Millennials going the craft way

Craft beer market and microbreweries in India need nurturing, care and support to develop their full potential, says Tarun Bhargava, CEO & Co Founder, Grano69 Beverages Pvt. Ltd.

The major driver in beer market is growing consumption of alcoholic beverages, thanks to rapid urbanisation, increased disposable incomes and favourable demographics in India.

“Beer is gradually getting more acceptable as a social drink in India, and many among the urban Indian youth in particular, favour it as the preferred alcoholic beverage,” says Tarun Bhargava, CEO & Co-Founder, Gran069 Beverages Pvt. Ltd.
Tarun opines that millennial beer consumers in India are “keeping it craft and killing the crap.” With growing list of options and wide availability of styles to explore, young consumers in India are likely to experiment with new styles and expressions of beers, he opines.
“If the ending notes and the after taste are appealing to young beer drinkers, then they do not shy away from talking about it. This is despite the fact that the market for new styles of beer in India is still comparatively small as compared to that of lager. However,
emergence of different styles will help in making a niche and brand building,” Tarun proffers.

Portfolio
Talking about his own portfolio, he explains that the Proost69 White Ale is a blend of wheat brewed to perfection.
It is infused with notes of vanilla and orange zest and is a perfect fit for a traditional wheat beer lover with its unique twist, all brought together with a hint of coriander.
“The bottle is conditioned with ingredients that work all the time to keep the beer fresh. You just feel like popping one open any time of the day and savouring the fresh flavours,” Tarun expresses.
His company would be introducing Strong Lager, Strong Wheat, IPA, Triple (beer made up of three different
malts) and Hefeweizen by the end of the year.
As of now, the market share of the brand in India is 5 to 6 percent of the imported beer segment in India and
the brand is currently available in Delhi only, within the country.

New flavours
Sharing his insights on innovation and new brands, Tarun says the experiment with new flavours in India’s beer market began with microbreweries. “With a small
set up and non-scalability approach, they have started experimenting with new flavours like IPA, Red Ale, fruit
infused beer, flavoured beers and stout. India as a beer market will certainly experiment with new styles more,” he adds. As for innovations in his company, he explains that
they have focused on hand- crafted recipes and introduced  new flavourful beers like Weizen, Strong Lager & IPA/
Triple.

Market trends
Tarun says that lager remains the most popular segment; the style accounting for 93 percent of the market by volume and 88 percent by value. “The most popular beer brands in the world are all lagers,” he adds in a matter of fact manner.
In his opinion, a significant number of millennials of India in metro and other tier-I cities are well-versed and
up to date about a new beer brand, when it comes their way. “Cities like Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune and Goa are most likely to be the places where new entrants will mark their presence first,” he observes.
Reacting to how another Indian company is going the Bira way by getting its beer made outside India, he is of the view that it is a sound strategy for expansion and for creating consumer base. But he goes on to add that it only applies to those brands which have created enough market
share and consumer base. “Any brand, which is planning to put its feet abroad should be domestically sound with
proper planning,” he affirms.
On the consumption figures of beers in India, he says he would peg it at 5.1 liters per capita in 2018. The market,
according to him is anticipated to reach 23.5 billion USD at a CAGR of 10.9 percent over the forecast period as alcohol consumption is growing in urban areas of the country.
“The craft beer segment is expected to reach 900 million USD in India by the end of the forecast period,” he aired.
However, at the same time he maintains that craft beer market and microbreweries are in a nascent stage in India and they need nurturing, care and support to develop to their full potential.