The Art Behind the Craft Beer of Bira91

Going down the memory lane to pre-coronavirus days, one couldn’t help but recall the frequent after-office visits to pubs or bars for a large beer mug. But Beer is no more just an alcoholic beverage!

“Indian craft beer Bira91 to launch 3 brands in UK by end of February” – read a local UK newspaper

“Bira91 – Now in the Southern Hemisphere making sure Aussie summers just got more delicious!” – read a post from personal LinkedIn handle of Bira91 CEO/founder Ankur Jain.

With presence in 9 countries by January 2020, Bira91 plans on to expand to 16 countries by end of this financial year. The 5-year young company took onus of creating a “craft beer imagined in India” & is today a leader of craft beer market in India.

Bira91, Craft Brews & Millennials – a love triangle

Though a popular term, a few know what makes craft beers so special. A craft brew is one that is ideally organic, locally sourced(often) & not mass produced. Craft beer is made in a traditional or non-mechanized way by a small brewery. In 2014-15, India consumed about 270 million cases of beer among which craft beers—including microbreweries, made up only one percent of the market. The Indian Craft Beer market is projected to have reached 43 million litres in 2019 from 0.15 million litres in 2014. It has grown a staggering compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 304% during the period 2014 and 2018, as per research by GlobalData.

To cash in on the rising demand for India's craft beer market that grew largely at the expense of mass-produced brands by Heineken and Anheuser-Busch InBev, Bira91 took very calculated steps to grab the growing Indian boozers. A company that understood that urban palate has changed & millennials want lighter versions of beer with fresh tastes, Bira91 became the first company to connect immediately with young boozers with its playful monkey logo & sweeter & citrusy beer tastes, which weren’t available elsewhere.

As young working professionals in age group 25-35 years, we have all seen our fathers & grandfathers drinking mugs of Kingfisher & Carlsberg. The difference between then and now is that while booze was a just a bang-provider in the past, it has evolved as an experience provider for millennials now. It is, thus, natural for these young and growing drinkers to incline towards handcrafted drinks that almost feel “specially” made – Craft Beers!

But it wasn’t just the realization of evolving taste-buds that made Bira91 a success story. A clear understanding of the beer market & crisp decisions on how to engage the customers also played an important role. Bira91 didn’t want to become the best drink, it wanted to become a cult!

Quality is King

The handcrafted beer maker focused on product for its first phase of growth. Not many may know that Bira91 Light, launched in2017, is the lowest calorie option for any alcoholic beverage – lower than a glass of milk or orange juice! In phase one, Bira91 figured that word of mouth was the best way to go, a smart decision considering the various strictures on alcohol advertising.

The recipes were well crafted and often took months to get finalized. The brand even onboarded a Belgian Brew-master to help design the recipes. Bira91 wanted to transform an industry which was defined by the strength of kick provided by it, to an industry where flavors mattered too. It visioned to invent drinks that focused not just on how strong they were on the senses, but also on how smooth they were in the mouth.

Content is God

Well, India banned advertising alcohol, but no one talked about creating awesome content, right?

To become a cult, Bira91 had to think beyond beverages. It had to become a part of modern lifestyle and it seems like the brand understood this even at the nascent stages of launch. As of today, Bira91 is creating branded content collaborations. Under the IP #HotStuff, the beer brand worked with popular TV hosts Rocky and Mayur, to hunt for the perfect pair of spicy food from India’s alleyways. The idea of pairing Indian food with Indian beer appealed to both national and international audiences.

As a brand, once it found the right connect with its audience, Bira 91 started selling merchandise across its website making sure the consumers remember the brand even after the drink.

When it realised that it is high time to go international, Bira91 decided to do it in style. Bira 91 made its International debut at the 2016 Tribeca Film Festival in New York City. It claims to be India’s first handcraft beer to be sold in New York!

Bira91 created Bira91 Hot Stuff in 2017, an eight-episode travelogue that covers India’s hottest chillis and cuisines. The business also worked with Saavn on the launch of a Bira91 Hip Hop Channel on the app. In 2016, Bira91 funded the Global Citizen Festival, in addition to the Tribeca Film Festival. Bira91 FreeFlow, a 3-city tour with hip-hop artist Lady Leshurr, also took place in India. The company organized its first owned on-ground event in 2018 – Bira91 April Fools’ Fest in New Delhi (the 91st day of the year on 1 April).

Brewing with the right ingredients

In 2019, the company had commissioned two new breweries--in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka—in a bid to quadruple production capacity. Contextuality and finding the right pulse of the customer are the fundamental tenets of the successful Bira91 empire. No wonder that the company now operates four breweries in India and has a presence in 400 cities across 10 nations.

Beer – summer love of our generation – is the second most popular alcoholic beverage after whiskey in India & Bira91 is all set to conquer the entire world of crazy craft beer guzzlers from Brooklyn to Brussels to Bangkok and Bangalore.

Until next MarkMonday, cheers!

Images Source: Pinterest

By: Anmol Gupta | Isha Garg