Raising the bar

Craft beer maker, who wanted to give the city a taste of freshest beer that has travelled the least amount, led Ashish Jauhry to set up Barleyz, a chic Bengaluru brewery. An architect by profession, Ashish who completed his course in architecture from Singapore National University worked for a few years in Singapore and Europe. Ashish is a consultant with the French Embassy and has designed the French Consulate.

Talking about his intriguing journey, and Ashish shares, “I designed the Point Village Development Hotel with a shopping centre, residential and office space while I was staying in Dublin. I still work as a consultant for the French Embassy and besides their building in Vasant Nagar, I have also designed a school for them in Delhi and also their campus. I also design for the Belgium Embassy in Delhi. While I was working in Singapore, I had the travel bug in me and went all around the world. I drove with a bunch of friends to the Byron Bay in Sydney. I also drove across Europe, France, Spain, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, London, Mauritius and other cities. At one my trips to Belgium, I tasted over a thousand varieties of beer, but the one that I will always cherish is the Porterhouse in Dublin. My friend Oliver showed me around the place and the brewing process. Everytime I tasted craft beer, I would tell myself, why not make this in India.”

Elated talking about ales, Ashish adds, “I was in Dublin last month to attend a convention on craft beer where I was invited to give a talk on microbreweries and entrepreneurship in India. I created an Indian Jaggery Ale and won a silver medal for it. I’ve also met a few Michelin star chefs and have been adventurous with my palate. I tried sampling a King Cobra in Shanghai and ate crocodile meat in Singapore.”

He adds, “Another trip I will always cherish was when we rented a 40ft boat and went for a ride on the Shannon River. This was after I got married to Pinky, who looks after the Barleyz business alongwith our other partners, Captain Ravinder Singh, an ex-Merchant Navy guy and Naveen Bharadwaj, an ex-banker.” Ashish and his partners are on an expansion spree now, as they will open a brewery in Pune in December followed by other cities including Hyderabad.