pale Ale,” says Jadhav.

Then, there’s the newest entrant in the game — The First Brewhouse in Pune. It is the brainchild of IIM graduates Suketu Talekar and Prateek Chaturvedi along with brewmaster Oliver Schauf. The trio started their brew pub in November 2009 in the city’s Corinthian Hotel & Spa even though they set up their microbrewery, BrewCrafts Microbrewing, a couple of years back.

The brewery is the centre of The First Brewhouse. “The décor is late 1800s British India. Expect exposed bricks, organic wall finishes and a rich mahogany wood finish for the complete British pub feel,” says Talekar, who plans to take his Doolally brand to Hyderabad, Bangalore, Goa, Calcutta, Delhi and Gurgaon.

If brewing the beer is just half the tale, the microbreweries are looking at working out ways to connect with their audience. At the pubs themselves, they put out free tasters as complimentary offers.

“Tastings at pubs with food pairings are our way of making the public aware of what craft beer is about,” says David Home, the chairman of TVB Craft Breweries that opened last year and which is exporting its beer to the US and the UK.

And while Howzatt with its cricket-themed pub, which kick-started in 2008, teams up beer with cricket, at Rockman’s there are fun events. If once they had Coyote girls dancing on the bar counters, this Oktoberfest (September- October) they’ll have Bavarian girls serving beer for a week. Says Pundir: “It’s a full house with all these fun events.”

The brews

At First Brewhouse, the owners are serving up eight different styles of beer. Pix: Gajanan Dudhalkar

The makers of craft beer are pushing the boundaries by introducing the many aspects to a pint — it can be simply thirst quenching, full, complex or even sprightly and light.

At the helm are the brewmasters who introduce subtle changes. While German brewmaster Paul Hubbman is in charge of brewery affairs at Rockman’s, Bangalore-based brewmaster Dr. S. Cariapa monitors the beer reports from Howzatt. And at the First Brewhouse, it is Schauf, brewmaster and one of the partners, who experiments with different styles of beer.

To put interesting micro-beers on the counter, at Howzatt, Cariapa’s assistant brewmasters are conducting pilot sessions with flavours like basil, orange, lemon and ginger extracts. They are to be introduced on the menu by March-April this year.

Experimentation is big at Beerworks. Its owners Paul Chaudhary and Narayan Manepally, two US-returned techies, manufacture their brand, Geist, in two European microbreweries by sending them the recipes. “Instead of pushing the elephant up the stairs, we did a reverse deal with outsourcing,” says Chaudhary. At the moment he is retailing six variants through stores in Bangalore among which is a Whistling Wheat, a strong blonde and a dark.

Giest Beer will soon see blends of apple and citrus juices in wheat beer

Chaudhary is also blending apple and citrus juices in wheat beer like the Applebocq and the Agrumbocq. The new beers on his agenda include an India Pale Ale, a Hefeweizen, a Bock and a Pilsner.

At First Brewhouse, the plan is to eventually impart an authentic Indian touch to the drink. “We are thinking of hand-crafting beer with green mango peels, coriander, cinnamon and ginger flavours,” says Talekar who otherwise brews eight styles. Dark Danish ales, brown English ales and rye beer are some of the names that figure on his list.

And if you’re game for something new, take a page from Little Devils that is retailed in Mumbai, Goa, Rajasthan, Punjab, Chandigarh and Haryana. Their new offering, points out Home, is a chilli-flavoured beer.

With exclusive and imported ingredients going into the tanks of these microbreweries it is not surprising to find the offerings priced upscale. Don’t splutter if they charge you Rs 2,500 for a 5-litre barrel at Rockman’s. For a 550ml glass of beer at Howzatt, expect to shell out Rs 160, while a pint at the First Brewhouse comes between Rs 120 and Rs 140.

But then, when there’s so much thrown in the bargain, would you really complain?

Here’s to a world going micro.