Breweries in
Bangalore go together like Heat and Bangalore, or Smog and Bangalore, but
unlike those other things, the increased presence is far more positive. Last
time I came to Bangalore, two years ago during my around-the-world trip, I
visited three of the earlier, more notable micro-breweries. First was The Beir
Club. I actually went there first in my 2011 visit. It was the first true
micro-brewery in Bangalore. It was conveniently located (for me) down the
street from my Aunt’s house at the corner of Lavelle (for some reason,
pronounced La-vel-lee) and Vittal Mallya Road, in the shadows of UB City. The
next two were a little further away, but a great site for sore eyes
nonetheless. First was a brewery that envelops itself inside of the
medum-to-up-scale restaurant Punjabi by Nature. Third was Toit, a large,
two-level, house that housed four brews and good Western food.
I repeated
some of those visits this time (I frequented Beir Club more than once, given
its location and it being a nice stop-in right after visiting my Aunt), but I
really wanted to try some of the newer breweries, or at least the ones I hadn’t
been to earlier. In the end, I visited four more (Prost, Arbor, Brewsky and
Barleyz). There are still ~10 I have not yet been to, and even more will likely
be open the next time I come. The simple amount of breweries located in a place
where most things close at 10:30 on weekdays is quite staggering. It really
speaks well to a very different night-life culture in Bangalore, and more than
that, a Beer culture – something I can get behind.
I’ll start by
putting it simply: almost all of the in-house beers in these Bangalore
breweries wouldn’t cut it in the craft culture in the US. The beers at my local
micro-brewery, Triumph, in Princeton are, with few exceptions, better. That
said, we are really early in the adoption of this practice in Bangalore. I have
no doubt they’ll be refined, enhanced, and expanded to something close to
resembling the quality and variety we can get in the US. This isn’t to sound
nationalistic. The beer made for general consumption, Kingfisher, far outpaces
its counterparts in the US (Budweiser, Miler, Coors). But the US took to
battling this mainstream challenge earlier and with, so far, more success. Bangalore
beers have a long way to go, but there are some real treats to be had.
I’ll get into
the specifics of each place momentarily, but there are three beers I really
want to credit up-front. First was the Wheat Beer at The Beir Club. Most of the
breweries in Bangalore keep it basic. They have a stout option (almost never a
Porter), a Lager/Ale option, a Wheat option, and then something else that
varies. Most have just 4-6 beers in-house at any time. The best Wheat Beer I
had was at The Beir Club. Most places suffer from a common problem, that the
beers taste a little watery. They claim a normal range of ABV%, so I have to
imagine it is just something to do with the Indian brewing process. The Wheat
beer at The Beir Club escapes this problem mostly.
The second
and third cover the other types of beers. The Stout at Barleyz was probably the
best Stout I had, not watery at all and with a true hint of chocolate. The
final beer was probably the best I had at any place, being the IPA at Brewsky.
Only one other place had an IPA at all, but it wasn’t close to the true
bitterness of what it should be. Brewsky’s was. It was the only place I
actually double-ordered the same beer, as it was easily their best offering,
and almost as easily the best beer I had.
