Say cheers to Bangalore’s first micro-brewery

Beer connoisseurs in Bangalore can say cheers as the city’s first fresh beer centre, popularly known as micro-brewery, is slated to be launched on May 15.

With the opening of the micro-brewery, people can guzzle some fresh beer in many flavours. The centre will come up at Gandhinagar in Majestic area.

Excise department officials did not name the club which has bagged the permission, but said the formalities of the micro-brewery’s setting up were completed. The club is waiting for the arrival of imported machine which comes at a price of about Rs3 crore. The machine from Europe is expected to reach by the first week of May.

The excise department had announced to allow micro-breweries in January. Only three applications have reached the department, said a senior official.

The official said that though the response was slow, it was encouraging to note that over 50 club owners had shown interest to set up micro-breweries. They were making arrangements to fulfil the conditions as it required adequate space and high investment, said the official.

A micro-brewery produces and sells beer on the spot. They offer new flavours of beer prepared right in front of the customer.

Currently, only Pune and Gurgaon in the country have micro-brewery units. The upcoming unit in Bangalore would be the first in south India. However, people in the city would have to pay a higher price to taste fresh beer.