Sorry for delays again, as you may have guessed from the title I have been in India for a few weeks – wifi was pretty spotty out there so couldn’t get anything up. As you may have also guessed the arranging for that has been why updates have been so spotty recently. Apologies, I will try to get a better turnout now.
I was hoping to do one of my “Beer culture of a country” articles on India, where I try to sum up what a learned from my short time over there. However, in North India, mainly in a large circle around the Delhi area, there wasn’t much of a beer scene, so I feel even less qualified than normal to do a full commentary. I will do a few quick notes though.
For one thing there are no beers in most stores, with only zero abv beers in supermarkets and the like. Looks like alcohol can only be sold from bars, restaurants and dedicated licensed stores. From the stores I did find, most seemed to stock mainly imports and in that mainly spirits, with very few local beers – though I did manage to grab a few. Similarly I found very little of Amrut, Paul Johns and the like – instead most places bringing in Scottish Whisky over their own local product. I did get to try a few of the local blended whisky in a restaurants though – quite cheap and varied from poor to actually pretty decent, but was not in the position to do notes on them with food.
There does seem to be an India beer scene though – googling lists about ten non Kingfisher beers that are apparently easy to find, though I found but one of those. Similarly some areas such as Mumbai and Bangalore look to have a really decent scene. I was just nowhere near there. Oops. Still not every holiday has to be a beer holiday, and I had more than enough sights to make up for lack of beer and whisky.
Anyway, to actually do some beer talk here – rapid fire thoughts on the varied Kingfisher’s I encountered out there.
Kingfisher: Very mediocre. Slightly chalky, not much flavor.
Kingfisher Ultra: Smooths away the rough edges of standard Kingfisher, but still lacking in flavor.
Kingfisher Strong: Actual malt flavours made this my preferred of the three, even if there was more noticeable alcohol roughness that the flavours earned
There was also a Kingfisher Ultra Strong I saw but did not try. As you may have guessed from the above they basically did the job of giving you something wet and beer like to have with meals, but no great shakes.
Anyway, actual beer notes should be up soon. Until then, enjoy your drink!
