An Indian crafted the first Singapore brand of beer.
Brewer and director of Jungle Beer Aditya Challa, 34, is sure the time will come when Asians expect more out of the beer they drink. When that happens, his craft beers will be waiting in the wings to claim their place aside industry giants, Tiger and Heineken, Kingfisher and Budweiser.
Just when his Singapore-brewed beers started to snag bigger awards at Beerfest Asia, the Kurnool-born entrepreneur let loose a major reshuffle under the public radar this April; he shut his S$1.5 million brewing plant, and retreated to Bangalore for a head brew-master position at Prost brew pub. Confounding, but not without reason. Brewing just customary stouts, ales, and wheat beers at the watering hole, Aditya is decidedly on a “creative hiatus”, while he works out the licensing of his 1,000-litre brew house that has been shipped and relocated to India from Singapore. Says an unflinching Aditya, “ Brewing operations are shut, but we are reinventing ourselves.” He is set to team up with a fresh pair of partners. A new Indian-centric brand headquartered in Goa, he reveals, possibly in another five months.
“Not many pubs in Singapore sell as much beer as we do here at Prost, but perfecting old-world beer styles doesn’t excite me as much as creating new beers that are relevant to the location, and possibly using ingredients that are a part of the local culture, like chicory, mango, or cardamom in India,” says Aditya. “Even when brewing old-world styles, such as a Pilsner, I prefer to update the styles to suit the local palette. I’m not a purist when it comes to brewing.”
In the first year of brewing in Singapore, Aditya went as outlandish as to concoct a lambic Singaporean Belgian Pale Ale that infused flavours of pineapple, cardamom, sour plum, and ginger, a pungent durian wheat beer to celebrate Singapore’s national day. The spice ale that used the sarsaparilla root from India, and a chicory export stout brewed with five malts, three hops and cane sugar was triple-crowned ‘Best in the World’, ‘Best in Singapore’ and ‘Gold in Stout’ category at last year’s Beerfest Asia.
“A lot of companies want to make beer that appeals to everybody, something that does not offend, so they keep taking away character from beer,” he says. “Though craft beers are usually less approachable than flavourless mass-produced lagers, their characters are worth the exploration. You can’t gulp them down like a lager. You have to savour them.”
Many Indians drink with the objective of inebriation, he admits, relating to his younger self. But, when his engineering degree led him to work in London, he received what he calls “a beer awakening”, where he was introduced to ales. Ales, he says, retain their flavours even at room temperature and do not go flat as quickly.
After his stint in the U.S., where he completed his Masters, he could no longer return to the lagers of his youth. His hungry search for character in a pint compelled him to return to the U.K. to study brewing in Edinburgh, Scotland, before he settled in Singapore to set up Jungle Beer.
“We were somewhat naive and overly enthusiastic to start in Singapore. We hadn’t fully thought through the macroeconomics — the profit margin, manpower, suppliers, laws, tax differentials, or the regional market,” says Aditya, already on a third mug of his own beer in our hour-long interview at Prost. Breaking it down, Aditya explains that a brewery in San Diego will produce beers costing about USD 1 and with shipping that costs less than 20 cents a bottle. “It’s much easier for distribution companies based in Singapore to buy direct from them than consider a local brewery’s USD 2.50 bottles.” Aditya then rode on a brainwave to lease excess capacities from breweries in lower-cost areas like Hong Kong or Australia, where his brand will remotely produce his popular brews. This will free him up to work on his forthcoming Indian brand. “In India, we will probably be the first craft brewery. And we can make premium craft beers and price it significantly less than imported beers. That’s a clear advantage.”
