It’s not for nothing that they are called beer goggles you know; the very intrinsic trouble with alcohol is that it clouds our judgment. Okay fine, that’s not always a bad thing; if it weren’t for alcohol some of us would never end up married.

But, nagging life-partners aside, the greater problem that alcohol often leaves us with are hangovers. There are two primary reasons why we get such severe hangovers. Apart from the obvious not knowing when to say no, the other reason is that we dehydrate and this combined with the accumulation of all sorts of complex compounds in our bodies further delay the ejection of alcohol from our body. These aldehydes and other higher alcohols are there due to inferior production methods and also to preserve the alcohol while it is transported from its place of production to final destination of consumption.

Seems like quite a lot to battle for a modest piss-up on a night-out. Thankfully, a new trend that is catching on fast seems to be a promising way forward — micro-breweries!
It isn’t exactly plutonium but let me explain the nuclear physics behind it.
Think of a large beer brewery, one that can churn out about a few hundred thousand bottles a day; now shrink it to fit in our favourite restaurant, inconspicuously, somewhere behind say, the bar counter. Now you are sitting in a micro-brewery, just like that! Sure it makes a lot less beer but the stuff is fresh and will be over in less than a few days, hours if you are real pernickety about freshness.

A brewery will make many types of beers — light, blonde, amber and the dark beer. Lager is not what you ask for in a brewery. Lager means aged or shelved and fresh beer can never be so. Fresh beer is written “draught” but pronounced “draft”. Yes, it is daft and should be pronounced daft.

The idea is that each beer has a different recipe. From the flavour of the grain (barley or wheat, malted or otherwise) to the amount of bitterness (from the hops), all is played with to make different beers. Around festivals like Xmas, they even make special flavoured beers (like cherry beer and even cider).

Two such breweries recently opened in the capital (Gurgaon is Delhi when they get something right, else they are NCR). But imagine, Delhi, of all places! The whisky capital is now also the brewski capital of the country. Howzzat (I never know how many Zs there are) at Galaxy hotel and Rockman’s Beer Island in the Ambience Mall were two unprecedented openings on the Indian watering hole front. To a large extent both have got it right. In a few lines, here is my sum up.

Howzzat has great ambience, best rock/retro music in Delhi (hard to believe but no balle-balle) and a very cute brewery which is showcased in all its shimmering delight. It is cosy and very pub-like. Rockman’s, by contrast is huge, with high ceilings that make the place feel cold and lighting to blind you. The music is out of place. The snacks are more main courses and they didn’t have peanuts and papad. Howzzat, by contrast serves the best masala peanuts this side of the border. The one thing Rockman’s does get right is this: great wheat beer, much more flavourful and wholesome than the thin watery version Howzzat served. But other brews at Howzzat are definitely worth repeat-ordering. Also, Howzzat is very pocket-friendly whereas Rockman’s sobered me up with my bill!

The writer is a sommelier