In an conversation with Brewer World, Suryakant Singh, Head Brewer at Catamaran Brewing Co. talks about the idea behind the collaboration, the Rise and Shine (farmhouse ale) and it's flavour profile.
What was the idea behind the collaboration?
Pondy is surrounded by Tamil Nadu, where the staple food is rice and is home to many indigenous rice varieties. We had been doing R&D to use the native rice variety in our Beer. After 6 pilot batch trials, with 5 species of paddy and 8 months of work, a lot of improvement in the process came through. The adjunct precooking method had been developed for the available system at Brewhouse to liquefy the rice so that its starch can be exposed for better flavour extraction.
The Brewer and Co-founder of Bombay Duck brewing, Abhishek Chinchalkar were travelling to Pondy and then we came up with a discussion for collaboration to share his immense experience with Rice and employ it in our process and rice variety of interest.
Why Rice and Shine ( farmhouse ale)? What is different about it?
Rice and Shine is the award-winning farmhouse ale, a product of Bombay Duck brewing company by using the Ratna rice variety. Farmhouse ale because a beer made by farmers using the available grain from the harvest, using locally sourced yeast in uncontrolled temperature of fermentation.
So, we thought of highlighting the paddy harvest season, vasanai seeraga samba. This variety is mostly cultivated in the Tanjore -rice bowl of Tamil Nadu and the Nagapattinam district. We sourced our Seeraga Samba rice- a speciality rice organically grown in the paddy fields for generations by the Catamaran Co-founder Rangaraju Narayanasamy family in Annukampattu village by traditional methods of cultivation practices.
What is the flavour profile of the beer like?
Seeraga samba - an indigenous variety of aromatic, tiny, pricey rice takes its name from seeragam( cumin seeds) because of its physical resemblance. This rice variety from Tamil Nadu is the first to get the GI TAG. This rice has been gaining immense popularity in making biryani for its distinctive flavour-absorbing properties. And then because of the powerful antioxidant, rich in Fibre, selenium and phytonutrient-like properties, it took our attention to use in the beer.
How are customers liking the beer?
This beer is crisp, and dry with pale straw colour, a mild spicy hoppy aroma along with phenolic characters from the yeast with a lively carbonation, finishing up with mild rice characters. This Rice variety has a very close connection with the people here. So they are positive and amazed to know that the rice which was part of their meals, is now in the glass.
Come and celebrate the paddy harvest season @catamaranbrewco with Rice and Shine before it runs out of tap.
