How the new Simba Light fares in being a 'premium lager for refined tastes'

The thing about lager is that it’s simple. It’s uncomplicated to the point that you often quaff it without tasting much. There are exceptions, of course: if you’re lucky enough to get your hands on a Pilsner, you are sure to experience the extra “spiciness” that comes from the Saaz hops that go into the making of the Czech lager. In Germany, they serve something called the schwarzbier, a dark lager that has notes of chocolate or coffee.
 
But when it comes to pale lager, the type of beer we are mostly served in our part of the world, there is little flavour or elegance involved. Pale lagers are almost like comfort drinks — you know what you’re likely to get and you consume it heartily without getting into the intricacies of what actually makes it work. That’s both good and bad. Good, because in an age of seemingly complex wheat beers and Indian Pale Ales, some simplicity doesn’t hurt. Bad, because lagers make up the majority of the worst beers in the world for that very reason. This essentially means that finding a genuinely good lager is tricky.
 
Simba, the indigenous craft beer brand launched in 2016, is now out to fill that void. After exhibiting exciting flavours with its Wit — a classic German wheat beer with a lemongrass twist at the end — and Stout ­— a rich, creamy dark beer — variants, the brand recently announced the launch of Simba Light, a premium lager beer for “refined tastes”.
 
“A lager was a must-have in our portfolio because there is such a big market for it,” says founder Prabhtej Singh Bhatia. “At the same time, given that lagers are very conventional by nature, we wanted to come up with something that was bold and unique.”
 

Simba Light

The Light undoubtedly delivers in terms of uniqueness. It is a lovely golden with a tinge of white, forms a slight head and has a clear, pleasing texture. The taste is definitely more complicated than your regular lager: it’s a touch more bitter than normal, but not once does that seem overpowering. The tartness is complemented by a fruity aroma — normally not found in Indian lagers — which causes the subtlest of explosions on the palate, and gives the beer a fresh, clean taste that seems more pleasurable with each sip.
 
Bhatia explains that the secret lies in the hops and malts imported exclusively for the brand’s new offering. “In addition to high-quality regular hops and malts, we’ve also added aromatic hops that give the beer a distinct taste. In the US, such lagers are common, but you’ll never find them in India because these are very expensive raw materials.”
 
If you were to taste this beer in isolation, you may not quite realise how different it is from standard lagers. I, for instance, compared this with a pint of Budweiser, and the contrast was telling. Bud may be one of the world’s best-selling lagers, but it had nothing on the Simba Light. The Bud was watery and bland, whereas the Light tickled your taste buds with an extra punch of hoppiness, and smoothness.
 
“What helps brands like us is that more people are now open to experimentation,” reckons Bhatia. “A lot of people who drink Simba were never beer drinkers, but they switched to beer because they found something that they had never come across before.”
 
The challenge, Bhatia concedes, is to make the beer he produces not only an experimental choice, but a go-to option for genuine beer drinkers. Appealing as they are, beers loaded with somewhat peculiar flavours don’t always easily endear themselves to the purists. Bhatia is hoping a more mainstream beer like Light may just change that.
 
“With the lager I believe that we now have all bases covered. You can have Light on weekdays, Wit over the weekend and Stout on special occasions,” he says. More than anything else, in a market where prices for premium beer continue to soar routinely, the Simba Light is quite affordable. A pint in Delhi will cost you only Rs 80. Just drink that in.