Hic, hic, hurray: City pubs may get their own micro breweries

Delhiites may no longer have to travel all the way to Gurgaon to enjoy freshly brewed beer. The Delhi government’s excise department has drafted a proposal to allow micro breweries in city’s restaurants and pubs.

Delhiites may no longer have to travel all the way to Gurgaon to enjoy freshly brewed beer. The Delhi government’s excise department has drafted a proposal to allow micro breweries in city’s restaurants and pubs.

Gurgaon-already-has-quite-a-few-number-of-pubs-that-house-micro-breweries-parveen-Kumar-ht-photo

The proposal is likely to be part of Delhi budget to be tabled later this month. If it happens, tipplers in Delhi will get their own ‘micro brew pubs’ to get beer brewed to their specific taste in terms of flavour, bitterness, viscosity and other such variables.

“The issue of granting permission to five-star hotels for installing breweries was also discussed and to begin with permission might be given to five-star hotels as they have the required space and infrastructure. If the experiment works, it can be replicated in other pubs and resto-bars,”said an official.

A similar proposal was made last year too but it failed to get the clearances. The excise department hopes this proposal will be cleared this time.

According to sources, the excise department had recently held a meeting wherein a detailed presentation was made to the deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia about a series of measures that the department was planning to introduce to help businesses operate smoothly by easing the license process. The proposal by the excise department contained rules and regulations that would act as the eligibility criteria for such pubs like the minimum space required and the volume of beer which can be produced. The proposal now is likely to be sent to the cabinet for approval.

Micro-breweries are small breweries, typically in pubs that sell self-brewed beer and cater to niche taste.“The space required for such a set-up is quite huge. Five star hotels and pubs will have such space. Gurgaon already has quite a number of such pubs and are doing quite well. We want to start the same in Delhi now,” said an official.

The department is hoping to increase its revenue through this exercise. The Indira Gandhi International Airport was also given permission by the government to set up microbrewery at the airport but it has not set up one so far.