Get ready for some home brews

While beer may not be widely regarded as a connoisseur’s beverage in Hyderabad, it soon will be. With the Telangana government accepting applications for microbreweries to be set up in the city, craft beer will finally be making its debut in the city.

The concept is not new to the country, with dozens of outlets up and running in cities like Mumbai and Bengaluru, selling their own brand of beer, brewed in their own premises. From lager to wheat-based ales to stouts, the concept also introduces beer lovers to a whole new array of beers.

City restaurateur Sanjay Batla has already applied for a licence and expects the industry to thrive here. “There is definitely a requirement, there is a huge consumption of beer here as well,” he says, adding, “As of now it’s a good place to do business too, so we’ll also see players from outside the city setting up here too.”

Ajay Mallareddy, another restaurant owner, agrees, saying while the concept may be new, it will still have an appeal to a lot of Hyderabadis. “A lot of people are excited about it,” he explains, “Hyderabad is more of a hard liquor market, but it’ll be interesting to see how it goes. I think because of the microbreweries, beer consumption will go higher. They’ll want to experiment and try out new things, so we will eventually develop a taste for it.”

Naren Pal, consultant for The Terrace in Hyderabad, however, feels that the culture may die out soon. “If one person opens up a pub, you’ll have 10 more following suit,” he explains, “I doubt that the concept will be successful in the city in the first place — liquor license itself is so much more expensive than other states; then one needs quite a lot of place to have a microbrewery that not many pubs in the city can give.”

In the meanwhile, it will still be a few more months before we see microbreweries popping up in the city. “It’s been around 20 days (since we applied for the licence), and we don’t know how many they’re going to issue or what the next phase is,” says Sanjay. He adds, “We’re expecting the licence to be issued by the end of November, but setting them up will take about five months more at least.”