What ales Vir Das

Vir Das

Since this is Vir Das, let's start with a joke: "I don't have a joke about beer. Let's hope my beer isn't one." The comedian-musician is on a video interview to talk about his new collaboration with a craft brewery - Great State Aleworks - to bring out his own craft beer. Called Faaaakit!

The name raised a red flag for us; it has the potential to stir up controversy. "What's wrong with it?" he asks, wearing his trademark trilby indoors. "It's just a random word with four ‘As' in it."

Das is emphatic about being involved with the process. "Of course, I know what's in the press note, dude," he says, when we say, "I don't know if you've read the press note..." "This is not just merch[andise] I lent my name to."

The seed of crafting a beer that was high on taste and took into account the preference of women came to him in the first few months of 2021. Then came the pandemic, and the project had to wait till the final months of the year. Then came the crafting, experimenting with ingredients and testing. "That was the most difficult part of the process for me," he says. "I am a lightweight and don't drink hard liquor. I will unwind with a beer after touring for two weeks. I don't have the stamina to go through nine samples…"

Das's first beer was at 20-21 years of age at a bar called Pebble Street in Delhi. "I was with a girl whom I wanted to ask to be my girlfriend, but never mustered the courage to," he remembers. Like many before him realised, it did not live up to the imagination.

"Men like drinking beer that is more bitter; there is an alpha culture surrounding the drink," he says. "Women tend to like more fruity flavours. I didn't want to do cider because that left out a lot of people. I wanted a happy, nice-tasting beer that all sexes could enjoy. When we did the tasting with beer snobs who used words such as "hoppier", I told them, ‘We are going for the exact opposite of who you are'. It's for chilled, happy people who are not trying too hard. They don't manage their ‘perception'." In the process, he discovered that women were underserviced by the beer industry, though they are more open to experimenting with flavours than men. An oversight he hopes to amend.

Another learning was that the more agencies one goes to, the more confused one gets. "I think people on social media can smell out ‘machinery' a mile away; they want authenticity," he says, "so eventually, we decided to do everything on our own. I recorded the promotional video on my iPhone just before I went on stage in Hyderabad, and edited and pieced it myself too. My bandmate [Alien Chutney], Kaizad [Gherda] made up the jingle. There are zero production agencies involved [in the project]."

Along the way he learnt the difference between ale and lager ("It's the temperature they are fermented at") and developed a respect for the craftsmanship behind the froth. "I learnt to respect the artistery behind the process. Nakul [Bhonsale of the Pune-based craft brewery] and the other brewers pay as much attention to the flavours, the carbonation process as I do to the structure of a joke. We both learnt to appreciate and respect the artistry of each other's craft."

There were three rounds of tasting seven versions of the beer, until Das settled for a flavour that reminded him of cider, but wasn't "awfully sweet" and didn't have too much carbonation. "I didn't want people to wait until sundown to start drinking it. But also, if you started drinking it on a Sunday afternoon, you wouldn't be drunk by the evening…"