The people of Goa and Bengaluru already have a lot to choose from when it comes to premium, imported beer, observes Christian Garrelt Saathoff, managing director of CG-S Indo-German Business Network. Tamil Nadu, he feels, is a comparatively fresh market “and difficult to enter. If you can manage to enter the Tamil Nadu market, you can manage any market”.
That might seem a tad ambitious of a reason to choose the State as the Indian entry point for German beer brand Barre, but who’s complaining? By Christmas, four varieties of the beer are set to be available at Tasmac Elite stores and hotels for ₹245. Barre will also be available in Andhra Pradesh and Kerala soon, and the plan is to have a pan-India presence by the end of next year.
It’s an old brewery with modest origins, based in a small town, but that’s not necessarily bad news. As Saathoff points out, “In Germany, it’s the regional brands that are more popular than the national and international ones.”
So what exactly is this beer that we’re supposed to be all excited about? A private, family-run business, the more than 170-year-old Privatbrauerei Barre claims to be the oldest Pils brewery in northern Germany. Naturally, two of the four products in the offing in India are pilseners (a variety of lagers): their classic Barre Pilsener and another — mixed with lemon juice — called Barre Natur Alster.
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It takes about a week for this beer to ferment, informs Saathoff, with “lower fermentation at 4-9° Celsius for seven to nine days for the fermentation process, and three-four-week storage time at up to -2° Celsius.”
Barre’s other offerings include the select Festbier, made, according to Saathoff, with “Hallertauer hops”, which are “aromatic hops that are grown in Bavaria at the biggest hops farm of Germany.”
“The Festbier is more malt-emphasised,” he adds, “This means that it is less bitter than a pilsener.” Its aroma and its amber colour are said to be particular points of pride with this brew.
The Weizen, on the other hand, is a full-bodied, top-fermented wheat beer. But these four varieties are just the starter plan for Saathoff and his partner Annamalai Subbiah, managing director of Dolcemplex. The duo plans to bring in more German brands to India eventually.
“As Barre is a highly-priced beer, we also want to bring a mid-priced and a budget brand to India. Our aim is to let everybody taste the unique flavour of a German beer,” he says.
But for now, the focus is on Barre, which will be imported entirely in the initial stages. “For the future, a bottling plan is being considered, but our plans point more in the direction of setting up a complete brewery, two or three years from now,” reveals Saathoff.
While that plan might seem not quite that close in the near future, this Christmas, at least, is set to be yet more jolly.
