Beer Day just passed by recently but, as is the case with Women’s Day, or any other day for that matter, our prospects of enjoying whatever the day celebrates shouldn’t be limited to the 24 hours allocated to it. In fact, if anything, the day should serve as a reminder to partake more often and more proactively to ensure that we don’t end up relegating the said cause/ product/ memory so soon again.
Well, that’s my excuse for cracking open a pint daily—you can choose your justification. What matters is that the wife buys into it and doesn’t use it against you at some point, especially in a court of law. I have a clean chit, but more pertinently, I have a partner who loves her beer, which is why when I went along for my first sip from one of the 16 taps at the newly inaugurated Bira 91 Taproom (or from all 16 taps, for that matter), she was all too keen to come along.
Bira 91’s first Taproom outside of Bengaluru can be found in CyberHub Gurugram. Gurugram has been the epicentre of craft brew culture for almost a decade and, for precisely the same period of time, serious beer heads have patiently waited for some decent (at least drinkable) beer to pour forth. Because, let me beat around the bush, not one single fresh beer-serving space in Gurugram was worth its malt, or hops. The draught taps were dirty and if they were clean, the beer pouring forth was full of technical flaws.
Only recently when Brew Dog opened did Gurugram get its first taste of proper beer. And now along comes India’s superbrand to serve up their version of fresh frothy goodness.
For some more background, Delhi, nay, NCR, has never seen a taproom (or microbrewery) of such exorbitant proportions. Even in Bangalore, anything over five to six taps are considered a mammoth task in logistics and management but 16 in Delhi were absolutely unheard of. Some taps here pour the Bira 91 beers which can also be found in cans and pints in the retail market, but believe me when I say, you will wish to try them from the tap to understand why draught is so much better. Then there are a few taps serving seasonal beers—millet ale, cream ale, saison, imperial ale, sunset lager and hefeweizen were available when I visited. Over the next year, there will be a new beer introduced every Thursday, so, one now has 52 good reasons to visit Gurugram parked right there.
The food is another winner, serving up a smorgasbord of dishes with no particular cuisine in mind. It’s world food, notched up on flavours and, overall, highly snackable. The menu is curated by Vicky Ratnani, and yours truly has worked some magic with the cocktails. So, it’s only fair that I don’t comment on the latter and leave it to you guys to tell me how it has turned out. But with beers so good, frankly, it’s okay if the mixed drinks play second fiddle to the lager and ale sales.
So far, the place seems to be packing it in. Which made me wonder, if people knew what decent beer should taste like all along, why did they put up with the terrible spaces that Gurugram is infested with? So much for thinking that we Northies didn’t have discerning palates, we are simply too polite to tell people off. Except when driving, ooh, that’s a whole different kettle of fish.
For now, make your way to the Bira 91 Taproom in Cyberhub, try the grub and beers (and cocktails, if you please) and leave them generous tips and a word or two about how they should open one in Delhi too and reduce the carbon footprint of all of us Delhi patrons.
The writer is a sommelier
