Hear the letters IPA, and you probably have a pretty clear notion what your beer is going to taste like. But what if there were an actual Indian Pale Ale? This week on Beer Sessions Radio™ we welcome some of the team behind India’s biggest craft beer initiative, Independence Brewing Company in Pune, India. James Tai returns to discuss his involvement in India’s sixth largest city and the state of craft beer in a country of 1.2 billion. He’s joined (from telephone call-in) by his partner, Avanish Vellanki, who is working alongside Stone Brewing’s Greg Koch to try and change the beer culture of India from a lager-guzzling outlet to true craft beer connoisseurs.
Also in the studio is Bierkraft’s Ben Granger, helping do a round-up of Brewer’s Choice and NYC Beer Week. Bierkraft’s recently obtained Restaurant Brewers license has enabled the bar to brew small batches of beer to be consumed on premises, offering yet one more nano-brew experience for craft beer lovers in NYC. And Møsefund Mangalitsa’s Heidi Norman discusses the perfect pork-beer pairing options with host Jimmy Carbone in an effort to answer the age-old question, you want bacon with that? Finally, a pre-recorded conversation with Norman Sinclair of Orkney Brewery in Scotland sums up what is happening in the northern U.K. beer scene. Listen to the full episode here.