Shaking up Indian beer with Desi Beer options
INDIAN food and drink brand Curry Smugglers is set to shift the conversation around Indian beer with the launch of its new lager brand Desi Lager.
The traditional south Asian snacks brand is set to change the rules around beers that are “made for curries” and introduce an option that is perfectly paired with the Indian food dish.
Seeking to move consumers away from Indian Pale Ale options and intro more traditional Indian lagers, the new Desi Lager range seeks to deliver a brew to shoppers that has been made using locally sourced ingredients and taps into the food and drink history of the country.
Desi Lager has been made using rice with the light-bodied Basmati Rice Lager being directly inspired by India’s brewing heritage and delivers a 4.2% ABV brew that can appeal alongside a curry. Not only this, but the beer is suitable for vegans and is gluten-free.
Further to this, the brand also offers consumers an alcohol-free option to ensure no one has to miss out should they choose not to drink or have certain dietary requirements. The alcohol-free Mango Mirchi Lager combines Alphonso mangoes with habanero chillis to offer a refreshing brew for consumers.
Steve Dass, co-founder of Curry Smugglers, said: “For decades, ‘goes well with curry’ seems to have been the entire lazy conversation around Indian beer. And, frankly, most beer goes well with curry.
“There’s a much richer story to tell. Beer was being brewed in India before IPA became the headline, and rice forms part of that history. DESI Lager takes inspiration from that past but isn’t trying to recreate an old beer. It’s about asking what a modern Desi beer can be today.
“We don’t want to splash a few random elephants and palaces on a label, tell people it goes with curry and call that Desi. Modern South Asian culture is far more layered than that. That’s the world we want these beers to represent.”
