Drinking festival collaborates with breweries from Pune and Mumbai

Apple, karvanda and mango cider

Even a few years ago, ordering for beers meant we had two choices - light and strong. A lot has changed since, particularly in this year, with a number of breweries experimenting with regional condiments, ranging from kokum to mango, mead being added to menus with an expansive range of fruity flavours, like peach and chilli guava on offer, as well as a general surge in the number of drinkeries that opened in the city through 2018.

Kokum Cider

And carrying that tradition forward, master brewer at Doolally, Oliver Schauf orchestrated a grand collaboration among some of Mumbai and Pune's biggest breweries and meaderies. The result is The Great Indian Cider and Mead Festival, a one-stop-shop for a vast range of ciders including jamun, apple, smoked chilli, and dark apple cider, and meads like peach melomel, cranberry, hoppy, coffee and spiced root.

Oliver Schauf

Schauf, who wants to encourage the Indian beer drinker to be more discerning, said, "Since there is little point in presenting 10 different apple ciders, breweries have been encouraged to experiment and come up with interesting varieties in smaller batches. For this festival, a few beer scientists have brewed unique fruit wines, melomels, meads and ciders. The idea is not to compete but collaborate so the customer, i.e. the cider lover, understands that it's a great time to be a cider drinker in India today."

ON: December 1 and 2, 1 pm onwards
AT: The 1st Brewhouse - The Corinthians, Pune.
CALL: 8378957746

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