COVID-19 has beendevastating for small and independent craft brewers?around the world with dozens of breweries having gone out of business.
In Pune, over 60,000 litres of ready craft beer stocked in16 microbreweries in the district may have to be discarded in the coming days.
What is craft beer?
A craft brewery or microbrewery is a brewery that producessmall amounts of beer, typically much smaller than large-scale corporatebreweries and is independently owned.
Craft beer loses its taste, aroma and texture unless it isconsumed within a few months of its productions.
Nakul Bhosale, President of Craft Beer Association of Indiatold TOI, "We are not benefitting even though liquor stores have opened. Theoutlook for restaurants and bars does not look positive for 2020"
Apart from this microbreweries in Karnataka are sellingcraft beer in takeaway growlers (up to two-litre containers) to get rid of theirexisting stock. The state¡¯s excise department has temporarily waivedrestriction on the sale of craft beer to help businesses suffering frompandemic-caused lockdown and to generate revenue, reports Economic Times.
¡°The microbrewery industry has been bleeding hard with zeroincome amid the complete lockdown. We have high fixed overhead costs and we areall in survival mode. Growler takeaway is a positive step and we are thankfulto the government,¡± said Gaurav Sikka, officer of CBAI Bengaluru and managingdirector of Bengaluru-headquartered Arbor Brewing Company.