Beery Beery important day for guzzlers

CHENNAI: Friday was International Beer Day (IBD), but few in the city knew about it. The most common reply to queries over plans for IBD were "There's an IBD?" followed by surprised squeals of delight.The city, in fact, has much ground to cover to catch up with IBD celebrations across the world. A majority of the managers of the hottest pubs were unaware of such an event and said it would be a regular Friday night.However, judging by the reactions of some after-work pub crawlers, some unofficial beer mugs were likely raised to toast the IBD's global movement.Content writer Akash Mehta, who never fails to begin the weekend in high spirits, said, "We're going to tell everyone in the pu­b to drink only beer as it's time we gave back to the drink for all the good ti­m­es."Considering official IBD celebrations in India are taking place in smaller towns like Karimnagar (AP), Vapi (Gujarat), Manipal (Karnataka) and Bhilai (Chhatti­sgarh), Chennai can t­a­­k­e heart and join in the festivities next ye­ar. For now, here's wishing city pubs have well stocked beer kegs.Chennai's tryst with the sudsWhile most people presume beer to be a younger man's drink,

this beverage does the rounds well beyond being a greenhorn's choice.Arasu

Dennis, manager at ZaraTapas Bar, points out, "Beer has only five per

cent alcohol content. So, it's safe to start with it as compared to

whiskey and vodka, which hit you much harder."As if that wasn't a

good enough reason to reach for th­at pitcher yet, beer is also qu­ite

easy on the pocket. Divya Ashok, a communication tra­iner,

reminiscences, "In co­l­l­ege, we used to pitch in `10 each for beer and

biriya­ni, costing Rs 5 each! T­h­is was in the late '70s."While

it's safe to say that most Chennaiites' tryst with beer begins as early

as in high school or college, there are exceptions-when the 'golden

years' set in much earlier.Divya recalls, "When my daughter,

Cookie, was three, she used to watch her grandfather pick up his beer

glass and say, 'I want the ice cream on top.' And he couldn't refuse.

Cookie (now married) still talks of that 'beer bond'."These days,

breaking bread over beer in Chennai households-looked upon as

traditionally conservative-is becoming a family affair, as parents and

their adult children clink mugs at the dining table.While earlier

the health conscious broke a sweat over their beer bellies, a limited

choice of indigenous Indian brands in the city until a few years ago

indirectly contributed in shedding such fat. By mid2009, however,

the State market gradually opened its doors to foreign brands. TASMAC

racks now sport a range of options. The change was immediately apparent;

the consumption of beer after imported brands came in shot up by 22 per

cent all over the State.Despite the new entries, several circles

of drinkers find that nothing can hold a candle to the good old local

beer with that familiar burn down the throat. Ironically, despite

a hike in beer sales across the city, traffic violations due to drunken

driving dropped by 12.7 per cent in 2009-2010.Here's raising a toast to that and hoping that culture vultures cut beer drinkers some slack.First Asian commercial brewery set up in IndiaIraq might be a hotbed whose issues have spawned volumes of

literature, but few know that it is also rumoured to be the site where

the first recorded recipe for the world's favourite afterwork drink-beer

-was discovered.And what a fun discovery it was! Sumerian

writings found near the city of Ur in Iraq reveal a hymn to the patron

goddess of brewing, Ninkasi, which although served as a prayer, was more

effectively the recipe to ferment and produce ancient beer in the 6th

millennium BC.Though the world's oldest barley beer

brewery-believed to be the first commercial unit-was confirmed to be at

Godin Tepe in Iran, pat your backs, as the first 'commercial' brewery in

Asia was set up in Kasauli near Shimla in 1827. Of course, it goes

without saying that it was a Briton, Edward Dyer, who brought the

fermented drink to the country and produced the brand Lion Beer. This

was the brewery that evolved into MohanMeakin Ltd, whose flagship rum,

Old Monk, is something of a national treasure.Closer home, the original United Breweries Limited (UB Group) began its first brewery in Chennai way back in 1915.TASMAC breadwinner clocks in 18% sale hikeSince late 2003, all wine shops in the State have been handled

by the Tamil Nadu State Marketing Corporation (TASMAC), controlled by

the Government of Tamil Nadu.In a State where annual liquor sales

for 200910 clocked in at a whopping 12,491 crore, it is surprising that

internationally reputed beer brands were kept out by the same

corporation till 2009. In fact, after prolonged bans on sale of brands

brewed outside the State, let alone had their origin in a different

country, tenders were floated and companies invited to supply beer from

outofState breweries. However, reports from 2008 show that

TASMAC had stipulated that only brands retailed in India for two years

prior and which had sold 1.5 lakh cases would be allowed entry. That

gave the break to Foster's, but meant that Carlsberg had to wait till

the second tender was floated last year.Though in the first half

of 2011, the sale of liquor in TN has increased by a promising 18 per

cent, the market share of whiskey and rum recorded loss of ground to

brandy.Beer drinkers, though, take heart. Besides brandy (that

constituted a whopping 74 per cent of liquor sold), beer is the other

'breadwinner' for the corporation- whose sales went up from 2.43 crore

cases in the previous fiscal to 2.6 crore this year. But the sales are

estimated to grow at over 20 per cent for the rest of this year,

according to trade sources.