BENGALURU: After water shortage, Bengalureans may soon face “beer shortage”, as pubs and breweries in the city are struggling to keep up with the escalating demand, surpassing the available supply. While sales were on the rise in recent months, the continuous overproduction has left breweries with empty shelves. This scenario, in turn, has caused delays in restocking inventories for retail stores.
In response to the current situation, many pubs and breweries are set to soon discontinue weekend offers, such as buy 2 get 1 and buy 1 get 1 on pitchers. The increase in demand is not solely due to summer, manufacturers have also credited it to the fruit season and multiple long weekends during which people often prefer to meet over a beer.
A representative from a major breweries in Marathahalli said this year’s supply and consumption have exceeded their expectations, for which they were unprepared. “Typically during the summer season, we introduce fruit-flavoured beer, with sales heavily reliant on fruits such as mangoes and pineapples. This year, sales of fruit beer dipped due to suboptimal mangoes, prompting people to opt for regular beer.
The sales also continued to surge due to the heat, IPL season and the people coming in during long weekends.” Approximately 30,000 litres have already been sold this year, compared to around 9,000 litres the previous year, he mentioned. The operational head of Gilly’s Restobar said, “Sales have surged by 40% with nearly all customers choosing multiple beer orders over any other beverage. Managing the sales has become challenging due to delays in orders from breweries.”
‘Might have to suspend offers’
“With this trend, we may soon temporarily suspend weekend offers, including buy 2 get 1 on all brand beers,” he said.
Prithvi, the operational head of another brewery on Residency Road, said with the current temperatures, they find it challenging to maintain cool fermentation temperatures and adequately cool the wort -- the liquid solution of extracted grains and a sugar source brewers create and ultimately feed to beer yeasts, after the boil.
“We haven’t encountered such weather consequences, so it is taking time to adapt to new measures that can offer a temporary solution,” she added.