Uttarakhand to promote pub brewery culture

The pub brewery culture, which is fast spreading its wings in parts of India might soon enter Uttarakhand; courtesy a new decision by the foodie chief minister Vijay Bahuguna.

Bahuguna, who makes no bones about his rich food habits, had also vowed to bring the best culture in the state. The state cabinet which met here on Friday approved the new excise policy for setting up micro pub breweries in the hill state for manufacturing alcoholic and non-alcoholic beer.

Also, the cabinet gave its seal of approval for branded liquor companies to set up bottling plants in the state. “Only those liquor companies which have two-three brands are permitted to set up new bottling plants in the state,” said chief secretary Alok Kumar Jain.

Experts say through the new decision of pub breweries, the government can earn Rs 18.46 lakh from a micro pub brewery. According to the decision, the alcoholic content in the beer has been set at 5 per cent. Initially, all those restaurants which already possess bar licences in the state have been given permission to set up such breweries.

Big five-star hotels like Ananda at Narendra Nagar and Jaypee Residency Manor in Mussoorie in the Garhwal region, with a considerable foreign tourist clientele, are likely to take benefit of the new policy, avers S P Kochar, owner of Madhuban Group of hotels and president of the Uttarakhand Hotel Association. “This is a good policy through which some of the hotels may take tremendous benefits,” Kochar claims.

In India, the idea of brewing was promoted by the British government. Till a couple of years back, beer was being produced in the big breweries, limiting the option of the beer in bottles and cans only. But the idea of fresh beer has now gained currency in the country with many states bringing in new excise policy to promote pub breweries.