The actual
places all have their own charm outside of the beer. They all serve food to
some degree. Some are likely better for their food than beer (Toit – which I
did not visit in this trip), while some are the opposite, placing little effort
in the food (Arbor). They almost all had large spaces, often 2-3 floors with
some form of outdoor seating. They are breweries in name, but they all have
large seating areas, outdoor space, and serve a variety of other alcohols;
operating at a high enough level to offer more than just their brewed fare. All
six that I’ve visited were varying degrees of successful, allowing me to give a
nice overview of them all:
Toit
Beer: I’ll admit I don’t remember their
beers all that well, but I do remember not particularly liking them. None stand
out as truly bad or truly good. I do remember they offered, at the time, an
Irish Red. I’m not a fan of Irish Red’s anyway, but it wasn’t very good. Their
beer, unless they’ve made marked improvements, is nothing to really write home
about. Rank: 6th
Food/Ambience: This is where Toit scores major
points. It’s a really nice setup. They’ve essentially built the place into a
two-story house, with ample seating space, open areas, and multiple bars where
you can order from. We went on a weekend night, so it was very crowded, but not
overly so. The food was good but almost entirely Western. Most of the places
serve Western food, but supplement it with ample Indian options. Toit did not,
but the food ordered was good. Rank: 2nd
Overall: To
me, as someone who places more emphasis on the Beers than the Food, Toit was my
least favorite. If you are going for just a night out, it may be one of the
best places to go, as it really did offer it all from that perspective. As a
self-proclaimed, semi-beer-junkie, it was merely an OK place. Rank: 6th
The Beir Club
Beer: The Beir Club came first, and has one
really good offering (their Wheat Beer), and some other decent ones. This time
I tried their stout, which was definitely a little too watery, and their
‘Seasonal’ which was a Double-IPA, which was not nearly as bitter as it should
be, but not terrible. In previous times, I’ve left satisfied with their beer,
though I don’t remember what I’ve had. Rank:
4th
Food/Ambience: I’ve only ordered food once, and it
was likely in my trip in 2011. They do have a nice menu; not too many items,
but they’re play-fully named and likely cooked reasonably well. The set-up is
definitely the most intimate, and pub-like. That probably only concerns their
ground floor, which is small, but not in the sense that it would seem too
crowded. There is a nice mural on the back-wall, a long bar in front of copper
vats, and a nice décor. As a bar, it is really nice. As a night-spot, it
probably is a little too simplistic. Rank:
4th
Overall: The Beir Club is a good measuring
stick for breweries in Bangalore. It has been successful enough to keep a
foot-hold in an extremely premium location (right next to UB City), and it
remains likely the best place to just drop-in, but in the end it is merely an average
place on this list. That’s not bad, but there are places I would recommend
above it; though a trip to Beir Club will be a walk back to the early days of
the Micro-brewery movement in Bangalore. Rank:
4th
Prost
Beer: Other than Toit, which from memory is
an easy last place, most of the beers don’t really differentiate from each
other. The Beir Club, Prost, and Barleyz to come, area all about the same in
terms of beer. I’m ranking Prost 3rd out of the three merely because
they didn’t have any standout brew. Prost did offer a set of 6 beers on tap,
which is higher than the normal 4, but none really stood out, for good or bad. Rank: 5th
Food/Ambience: Post and Toit have a lot of
similarities. That makes sense as they were two of the first breweries to open
in Bangalore, and they’re set up similarly. Both are multi-level establishments
with tons of open space. Prost has a terrace, which Toit didn’t, but also
doesn’t have the homely feel that works so well at Toit. Prost’s food was quite
good as well, with varied menu serving both Continental and Indian options. Rank: 3rd
Overall: I’ve compared Prost to Toit a lot,
mainly because they are really similar. Prost has better beer, but that’s
really not saying much. Prost also has a really nice set-up, if slightly worse
than Toit. Overall, I think while they are neck and neck, Prost is better
because it’s beers are just better. I think my #5-3 breweries are really
tightly packed, and for some reason I’m ranking Prost the highest. Rank:3rd
Arbor
Beer: Arbor was started by a man who lived
for a while in Ann Arbor. As someone who spent quite a bit of long nights in
the cold desert that was Michigan, I’ve come to known personally their
exhaustive Craft Beer scene I can say one thing, no place has tried to emulate
a US micro-brewery more. I don’t think they offered a stand-out option, but
none of the 6-beers I had in their sampler were bad. They were definitely, on
the whole, the least watery and the most impressive in their scope. They
offered a style of everything you would expect from an in-housed micro-brewery.
They did not have any of my three stand-out beers, but I doubt if I had to rank
them all, that any would fall in my bottom-third. The one exception may be
their attempt at a fruit-flavored beer, but I can’t fault them too much for
that. Rank: 1st
Food/Ambience: Here’s where Arbor loses some points.
