Craft beer lovers in Mumbai can rejoice as Mumbai’s Pioneering Micro-brewery that helped shape the craft beer policy, is all set to launch its retail store in town. That's right! The team from Gateway Brewing Co. recently announced that it has launched its very first Retail store in the city.
This shop is pleasingly stationed near Gateway of India, on Mandlik road, close to the Taj. It is a small shop of 200 sq. ft. modelled after the look and feel of the taproom and will serve as a shop for their beers in bottles and kegs.
The Gateway brewing Co. is keen on introducing the crowd with new flavours, while serving them the best quality beers and the team believes in maintaining cordial relationships with their fellow mates, hence, there will be a pin-up board in the store for promoting other local businesses, and to display their on-going offers. While hoping to leverage other locals, they are very keen on sequentially helping the friends with new offers, this in turn will also help them gain recognition and promote themselves as a brand in the midst of the pandemic.
An anecdote for one such vision would be that, over the last 7 years comparing their sales, they have seen that white zen (all kinds of wheat beers) were at least 60% of their sales, and other micro-breweries as well. While restaurants and bars still show the same percentage of wheat beer consumption, their direct-to-consumer business shows 30% preference for wheat beers, and an astounding 30% preference for IPA which historically has been only 10%.
The brand was founded by Navin Mittal also known as the IndianBeerGeek, a pioneer in beer making, He started off with blogging about his home brewed beers which was recognised and appreciated by beer lovers. Not only did this make a way for the people to understand beers by heart, but it also helped Krishna Naik and Rahul Mehra, his two friends, come up with a start-up. Their only collective vision was to serve fresh craft beers that brought people together.
Founded in 2011 as the first microbrewery in Mumbai, the team commercially launched this in 2014, and since then Gateway brewing Co. has come a long way and only plans on looking forward to growing more. The team recognizes the wants of fresh and flavourful beers; and they know that beer buffs will acknowledge the quality of craft brews Gateway Brewing Co. has to offer.
Unlike other commercial brands, the team here don’t pasteurise and filter their beer, and hence, the goodness of yeast and other vitamins remain. They retain all the benefits of natural fermentation via traditional processes; and don’t use any colours and/or chemicals.
Gateway brewing Co. has been selling across 100+ bars pre-covid, and now the brand is directly interacting with the customer via growlers & party kegs. The pandemic been difficult for some businesses now, however, the hopes are high!
On the other hand, this has been a shot in the arm for the microbrewery businesses, which hasn't had the benefit of bottling and exporting like the big guys, or the other micro-breweries.
Besides this, the store has been designed to offer an experience with exquisiteness. The walls have a story to tell and are beautifully designed to show the brewing process and their timeline, all in cool graphics. Furthermore, the team plans an upgrade in décor every time something new is released, making it one of the USPs of the idea.
Gateway brewing Co's flagship brews are classics which include White zen - Mumbai’s Original Wheat beer - light and refreshing with hints of clove & banana; Doppelganger which is a dark and Malty beer with a luscious mouthfeel; Mosaic IPA - an India Pale Ale that contains the highly aromatic American Mosaic hops, and for those who love ciders, they also have Side Car, has sweet & tarty notes from the Kashmiri apples.
Besides this, the Explorer Series includes Munich lager, a classic German-style lager, that has soft malt character & is easily the most quaffed brew in Munich; Bombay porter - a roasty beer with caramel & toffee notes, that origins from London 1800’s; Zini lager - a light and crisp beer with a subtle aroma from the endangered zini rice of Palghar. To add to this, the newest member of these exclusive beers is the Hattrick, which was recently launched during the IPL season, and contains three hops (mosaic, talus & Magnum) that make the beer so unique.
All of these are available in a litre Pet bottle and their Party Kegs hold 5 litres, which can provide around 15 glasses of beer.
For ones who love to order, the process has been kept simple, where one can either order from their Instagram handle or visit the website.
Share
Tweet
