Beer in India

Beer came to India with the British army in the eighteenth century, when the cantonments needed a drink that would keep the troops from spirits, and ships carried English ale and porter round the Cape in casks and later in bottles. The hop-heavy pale ale known as India Pale Ale belongs to that trade, though it was brewed in England for the voyage rather than in India. Brewing on Indian soil followed in the nineteenth century, at first in the hill stations of the north, where cool air and mountain water suited the work, and the brewery became part of the cantonment's settled life. The taste that grew from this is the cold lager, served very cold and drunk with food, and it is the lager that most Indian drinkers still mean when they say beer.

The beer of India is chiefly a bottom-fermented lager of pale gold, made from barley malt, often with rice or sugar as an adjunct to lighten the body, and hopped lightly so that bitterness stays in the background. Strong lagers of high alcohol sit beside the mild ones and are the commoner choice in the market. Wheat beer, and in recent years pale ale brewed in the English manner, are made in smaller quantities, mostly in the large cities. It is served in a large shared bottle of around 650 ml, poured into small glasses, and kept as cold as the ice bucket allows, since a warm lager is quickly flat and sweet.

Beer is drunk with the tandoor and the grill: kebabs, tandoori chicken, fried fish and the spiced snacks of the bar and the dhaba, and with robust meat curries. The structural reason is the cold, the carbonation and the light bitterness, which cleanse the palate of chilli heat and fat between mouthfuls. A mild lager is the better partner for hot food, because a heavily hopped beer sharpens the chilli rather than soothing it. Sweet and creamy dishes such as dal makhani sit less easily beside it.