Beer Cruise @ Beer Cafe, Ambience Mall, Delhi

This was one of those evening I could hardly afford to miss. It was a session at The Beer Cafe with Tulleho’s expert Rohan Jelkie who would be taking us through a special workshop on beer appreciation. I have always enjoyed my beer but my knowledge on them is as limited as any other person who likes beer.

I have been to Beer Cafe earlier and have always been impressed by the collection of beers. No one else has such a vast collection in one roof including 8 kinds of beer available on the tap. Rahul Singh, owner of The Beer Cafe, welcomed us and mentioned that before they open similar event for public, they wanted bloggers and media to get a preview.

The two hour session was interesting and I am giving below few of my learnings that may be of an interest to you.

Lager Beer: It is a barley based beer and the lightest lager beer is called Pilsner.

For lager beer, we tasted three beers:

- Estrella: This is a light lager also called Pilsner. It had a clean, sweet and fresh smell and had a very light bitterness on cheek.

- Heineken: The most selling beer in lager category which is brewed for 28 days. I was most impressed with their glasses which has a fancy name ‘Nucleation glasses’ given a star etched at the base which helps release so much more air bubbles then pouring in an ordinary glass. I am told few samples will soon be reaching me

- Brookawyn: It is a dark color lager due to roasted barley. Floral hops are used in producing this.

So while we were learning about lager, a common myth about beer with heads was broken. In India we see most people asking for beer without head (Froth on top). But as per Rohan froth helps avoid the bubbles escape the glass and it also helps ambient air contacting the beer, which helps retain the fizz for much longer. Point well taken!

Wheat Beer: As name suggest, these are made out of wheat and are normally cloudy as post fermentation yeast is still left. There were again 3 beers to be tasted in this category.

- Erdinger: It is brewed using fine yeast according to traditional recipe with fermentation lasting 3-4 weeks

- Hoegaarden: Hoegaarden is my all time favorite. I love the flavours and till yesterday, I always thought why Foster or any other beer does not taste as good. Now I know that I cannot compare wheat base to barley base.

- Weihenstephaner: This was the dark wheat beer with roasted wheat.

Ale: This was the next category we were introduced to. It is made from barley malt that has been roasted until chocolate in color and they are highly hopped. Hence the flavours are caramelised sweetness at first and a slight bitter finish towards the end. It is traditionally a top fermented beer which is much faster process. We tasted Pedigree beer in this category. Next in the Ale category was Duvel which is also called the champagne of beer as this is bottle fermented and given its light colors is also called pale ale.

Stout: Popularised by Murphy’s beer, this is a dark beer with robust flavors. To me it tasted like cold espresso with a little less bitterness.

Fruit Beer: This was the last category for us to sample in the evening, and instead of drinking it straight, we were told an interesting cocktail to be made with Liefmans. Muddle 5-6 pcs of cardamom, some pineapple chunks, some pineapple juice and put lot of ice. Top it up with Liefmans, and a refreshing fruit beer cocktail is ready.

There were more interesting discussions on use of lemon in Corona and Orange in Hoegaarden. But if I tell you all, what will you learn in the fun session

Though it was supposed to be a food pairing session too, but in my opinion almost everything goes well with beer (except perhaps salad), and I was enjoying them. Just loved the beer battered fish fingers, and you also do not miss them on your visit.

I loved the session and even when I was on a high, I did not miss to interact with Rahul Singh who has ambitious plans for his brand. He is trying to focus on volumes for which the pricing will be tad lower than the competition. Luckily there is not much as I see now.