Friday 21 February 2020

Ankur Aggarwal

Ankur Aggarwal | Arishtam Homebrew Supply Store  

1. Your first encounter with the beer industry?
When I made my first batch as part of a high-school project in 1999 and has stuck with me ever since. Under graduation from IIT Kharagpur allowed me to work cross-disciplinary and spend a lot of my time fermenting & trying to recreate Vedic brews. Masters at IIM Lucknow and the overseas semester in France gave me an opportunity to interact with various artisans, winemakers, pastis (fermented meat spreads) and other artists. Subsequently, I travelled to over 20 countries to gain exposure to various cultures, traditions and choices made by locals there. All this helped me with a unique blended approach to food-craft which keeps them contemporary and yet in harmony with the culture and heritage.

My lifelong quest is the revival of our long-forgotten Indian heritage, traditions and restoring them to its rightful place. Filtering out the jargons,  confusing terms or esoteric ingredients revered by the snobs, I try to crystallize the ancient knowledge into the simple crux and then scientifically analyze the impact of each of the actions, processes and ingredients. The goal is to enable food craft practitioners to utilize available and affordable equipment and resources.

From France, I understood the value of tradition and presentation. Italy taught me the concept of the wine of natural harmony that occurs in a geographical biome. Germany taught me the subtle differences between the various spices and hops. Americans inspired me to be bold enough to take brewing not as a hobby but as a profession. South Korea with its kimchi, miso, and kombucha taught me the value of fermentation beyond recreation. China & Japan have perfected the art of honouring the traditions and blending them into something that the modern generation will revere. Enumerating further, Rwanda & Uganda taught me that using traditional rudimentary process & equipment should not be a matter of shame but a badge of honour worth flaunting.


2. When did you join the industry?
I never formally joined the industry. I operate out of my home and travel to various clients and help them resolve their product, presentation & marketing issues.

3. What excites you the most about beer?
It is an art that is older than agriculture & civilization itself. Our forefathers could make decent beers in their caves & huts without any sophisticated equipment or processes. And yet the modern man views brewing as an occult practice reserved for a few.

4. Why have you chosen to sell beer brewing products?
It is damm hard and damm expensive to get fermentation equipment and ingredients in India. Burdening my friends to bring back hops, malt and yeast every time they returned from and abroad trip had started becoming awkward. Without the right set of equipment & ingredients, it is difficult to hone any skill. Hence we decided to help fellow hobbyist to offload their supply worries to us and focus on the art.

5. What products does Arishtam sell?
We are a one-stop-shop. I recently wrote India's first homebrewing guide 'Arishtam'.At my website arishtam.com We currently stock over 100 equipment and ingredients options needed to make your homebrew wonderful. All our products are in small pocket-friendly packs and are portable which is designed for a hobby brewer who lives in a space-constrained urban apartment.

6. What sells the most from your product line?
That would be the monthly fermentation workshops that I conduct. Every first Saturday from 11am to 2pm, we have a chat where newbies can ask any questions and get their doubts resolved. Youtube has so many conflicting advises that confuses the viewers. Hence we conduct these sessions to help fellow brewers to practice their hobby in a safe and refined way.

7. Your point of view on India home brewing?
8,000 years of History, and 45,000 species of indigenous plants, one would expect a bouquet of flavours from this land of spices. Yet India suffers from Xenophilia: the hops are imported, the malt is imported, even the recipe and brewer is imported. A homebrewer is not under duress of this straightjacket of industry conventions. Hence they are able to embody their imagination and perfect their art. Anybody who has tasted a pint made from a seasoned Indian homebrewer, cannot switch back to the commercial bottle again.

8. The biggest gap opportunity according to you in the beer products industry?
Lack of adequate testing facility and incubators that can help the amateurs to scale their brews from small pint-size batches to industrial scale.  

9. Your future plans within and beyond beer materials/equipment/ingredients?
My life is dedicated to Indian brewers and winemakers by helping them source the right materials, hone their skills and scientifically create the processes/controls needed to industrialize it. I have a dream of purchasing a pint of Indian traditional beer from a store in America and a bottle of Indian fruit wine from a store in France.

10. What’s your favourite beer?
That will be the Ginger Mango Ale. It is a Gruit beer made from fresh mangoes, a lot of ginger and barley malt. Being devoid of bitter hops, it is well appreciated by most female patrons and almost all the ingredients and equipment needed to make the same are there in an Indian kitchen already.

4 comments:

  1. My book on homebrewing can be obtained at https://www.arishtam.com/product-page/aristam-homebrewing-guide
    Also the next workshop is on 7th March in Bangalore and 22nd March in noida

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  2. I brewed by beer using local barley , I malted it,dried it roasted and made dark stout beer and turned out tasty just that I had to import hops .

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    Replies
    1. Just wanted to make a point that we can brew with India available ingredients too.

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    2. Maheswar that is exactly what my book and workshop is all about. Now you realize why I picked a vedic name rather than an esoteric western one

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