Did you know that Bengaluru has its own club for home brewers? They in fact do, and it even offers free membership. Founded by Vivek Maru, Karthik Singh and Jens Joseph, the Bangalore Brew Crew allows you to meet like-minded people and brew interesting pails of ale together! What’s more? One of their ‘crafty’ originals is now on tap at a popular microbrewery in the city. Just the thing we needed this summer.
When Vivek, a home brewing hobbyist and techie sought to meet kindred spirits, he hit up the Internet. “I sent out mails to anyone who has ever asked anything about brewing anywhere on the Internet, hoping someone would reply. Jens was the first to. For sanity’s sake, we decided to create a page on Facebook so people can reach out to us, instead of the other way around,” says Vivek. What started out answering home brewing queries, reviewing recipes and posting about beer exploits is now a strong community of over 100 and quickly growing. So, what do they do at these meet ups? “All things beer – we drink them, talk about them and geek about them,” he says.
The crew tells us that all you need to get a tap flowing or craft away at their monthly brewing sessions is malted wheat, barley, hops, yeast and water, ingredients that are easily available at microbreweries or portals like brewof.com and diybrew.in.
Aside of the basics, they of course thrive on experimentation, inducing everything from a delicious, fruity hibiscus to seasonal favourites like muskmelon and jackfruit and from a chai beer to one filled with masala. “I remember this one time when the three of us came up with a recipe on the fly and used whatever ingredients we had on hand. The end result, right before Christmas, really surprised us as it had characteristics of deep red Belgian and German beer with an interesting fruity aroma. I don’t think we can replicate it today, even if we wanted to,” recollects 26-year-old Karthik. It was when they were posed with a challenge to create an ale that was “Indian” that they took it head on. “We brewed what we call the betel juice, something with fresh betel leaves and lemongrass,” adds Karthik about the drink that is now on tap at Arbor Brewing Company.
They believe that the best part about their serendipitous meeting is that they bonded as friends and actually have something they created as friends. “Even if not for a brewing session, the topic of discussion will be beer,” says Jens, who further confesses that he hasn’t been able to make it to quite a few meet ups as he’s busy learning to talk baby for his newborn son. “We are looking forward to collaborate with microbreweries to push the boundaries of our flavour palate and maybe someday create a new style that will be mainstream. But in general, we just want people to drink local hand-crafted beer and give it the respect and appreciation it deserves,” adds Karthik.
