Telangana says cheers to beer; to set up more micro breweries

In an effort to cash in on the demand for draught beer in the IT and financial districts here and other parts of Telangana, the government has decided to allow restaurants and pubs to brew their own draught from  October 1.

The government is seeking applications to set up micro-breweries in every 5 kilometers radius here and every 30 km elsewhere in the state.

Telangana which has six breweries is one of the largest beer producers in the country. As many as 6,500 lakh cases of beer are sold every year, including 3 crore cases in Hyderabad alone.

 In fact, beer contributes 30 per cent of the revenue to the state’s exchequer.

 The state excise department which has studied the draught beer manufacturing process in Bangalore, Mumbai and New Delhi has decided to encourage draught beer.

A micro-brewery  with a capacity  to produce and sell 1,000 litres of draught beer per day will be allowed to be set up in a residential area as long as the proposed premises is on a main road used for shopping purposes.

The draught beer is the most sought-after form of beer as it will have no preservative and no aftertaste. At least 10 firms have come forward to set up micro breweries in the posh localities of Jubilee Hills, Banjara Hills, Gachibowli and Manikonda etc.

Similarly, there will be one bar for every 13,000 people here and one bar for 30,000 people elsewhere in the Telangana state. For the poor, the desi daru is yet to be launched at  just Rs 30 per quarter. The new excise policy of the Telangana government  aims to  increase the excise revenue  from the present Rs 11,000 crore  to 14,000 crore in 2015-16.

“There is lot of demand for beer in Hyderabad as the city is now a global city with lot of visitors arriving here for conferences and for job related work,” RV Chandravadhan, commissioner, Telangana Prohibition and Excise department said explaining the new excise policy.

The department hopes that microbreweries will also add many new beers to the consumers such as wheat beer, dark beer, and stouts and porters, which is a popular concept in major cities across the globe.

On the other hand, the Telangana Wine Dealers Association also gave its thumbs up for the draught beer initiative.