Gurgaon's own brewery

With Haryana only among four states in India allowing brewing of beer by restaurants, Gurgaon has become the first city in north India to brew beer. Currently beer is being brewed and served fresh at Galaxy Hotel’s Howzatt and Rockman’s Beer Island at the Ambience Mall.

Enter Howzatt, and the aroma of fresh beer leaves the connoisseurs of the ale awestruck. Cricketing ambience just adds to the flavour of the IPL season. According to restaurant manager Hemant Nautiyal, “All ingredients are imported from Germany. And the end product doesn’t have any preservatives added to it but retains the nutrient quality of beer. In fact we are the first in the country to brew fresh wheat beer.”

Imported bottled German wheat beers are available in India but nobody has brewed a wheat beer in the country till now.

Even the fizz in the beer is kept to a bare minimum level saving the patrons of the restaurant from ugly burps. The brewery which is right behind the bar is separated through a glass and the patrons can see the two levels of the brewery.

However, the pub also sells other liquor beverages and is showcasing the telecast of Indian Premier League. Cricket décor also revs up the ambience. With sofas in the shape of cricket glove, bar stools in the shape of bails, flags of cricket playing nations adorning the ceiling, it’s the right place to be in for watching the electric IPL matches from South Africa.

The Process
It takes 14 days to brew a beer. For starters, around 300 litres of water is added with malt and kept in a Mashton. After two-and-a-half hours, the extract (wort roughly around 250 litres) is shifted to a Wort kettle where it is boiled for 90 degrees. The hops are added here which gives a taste of bitterness and aroma. After approximately three hours the boiling wort is mixed and freezing water (kept in -250 degrees with glycol as anti freezing element) at 10 degrees temperature. Yeast is also added here and then the liquid is sent to fermentation vessels, where it is kept for 11 days. After 11 days, the beer is filtered and then kept in bright beer tank after which it is served directly to customers.