Regional Flavours First at Seven Rivers Brewing Company

The Seven Rivers Brewing Company serves craft beer that pays homage to India’s leviathan library of flavours from the gondhoraj lebu to the Coorg mandarin.

Biting, blushing jamuns from the hills around Krishnagiri. The sweet, succulent Coorg mandarin. Fruity, fragrant gondhoraj lebus of West Bengal. Pink, juicy guavas from Tamil Nadu. Local varieties of bananas and aromatic cloves from Kerala. Treacly prunes and plump raisins from Goa. These are just some of the regional produce that lends their essence to the spectrum of beer offerings at Seven Rivers Brewing Company.

Seven Rivers Brewing Company, the latest microbrewery on the scene, taps into the vast library of India’s flavours to create brews that wink with the sparkle of a local’s know-how. We can confirm that this brewery has already passed its baptism by fire with smashing success, since its launch in the craft beer capital of Bangalore in September, 2020. Housed in the plush environs of the Taj MG Road in the heart of the city, this microbrewery strikes a balance between formal elegance and fun energy. Warm wooden, softly lit interiors open out to the sunny outdoors of swallow-me-up sofas dotted around a pristine pool, a luxe-yet-inviting marker of the collaboration between Seven Rivers Brewing Company and the Taj Hotels.

In its year-long run, Seven Rivers Brewing Company has been racking up the accolades, bagging Best Microbrewery – Luxurious Nightlife from the Times Food Award, and has already been listed as one of the 30 Best Bars in India compiled by Tulleeho and Man’s World India.

The Seven Rivers Brewing Company understanding of “craft beer” has translated into paying homage to the country’s leviathan library of flavours. But far from a gimmicky shot at doing ‘local meets global,’ here, a studied hand guides these infusions and additions. Lead brewer – the Goa-born and now Bangalore-based – Lynnette Pires helms this microbrewery. Lynette teases you into experimenting with a range of beers through the hook of familiar flavours. Channelling her scientific background in analytical biology and the research & development of pharmaceuticals, into the beer-brewing process: “I employed this method at my R&D lab called upstream fermentation of bacteria and yeast to yield synthetic insulin. And now, I use the same method, except my end product is beer instead,” she tells us and laughs, at our evening of tasting her various concoctions.

There are four options of beers on tap available all-year-round, and four more that refreshingly respond to the seasonal produce. Lynette takes the wheel on our journey through each beer. She starts us off with the Witbier, “Suited for the sweeter palate,” she tells us. The Coorg mandarin and other oranges – depending on their seasonal availability – along with coriander seeds, infuse a Belgian wheat beer and give it a pleasant fruity finish. Next, the Kölsch, “A hybrid style of beer that’s brewed like an ale but tastes like a lager,” Lynette tells us, as we sample this quintessentially German-style beer. For the Chocolate Coffee Stout, she was “excited” to sit through many cupping sessions with the folks at Blue Tokai, to lend this beer notes of rich, nutty, dark chocolate and berry. “It’s a special Blue Tokai blend made especially for this microbrewery,” she tells us, remaining tight-lipped on the exact elements that power this potion. We may have to consider hitting up Seven Rivers Brewing Company right out of bed, our morning mug. And for that easy-drinking beer, on a lazy Sunday afternoon, Lynette places before us an American Pale Ale: it’s smooth and it’s a criminal, with a deliciously bitter finish. “This one pairs perfectly with spicy food.” We don’t need this green signal to dig into our plate of burning Naga chilli pork. But we take it anyway.

The specialities at Seven Rivers Brewing Company for this festive season are: the Dunkelweizen, “A darker version of the Hefeweizen.” Even before Lynette finishes her pitch on the beer’s roasted caramelly sweetness, the first sip flashes us back to memories of cinema halls, our hands searching out caramel popcorn in the glow of the year’s Christmas movie playing on the screen. A similar strain of holiday happiness carries into the toffee tones of the Red Ale. And there’s Christmas literally in the mix of The X’Mas BarleyWine. “We added the Taj’s fruit mix for their Christmas plum cake into this beer’s mash,” Lynette pipes in. “It's a drinkable Christmas cake,” she adds, clearly pleased with herself. At 7.9 percent ABV, it’s the boozy, beautiful treat we all deserve after the year we’ve had!

With one more ace up her sleeve, the Salted Lime Gose, a traditional sour beer that’s been steeped with the zest and juice of the gorgeous gondhoraj lebu with the slightest touch of Himalayan pink salt to add that bit of intrigue. It seems like, with this one, Lynette has created the perfect drink to cut through the decadence of the season’s treats with its sour, refreshing lemony cheer.

And in the spirit of the season, Seven Rivers Brewing Company x Taj collab has goodies for the non-beer drinkers too, with speciality drinks that echo the ethos of their crafted beers. Mixologist and bar manager Arati Mestry has been mixing drinks since her college days, where she started at a friend’s bar. And from there on, she has only moved from strength to strength, winning awards like the Jameson Barrel Men’s Face-Off 2018, placing second runner-up in the Brown Forman American Whiskey Legacy Cocktail Challenge 2020. Arati’s inventive cocktails pair states with produce. For Karnataka, Arati has the Cream Brew, her take on a traditional Irish Coffee with lightly roasted beans from the Thogarihunkal estates of Chikmagalur. Turmeric from Sangli in Maharashtra lends hue and healing in Touch of Turmeric, along with whiskey and jaggery. Tea-ase is a melange of whiskey, sweet vermouth, Darjeeling tea decoction with a touch of salt finished off with shavings of smoked pork. And there’s another four of these magic potions that do wonders with pears from Himachal Pradesh, West Bengal’s pineapples, clove and cardamom from Kerala and Himalayan pink salt from Jammu and Kashmir.

It feels like every season is the holiday season at Seven Rivers Brewing Company, where fun and playfully Indian-flavour forward beers and cocktails flow through the year! They’re all set to launch country-wide in 2022 (hint: Goa’s next!), and aisles that will soon be lined with their bottled beers. If you bump into lead brewer Lynette, say hi but keep it pumping, you don’t want to distract her from creating this microbrewery’s special magic with fruits, flavours and fermentation.

Seven Rivers Brewing Company, Taj MG Road, 41/3, Mahatma Gandhi Road, Bengaluru, call +91 95132 70753 for reservations. The next brewery will open in Candolim, Goa in mid-summer of 2022.

Image credits Alcohowl

ALSO ON THE GOYA JOURNAL

Featured