I only got one appetizer, Chilly Beef Fry, which was reasonably good, though
that is the type of thing that is quite hard to ruin. I’ve been told by
multiple people that their food is suspect, and this is backed up overall by
the reviews of the place. The ambience isn’t the best either. It has a bit of a
Beer-Hall feel on one side with parallel long wooden tables flanked by benches,
and a small outdoor area. It is, I believe, the only one of the six to have
just one floor. They really try to sell the Beer Hall vibe, but this is not
Germany. Compared to the others that really have nice atmospheres and ample
space, this isn’t the best. Rank: 6th
Overall: I definitely care more about the
places ability to produce beer, but it is a tough decision to equate an overall
solid beer offering, and a 6th out of 6 finish in offering food and
ambience. Overall, since I care more about the beer, I’ll round up from the
average. Arbor definitely has the most potential as purely a micro-brewery.
They have a total of 15 beers they rotate, though only 6 at a time. Hopefully
that ratio improves because the potential is there. Rank: 2nd
Barleyz
Beer: As mentioned, the Stout at Barleyz
was a real standout, the fullest stout I had in terms of both consistency and
flavor. I like Stouts, and there are a whole lot of bad ones out there,
including some really average ones in the Bangalore brewery scene; the Stout at
Barleyz is most certainly not one of them. The other beers range from nice
(their ‘special’, a nice summer ale) to not really good (lager, wheat), but the
strength of their top 2, including their stout being the best one I had, allows
me to feel greatly for what Barleyz offered. Rank: 3rd
Food/Ambience: I can’t judge the food as I didn’t
order any. The menu looked fine, and reviews show it as decent, but I have to
put them lower for having a limited menu, one that wasn’t as nicely crafted as
that of The Beir Club (the only other one where I didn’t eat this time around).
The ambience was interesting though. The have one floor which is long with
nicel spaced tables that has the ability to convert to a lot of open space for
late-nights. They were actually preparing to host a DJ the night of when I
went. Upstairs is a nice roof-top. The view from here isn’t the best, but it is
nicely decorated. It isn’t as large and could probably become really overcrowded
in their indoor floor. Rank: 5th
Overall: I went to Barleyz hurriedly after a
late lunch, so I didn’t really have enough time to properly judge it. What I’ll
say about Barleyz is that they seemed really like an ordinary bar/lounge. It
was, aside from Arbor, the smallest space of the 6. Unlike Arbor, which tried to
emulate a Germany Beer Hall giving some character to its limited space, Barleyz
was a little generic, hurting it in my overall rankings. Rank: 5th
Brewsky
Beer: Brewsky had the single best beer I
had at any location, their excellent IPA. It is of some coincidence that the
best beer I had was one that had ‘India’ in the name. What stops them from
ranking 1st for me was they only had 4 on top, and while none was
bad, nothing came close to their IPA offering. This place apparently just
recently got their brewing license, and in talks with the owner, there are
plans to offer a larger variety. Until then, it really doesn’t match up to
Arbor.. Rank: 2nd
Food/Ambience: Brewsky was pretty much perfect in
this area. They have three levels, an inside level that was decorated
eclectically but was pretty much forgettable. Then a terrace that had a round
bar, a stage for live music, and a lot of seating, than a 2nd floor
of the terrace that borders the building, letting the people on the top floor
see what’s going on below them. The 2nd time I went there, they had
a live band playing. The music there is almost exclusively 70-80’s music of all
forms, which is right up my alley. It was basically a perfect location in
Bangalore. Rank: 1st
Overall: I really can’t think of a place in
Bangalore that is more perfect for me. It has good beer, including the best
beer I had in Bangalore. It was open-air, high enough to get a great breeze in
a Bangalore night. The atmosphere is something I want from any establishment,
music that I love, a crowd that is engaging and present, but not overly so
creating a maddening maw of humanity (something easy to have in India). Brewsky
was pretty close to perfect, ven after going back a 2nd time. Rank:1st
