Do you often find yourself cribbing about Kolkata being a dead city vis-a-vis other metros? Are you tired of hearing your friends boasting about their food trails abroad? If the answer is yes, you can now proudly strike at least one of the things off from your ‘Kolkata still lacks’ list. For the city is now home to not one, but four microbreweries. The joy of guzzling chilled beer is being revived by new-age brewers, who are serving your favourite tipple with a twist. Microbreweries are the latest craze that’s taking the city’s party peeps by storm. CT explores the trend…
All that brews
A microbrewery or craft brewery is a place where a limited quantity of beer is produced for consumption on its own premises. Its emphasis is on the quality, flavour and brewing technique. There is a cap on the amount of beer a microbrewery can produce in a given period. Abhijit Chakraborty, general manager of Country Roads Microbrewery & Restaurant, Rajarhat, explained, “The microbrewery beer is freshly produced and it can have a lot of variety. We can brew our own flavours — citrus, mango etc — which is not possible in the case of bottled beer.”
The USP
The beer produced at microbreweries is as different from bottled beer as a custom-made suit is from a readymade one. Craft beer is, among other things, fresh. Wheat, lager or dark — there’s something to suit everyone’s taste. Unlike bottled beer, there is no glycerine in craft beer and the content of CO2 is comparatively less. This makes microbrewery beer not just tasty but also a healthy choice. “The longevity of the beer produced at our brewery is hardly 20-22 days,” says Swapan Bhattacharya, assistant manager at Beer Republic, the pioneer of microbreweries in Kolkata. Also, craft beer has a distinct taste which is unique to the pub it’s being brewed at.
Craft vs bottled beer
If brewers are to be believed, the sale of bottled beer is on the decline. More and more youngsters are opting for freshly-brewed craft beer, ditching the age-old bottles and cans. “People in Kolkata, especially the young guns, are developing a new taste. They are health conscious and know what they are eating or for this matter, drinking. Also, a lot of our customers travel globally and are aware of the high standards those countries offer,” adds Swapan.
Supporting the notion, an official of Raize the Bar, a Sector V-based brew pub that’s awaiting a liquor licence, says, “The cult of microbreweries is only set to rise in the coming years. Very soon, all major pubs of the city will have a brewery of their own.”