Love your brewery: The Indian Brewery.

Express & Star

In the heart of Brum is a a brewery and tap room that is doing good business and situated in a historic steelworks.

Transcript

00:00So deep in the heart of the Jewelry Court Birmingham we find Jazz Pal.

00:06Hello mate. Hello there. How you doing? I'll come and join you at the table.

00:10Jazz Pal, originally from Samwell, Riley Regis. That's right, yeah.

00:14Now a Brummie lad. Yeah. This is your project, this is your baby, the Indian Brewery Company.

00:20It is. So just tell us a little bit about it then. How long has it been going?

00:24You look like quite a young man to be, you know, King of the Empire.

00:27What's the story with the Indian Brewery Company?

00:29So ten years old, yeah, well ten years, last year, was it last year? Yeah, 2024.

00:36Yeah. Ten years old. So it's been an incredible journey.

00:40Started off as a very small brewery, not really knowing what we were doing back then

00:46until most recently it's been the biggest change for us.

00:50Opening a central location here in Birmingham City Centre

00:54but ultimately really developing our brand of beers, what we do

00:58but also having our own space to be able to showcase the beers

01:02as well as incredible food to the public.

01:05Yeah, you've got a different take on pizzas, haven't you?

01:07We've got Indian pizzas, butter paneer pizza, that kind of vibe going on

01:11which always goes down well with a beer, I'm sure.

01:14Absolutely, yeah. And again, we just wanted to really change the game with what we do.

01:18We always innovate and look to do things differently

01:22We're not known for being a typical curry house, essentially, or anything like that.

01:27What we're known for is creating some incredible brews that are completely different

01:31to what you're used to. So for example, Juicy Mango is a hazy mango pale ale.

01:36Then we've got Peacock, which is our take against your kind of typical Indian lager.

01:42And then we have Bombay Honey, which again is a fan favourite.

01:45A golden honey ale brewed with 100% pure and natural honey.

01:49And then with the beers, obviously we pair those in our location.

01:52So for example, in the taproom here we have an Indian pizzeria

01:55and then we take our favourites such as butter chicken, paneer or mixed grill

02:00and present that in the form of a pizza.

02:02But then with the pizzas, we also do a selection of small plates

02:06which are quite interesting and unique. Things like truffle tikka.

02:10So again, taking traditional chicken tikka but then presenting it

02:15and having it in the form of something completely different.

02:18And if people think, Juicy Mango, that looks a bit familiar.

02:21That's been in a fair few Wetherspoons hasn't it of late?

02:24Yeah, absolutely. So the biggest clients that we supply at the moment,

02:28one being Wetherspoons, so it's in the craft beer range across a number of Wetherspoons.

02:33Not just in the Midlands but also outside the Midlands as well.

02:36I think the furthest I've experienced it is at Heathrow Airport, which is quite incredible.

02:42Yeah, must make you quite proud, you know what I mean?

02:44You're at Heathrow and there's a product you've made sitting there.

02:47Yeah, absolutely. So if you are flying through that terminal, definitely check that out.

02:52As well as obviously Wetherspoons, we supply Aston Villa,

02:56which is quite incredible for us as a local football club here to the brewery.

03:00We're stocked in all of the fan zone areas and hospitality sectors.

03:04So you can find Juicy Mango available in a can and also...

03:08Jay, this is your domain, we're in the brewery.

03:10So you bring your own, you crush your own malt?

03:13Yes, absolutely. So we buy all of our malt as whole malt,

03:16and we crush it to how we ever want it, depending on the beer, the style.

03:21It just allows us the space in the room to do that.

03:25Otherwise, when we buy it crushed, we kind of get it out at a set rate.

03:29But having a crusher ourself allows us just the room to kind of change the brew's recipe

03:35and you get the mouthfeels of the beer and stuff like that.

03:37Yeah, so literally you can really tailor everything to...

03:41So what's your favourite beer that you're doing at the minute that you're quite proud of?

03:46I mean, I'm sure they're all excellent, but what's your favourite?

03:49I think at the moment it's got to be the Juicy Mango, it's kind of hung to a winner.

03:52It seems to be going very well.

03:54But like today, we're always brewing new beers, so today we're brewing a brand new Golden Ale.

03:59So it's going to be under cask, we're going for around about a 3.8.

04:03But it's going to be quite heavily hopped, so we're going to double dry hop it.

04:08It's not your usual cask ale beer, so it's kind of in between the new market of all the new hops.

04:14Also kind of capturing the old school drinkers of your Golden Ale and stuff like that.

04:20So always experimenting then, always trying new stuff.

04:23Absolutely, I think that's the joys of having a brewery where we're not restricted on what we want to do.

04:30I see ourselves as a new company where we're always bringing out new ideas,

04:35kind of just cramming new things into the market, seeing what works, what doesn't work.

04:39We're not limiting ourselves to a set range of beers because we can always just bring something else.

04:43If it works, brilliant, brew it again. If it doesn't, won't brew it again, move on to the next one and that's it.

04:48So the first stage then is to just fill us in on what's going to be happening first off then.

04:52So we're going to crush the malt in our crusher over here.

04:57And then what we do, so you know how we drop it in, so then from over this stage, it shoots up into our basking tonne.

05:04As it goes into the mash, what we do is we hit the malt with the water, which makes the mash inside.

05:13So that sits in there at roughly 68 degrees, what we're aiming for today.

05:18And that helps with the body, the mouthfeel of the beer.

05:21But in here is where you get your colour, your base, your sugars, which is most important, and your growth.

05:28And once we've finished mashing in, we leave it in there for an hour and then we'll sparge over into our kettle.

05:36So our kettle is on the left over here.

05:39So once we've sparged over into the kettle, this is where we boil the beer, hence the name kettle.

05:45That's where we boil the water.

05:48Once we're at boiling point, then we'll chuck our first edition, which are bittering hops.

05:53And as the beer progresses through, we'll leave it to boil for an hour.

05:59Chuck into the light stages, the light hopping, which kind of gives the aroma of the beer.

06:05The actual kind of the juiciness is what we like to call it.

06:11Which it goes all in at the end.

06:13As we boil, even more hops we chuck in on the whirlpool.

06:16So what we do, we will boil it down to around about 80 to 85 degrees.

06:20Adding a few more additions, and that really brings out the flavour through the hops.

06:25So, so far at the moment, we've got our water, we've got the hops in there, which are the three main ingredients.

06:33And then all we're missing is the yeast.

06:35And to get the yeast in, what we do is we crush cool it through our heat exchange, which is this one over here.

06:40So water passes through the exchange, and then goes straight over into the FBs.

06:45Depending on the beer and what it is.

06:47So we're in the FBs, so today we're doing an ale.

06:50So we're aiming for around about 80 degrees, and then we'll pitch our yeast into the tank.

06:56And then let that ferment out for around about five, six days.

07:00And then we've got ourselves a beer.

07:02Chops a good'un. Nice one.

07:03Well, we'll let you crack on, boss.

07:04Cheers, buddy.

07:05Cheers.

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