Craft beer in India is rewriting how a new generation drinks

India was never a beer-drinking country in the modern sense, favouring  whiskey and rum. Yet fermentation has existed in everyday life, from preparations such as kanji and chaas to handia/apong (rice beer), salfi (palm sap), and tongba (made with millet). It was British colonisation that formalised beer within India’s drinking economy. 

Over the past decade, the rise of craft beer in India is shifting that equation. Small, independent  breweries now treat brewing as technique rather than novelty. What began in the mid-2010s as an experiment in establishing microbreweries has evolved into a category that spans neighbourhood taprooms and brands leaning toward mass production. 

How craft beer in India evolved beyond microbrewery culture 

“Beer has had to find its place. It's not that we don't drink beer. It's just that we don't drink it as much as we drink our whiskey. Per capita consumption of beer has been really low in India. But around 2008-2009, several Indians came back from the US, Europe, and Singapore due to the global financial crisis, and brought the craft beer culture they had experienced elsewhere to Bengaluru (Toit), Gurugram, and Pune (Doolally),” says Ashish Ranjan, co-founder/director, Fort City Brewing. 

“Bengaluru grew into bigger breweries that offered quality beer, Pune developed into a homegrown scene with people taking homebrewing as a hobby, but Gurugram went only for quantity. They didn’t focus on the product and weren’t taking two-three weeks one needs to make beer from scratch,” he adds.  

Today, India sits inside a wider Asian expansion of craft beer culture, alongside the Philippines, Vietnam, and Japan. “A lot of suppliers are also focusing here and giving incentives for newer, smaller brewers to come up. Because of that, there’s room for a lot more experimentation. In fact, Thailand has just done away with all custom duties from importing raw materials for craft breweries,” says Ranjan. 

“Manufacturing craft beer in India picked up momentum over the last decade,” says Abhinav Jindal, founder and CEO, Kimaya Himalayan Beverages, which launched the beer BeeYoung.

Jindal notes that better malts, improved yeast strains, tighter temperature control, and greater exposure to global brewing practices have changed how beer is manufactured in India. “Brewers today are far more process-driven. There’s also a stronger understanding of fermentation, ageing, and consistency,” he says. Together, these shifts have improved quality and made craft beer more approachable among Indian consumers. 

Arvind Bajaj, founder of Conan Beer, frames brewing as a disciple built on structure. “Producing quality craft beer rests on four pillars: ingredient integrity, brewing precision, fermentation finesse, and flavour philosophy. Beer should be expressive yet balanced, with approachable strength and complexity that makes every sip satisfying.” 

That balance, he argues, comes from technical restraint rather than intensity. “These fine-tuned recipes and flavour profiling help create beers with balance and character rather than just alcohol strength,” Bajaj adds, pointing to calibrated hopping techniques and refined cold-chain practices that stabilise flavour. 

For Jindal, the process is more practical. Good ingredients form the baseline. Control is what separates drinkable beer from excess. “Clean water, good malt, balanced hops, and yeast are essential, but discipline in brewing is what matters most. Fermentation control, hygiene, patience, and consistency are critical. A good beer should feel balanced and drinkable, not overwhelming.” Ranjan reduces the chemistry to its emotional core: hops lend beer personality. “Hops—mostly sourced from the US, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, Europe, Germany—are the most critical elements to make flavourful beers, adding a lot of wine-like, raisin-like character to beers,” he says, noting that yeast, while essential, is now largely standardised. 

Why a younger audience is driving craft beer culture in India

Craft beer has moved from occasional indulgence to routine habit. Drinking is no longer organised around a night out but folded into everyday rhythm.

“Earlier, people were out for craft beers maybe once a month but today it’s weekly, and it’s not about picking up a bottle of Budweiser or Kingfisher. The biggest pillar of a successful craft beer brand is to know what your local audience wants,” says Ranjan.

Taste has accelerated faster than expected. Two years ago lagers dominated. Today Indian drinkers actively seek IPAs and stouts with stronger flavour profiles. 

A younger audience is driving craft beer culture in India, gravitating toward lower-ABV beers instead of high-proof spirits. “We get a lot of people who come for a haircut while they're waiting. They'll just drop by and get a pint,” says Ranjan. Beer is increasingly filling the gaps between errands rather than anchoring a night out.

Seven Indian craft beer brands changing how the country drinks

1. Fort City Brewing

Launched two and a half years ago in Delhi, Fort City Brewing offers a wide range of beers besides two stouts on tap—a nitro stout and their award-winning oatmeal stout. In 2025, they decided to address a misconception in North Indian markets—that beer is exclusively a summer drink—with their Pawtagonist beer, a Braggot beer with bits replaced by organic wildflower honey, besides adding spices like cinnamon,  pepper, nutmeg and fennel. "If you look outside India, most of the beer is consumed in the coldest countries, and most of the rum is consumed in the hottest countries," says Ranjan. At Fort City Brewing, 10% of the sales of the beer are donated to NGOs looking after stray dogs. Their brewed jowar lager replaces 40% of barley with jowar, which reduces the amount of gluten in the beer. 

