Just beer please, not cricket

The ale at Howzzat definitely is the best, but not the pub's theme.

It was weird to walk into an empty pub and I half-expected the bar to be closed for cleaning. At 1 pm, Howzzat (Galaxy Hotel, Gurgaon) was open for business, but I suppose nobody fancies a beer and lunch on a working day. This is probably India’s first brewpub — it brews its own beer in a micro-brewery right before your eyes.

To find the bubbly brewing, just follow your nose.

As soon as you enter, you smell the aroma of the hops. Eyes immediately wander to the giant stainless steel vats, which are the centrepiece of the pub. Steam wafts out from the boilers where the barley and the hops (used to flavour the beer) have been mashed together. I found out later, there is a whopping 4,000 litres of beer stored in the stainless steel tanks above the boilers.

 

As the name suggests, the pub sports a cricket theme. It also starts at the entrance, which has two doors labelled Players In and Players Out. The interiors, predictably, feature glove-shaped couches, a few black and white photographs hung from the walls and plaster casts of cricketers, who particularly resemble nobody. The theme is done to quality, but somehow seems tacky. I would much rather have chosen beer as the theme or a simple sports bar ambience.

The signature beers are again named in keeping with the theme — Doosra, Googly and Bouncer. It must be said that the bar looks sophisticated with the shining beer vats for a backdrop. Quite thoughtfully, the tablemats explain the whole beer-making process, providing a detailed description of each vat’s function.

I start with Doosra, the standard beer. It comes chilled to the right temperature from the gleaming copper pipe. The mug is 500 ml and is frosted before serving. At Rs 145 (excluding taxes), I take the first sip and realise this is something different. It feels a little flat initially, but the bartender tells me to take a few more sips and then pronounce the verdict. The beer does grow on me. The fresh taste of the barley and the hops and the fact that the fizz is from natural fermentation and there are no preservatives or glycerine added, is refreshing. My favourite though is Bouncer, a flavoursome dark beer. You can taste the sweet hint of caramel, the roasted barley and the slight bitterness from the hops. Too bad I had to get back to work after just two mugs.

Score: 7/10. The cricket ambience doesn’t quite work, while the food is overpriced and ordinary

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