Antonio Rodríguez Giralt is head brewer at Indian Craft Brewery (ICB), Bengaluru. He has spent 60 days in India and has had a glimpse of Indian culture – including the festivals and flavours. He witnessed the local Ganesha utsava a couple of days back and says that he has never witnessed this kind of festivity before.
“I am from a Catholic country - Costa Rica, and my country has very different traditions. The way people worship the gods, bringing milk and offering fruits, are unique. I am trying to immerse myself in the culture. Once I become more familiar, I will be able to make better decisions for the business brewery in Bangalore.”
ICB is poised to become one of the largest breweries in Bengaluru with an over 24000 Hectolitre capacity with Antonio guiding the commercial as well as the technical aspects, from supervising the entire ingredient selection, to packaging, to contributing to new recipes, label design and marketing.
How did you connect with the ICB group?
I started my brewing journey in 2011, which is also when my daughter was born, so I associate this time with her birth. When she was one year old, I began my home brews. I would invite friends over to try the beer. Brewing at home means you have to use your own space like the kitchen and use your cooking equipment. One day, my brother came over, tried my beer, and liked it so much that he said, "Let’s start a business with this." So, we bought a small 10-gallon (around 40 liters) system in the USA and brought it to Costa Rica. We ran the business for two to three years until my brother, who was a commercial pilot, left to join a new flying job in Taiwan. When he left, my former wife joined the business, and we invited her dad to invest, leading to the setup of a brewpub. We brewed beer and paired it with Asian food from a restaurant run by a Chinese chef friend who also invested in the business. Then, a couple of years later, I had an opportunity to go to Panama and help some friends set up a brewery, where I worked for five years, expanding to two restaurants by that time.
In Panama, I reached the peak of my career. The next logical step for me was to become an owner, but I wasn’t the owner, nor had the opportunity to become one. I am a very ambitious person, so I was thinking about what else could be in store for me. I was pondering this at 5 a.m. one morning when I went on LinkedIn and saw a post from Gopi advertising a position. I didn’t know who Gopi was, but I applied for the position, and within 15 minutes, I received a message from him requesting an interview. Gopi was impressed with my CV and everything I had been through. I was interviewed by him and the rest of the team and asked if I would come to India. I told Gopi, "Why not?" This was in April of 2024.
When I decided to come, I was actually scared. It was risky, but I took a chance. I felt very calm when I spoke with Gopi; he transmitted a lot of confidence. I told him, "I trust you; I am leaving everything in Panama." I had to sell a lot of my things and give up my apartment. Gopi told me, "Don’t worry, I trust you, and you trust me." Trust is such a big thing when you meet someone across continents. You can feel it when you meet someone, and that’s the feeling I got from Gopi. When I saw everything they were offering me, not only economically, but also the opportunity to grow, I knew I would not find another opportunity like this in my entire life. They are offering me a career, a very big one, in the brewing industry in a different market, on a different continent, and in a different culture. The opportunity I have now to learn and become a better person is huge.
Everyone here has been so nice. People are always trying to help me and give me advice. When I went to the Ganesha temple, I didn’t want to be disrespectful, as I was wearing shoes. But an old man told me to come closer to take pictures and explained what was happening. Initially, I felt homesick. On the first day, when I turned on the TV and saw the news in Hindi, I felt very far from home. But now, I feel at home. With the internet, it is easy to stay connected. I am able to speak to my daughter twice a day and stay in touch with my sisters and friends. I would like to bring my daughter here to show her where her dad is working and to meet my friends here.
As someone who has spent over 12 years in the beer brewing industry, do you go with intuition, emotions, and your heart, or with analysis and statistics? Bangalore is the beer capital of India, so how do you break into a market like this?
Well, it is a mix. Half of it is pure heart and knowledge based on what you have learned in your own journey. The other half is about what is better for business. For instance, I come from a culture where we love IPAs (India Pale Ales) because we are heavily influenced by American culture. We love IPAs and bitterness, but that’s not what Indian people like. It was a cultural shock when I made my first beer here; it was very bitter. One of my bosses said, "Antonio, you know what, this is not going well with the Indian palate." I said, "Okay." Reducing bitterness is simple; you just use fewer hops. That’s where the business part comes in – you have to understand that the Indian palate is different. The other part is pure heart, where I try to brew the best beer I can with my team, as the team is very important.
How does one maintain quality in terms of water and hops used?
We are going to have a reverse osmosis (RO) system. With RO, we will remove all the solids and hardness from the water to make it suitable for adding salts and preparing it for brewing. Regarding hops and malts, we are getting them from Indian suppliers, but they are imported from the United States and Europe. We also plan to experiment with local millets, rice, spices , and corn, trying to use Indian produce consistently in our recipes.
What about the culture in which the product is consumed? In a society where drinking beer is not necessarily a social activity, how do you create this culture?
I have seen that people in Bangalore love to go to pubs because they want to try something new. However, I also notice that Indians tend to stick to their traditions. So, I think the best way to attract Indians to our brewery is to brew with Indian herbs, spices, and flavors. I have also observed that people enjoy nice places where they can socialize – not as much as we do in America, but with good food, good beer, and Indian flavors, people will come for sure.
Who is your target audience, and how do you plan to sell your beer?
I think our main clients will be those above 25 years old, people who are already working and earning salaries, and who want to hang out after work. I have also seen that people in my age group, between 35 and 45, also love beer and the new flavors it brings, especially when paired with food. I think it is a mix. We plan to have our own place and our own pairings.
How do you plan to pair beer with Indian food, which is so vast and varied?
I have been trying to eat Indian food at least twice a day. When pairing food with beer, the goal is to find a balance – matching the flavors of the food with the flavors of the beer. Since Indian food is often spicy, you can balance that spiciness with the sweetness of certain beers. If you want to amplify the flavor, pairing spicy food with a bitter IPA can enhance the spiciness.
My first experience with Indian food was at breakfast. I went to the restaurant and didn't know what to get. The staff suggested a few things, but I forgot what they said. So, I put a little of everything on my plate. As I started eating, it felt like a fire in my mouth! My first experience was a bit scary. I met the co-founder Vinay for lunch that day in person, and I told him, "Let’s try something that isn’t spicy," and he promised to teach me how to choose non-spicy options. In my country, we don’t spice food that much – we eat rice, salad, meat, chicken with just a little salt and not much spice.
You are going to launch the beer in a couple of months, so what is happening at this stage?
Right now, we are making pilot batches. When you create beer samples on a small scale, you are testing recipes and experimenting with different ingredients, like Indian grains. When we move to a larger scale, our team will grow from two to five people. I will also likely be busy training people on the floor and those working with us. The process of beer making is the same all over the world; what changes is the scale of the brewery. You always have four main ingredients – water, hops, malt or barley, and yeast. Then, you can add whatever you want – fruits, spices, or other grains (adjuncts).
For me, the challenges will be balancing the spiciness, flavors, and aromas of Indian food with the products we need to add to the beer to get the right combination. Interestingly, I have visited many breweries, but I’ve noticed that brewers are not making anything specific with Indian ingredients. That may be because they don’t want to step out of their comfort zone. However, we want to get out of our comfort zone and dive into those flavors, essences, and spices.
And I think that India has a vast and exciting culture. I am very happy to be here and learn to understand the culture, its smells, its flavors, its people. Understanding the culture will make me grow as a professional and as a person, but mainly it will broaden my horizons. These are very exciting times for me and I hope to be able to get the best out of it so that I can apply it to my work and at the same time, transmit it to all our customers.
