A Head For Beer

In this extract from his book The Indian Spirit: The Untold Story of Alcohol in India, Magandeep Singh outlines the history of beer in India.

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THE STORY OF THE INDIA PALE ALE

Beer, as defined by the German Purity Law (or Reinheitsgebot, wrap your tongue around that!), which states that the brew should comprise only four ingredients—barley, water, yeast and hops—came to India for the first time with the British who were working for the East India Company. Barley wasn’t as common in our recipes as rice and millets. The garrisons posted in India as also the officers and other dignitaries all needed their rations and the only way was to have them shipped all the way from the Kingdom. It was hot, it was humid, and there was little by way of entertainment, unless one counted swatting malarial mosquitoes as a healthy pastime. Beer then wasn’t a luxury, it was a necessity.

Unfortunately beer, unlike spirits, is extremely fragile. Its composition doesn’t entirely inhibit bacterial spoilage in warm humid settings. A low alcoholic percentage means that the ecosystem isn’t strong enough to withstand an infection and consequent spoilage. Whiskies on the other hand, with their 40+ per cent alcohol content, are immune to such onslaughts. (So the moral of the moment, as one may conveniently be drawn to derive, is that if you don’t want bacteria eating up your insides, drink liquor!) So, much to the disappointment of the British stationed in India, the beer that turned up on Indian shores was mostly well past its prime—rancid, excessively sour, if not entirely smelly and rotten—and unfit for consumption. Which is why the British set themselves about to finding a way around this problem. They even tried making a mobile brewery, one aboard a ship, that could brew while at sea, but unfortunately that too didn’t work out. But it does go to show to what ingenious lengths man will go when deprived of something he truly wants.