Barrels of fun: Craft beer in single malt casks, and classic retakes

Beer in single malt casks, and new versions of historical styles give us more reason to raise a louder cheer!
Rohit Parwani, Biere Street
Rohit Parwani, Biere Street

A couple of weeks ago, Bengaluru played host to yet another Brewnation collaboration, and this time around, it was held at Biere Street in Whitefield. 

At the event, brew master Rohit Parwani designed a Roggenbier recipe with a large amount of rye malt. A Roggenbier is basically a Dunkelweizen made using rye instead of wheat. The rye is likely to make this a pretty spicy beer, so be sure to make the trek to Whitefield and try this out after July 3rd, when this will be available. 

Apart from that, the usual suspects from The Pump House, Arbor, Rig, Aurum, Beer Garden, Yellow Submarine and Red Rhino were also present at the event. The guys from Fermentis dropped by to talk about some of the new yeast strains they are releasing shortly, so keep a lookout for some unique beers being launched in the city later this year.

Bengaluru's brewing community at
the Biere Street collaboration brew day

The Steam Beer age

Meanwhile, all the leading brewers from around are in attendance in Hyderabad, for yet another Brewnation collaboration. 

This time, the beer on the agenda is a California Common, also known as a Steam Beer. This beer is a historical style from the 1800s in the US. For some trivia: German brewers who moved to the New World carried the original German lager yeasts with them - but with no access to the cold weather that allowed the brewing of lagers, the Steam Beer was eventually born. Think of it as the beer version of some sort of steampunk antiquity!

I can’t help get a little technical here, but for a brewing note: A lager yeast at warm temperatures gives off a reasonable amount of Diacetyl along with some fruity esters that result in a very unique tasting beer. That just means that I’m really excited for the release of this beer.

This particular collaboration has contributions from seven different brewers, so as you can imagine, there was a lot of confusion, arguing, whining and griping... and pints and pints of beers being guzzled!

<em>Brew master Vikram Chawla of The Beer Chronicles</em>
Brew master Vikram Chawla of The Beer Chronicles

Barrels of fun

At the same time, all of us have come together and created a recipe for an Imperial Stout as well, which is going to be brewed at Zero40 in Hyderabad, and aged in used whisky barrels from Amrut. I you didn’t know, I am a huge fan of single malts as well as beer, so it’s literally going to be bucket loads of fun to put a beer in a barrel, and see what comes of it.

Meanwhile, beer lovers in in Bengaluru will have their own fair share of fun in the coming weeks. For a heads-up: A new brewery opens on June 15 on Sarjapur Road, called The Rig. There is a cider on tap that I believe is going to be the best in town, though they don’t own a filter in the brewery. Ah well, some concessions need to be made, I suppose!

Until next time, keep those taste buds excited, appreciate the beer responsibly, and do take a moment to raise a toast to all the hip and happening brewers experimenting for a louder round of merry cheers. Happy drinking folks!

George Jacob is the Founder of The Beer Chronicles.

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