Website: fortcitybrewing.com

Price: ₹390 onwards

2.Simba

Launched in 2016, Simba is an Indian craft beer brand that began producing small batches from Chhattisgarh. Their offerings include Simba Wit (Witbier), a light-bodied beer with notes of citrus, coriander, and lemongrass; Simba Stout with bold flavours of coffee, dark chocolate, and caramel; and  Simba Lager, a smooth, clean, and well-balanced beer with a malty aroma. There's also Simba Strong, a full-bodied beer with a higher ABV, comprising malty, caramel, and slightly bitter notes. The Simba Jungle Wheat is a light-bodied wheat beer variant with notes of banana and clove. The Simba Roar Light is a crisp and clean light-bodied lager. 

Website: simbabeer.com

Price: ₹130 onwards

3. BeeYoung

Launched in 2018, BeeYoung offers three types of strong beers: BeeYoung, their flagship beer has a crisp, smooth taste with a 7.2% ABV. BeeYoung Beyond is an international-style pilsner which blends Belgian malt with Basmati rice and gives a smooth, velvety texture with earthy and floral hop notes. Their Tropical Pilsner has distinct notes of mango and passion fruit, staying true to its name. The brand’s USP is a citrusy brew with a subtle bitterness, thanks to their usage of two-row barley and 100% Sortex rice (rice processed through an optical sorting machine to remove defective grains, discoloration, and other objects), besides water from the Bhakra Dam.

Website: beeyoung.co.in

Price: ₹100 onwards 

4. Kati Patang

This Indian craft beer uses Himalayan spring water, and is brewed in Bhutan. Launched in 2018, Kati Patang has a range of options: the Zesty Amber Ale is a golden ale with caramel notes and a citrus, grapefruit finish. Snappy Wheat is a wheat beer infused with ginger, turmeric, and peppercorn. Saffron Lager is a light-bodied, crisp beer comprising  saffron. Bareilly Bold is a robust, strong craft beer with higher ABV, and the Freedom Lager is a light-bodied lager brewed with non-GMO Indian corn. 

Website: katipatang.com

Price: ₹170 onwards

5.White Rhino Brewing Co.

Founded in 2016, White Rhino Brewing Co. makes a crisp, 100% malt lager with flavours of toasted grain at 4.8% ABV, besides a citrusy Belgian-style Wit with a Himalayan coriander flavour with 4.9% ABV. Their  Pale Ale is low on bitterness and has tropical fruit notes. They also have a Munich-style lager made using 100% Pilsner malt—and is a crisp, clean, bottom-fermented beer brewed with 100% two-row pilsner malt and hops like Magnum, Mittelfruh, and Tettnanger, which is then matured for over a month. Their IPA with 5.5% ABV is made using four varieties of hops—Ahtahnum, Cascade, Mosaic, and Styrian Goldings. They also serve their own medium-dry apple cider.

Website: whiterhinobrewing.in

Price: ₹150 onwards

6.Bira 91

Founded in 2015, Bira 91’s offerings include Bira 91 White, a Belgian-style wheat beer which is low in bitterness and has citrusy notes with coriander and orange peel. Their Bira 91 Blonde is lager that highlights the hops and offers a crisp taste. While the Bira 91 Light is their low-calorie light lager, the Bira 91 Boom is their higher ABV variant. They have also had limited edition drinks like the Malabar Stout, a coffee stout made with roasted rye, oats, and coffee sourced from the Malabar region. Another limited edition beer was the Bollywood IPA, a tropical twist on a West Coast IPA, besides Kokum Sour made using kokum fruit. The Brown Ale is a blend of English Nut Brown and Antwerpian Amber with coconut and vanilla notes, and the Mango Lassi is a "milkshake" beer of wheat ale with mango. 

Website:bira91.com

Price: ₹180 onwards

7. Conan Beer

Launched in 2025, Conan Beer makes a flagship 8% ABV Premium Strong Lager crafted using a blend of German malt and American hops, offering strength without any harsh or sudden bitterness, giving it a smooth, refined finish. The brand is working on Super Premium Strong, Light Lager, and Belgian Wheat variants. 

Website: conanbeers.com

Price: ₹110 onwards 

Can Indian craft breweries scale nationally?  

Despite rapid growth, Indian craft breweries remain structurally small in terms of scale. Expansion is less a question of demand than of regulation. 

“The way it's divided politically and policy-wise, it's very difficult for small brewers to grow beyond a certain scale,” says Rajan. “The moment you cross state borders, taxation changes, registration changes, and labour policies change. It's like setting up a new company altogether. For a bigger brand, it doesn't impact that much. But for a smaller microbrewery, it becomes very challenging to enter a new state. That's why we don't see a lot of national players coming in right now. But I think that's also going to change in 5-6 years when smaller breweries also have some cash that they're building in.” 

India’s alcohol laws reward scale and punish mobility, creating a landscape where regional loyalty matters more than national reach. Growth, for now, is hyperlocal. What sustains a craft brewery is less volume than community. A strong product brings people in, and listening to that audience helps earn their trust.