Goa's second microbrewery, Goa Brewing Co (GBC) in Sangolda, might just be a few months-old but their small batch beer, Eight Finger Eddie, is already at star at the state's best bars. It's an IPA that's modern and what they call, "non conformist".
This Goan Brewery's Inside A 250-Year-Old House & They Offer Beer Tours!
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What Makes It Awesome?
GBC is housed inside an old Indo-Portuguese house that's got a lovely, sunny courtyard in the middle, enveloped by rooms dedicated to storing barrels and malts, brewing, bottling, labeling and getting all that beer ready for dispatch. They tell us they bottle every second day but will only dispatch 200 crates to bars they've tied up with. When we say bars, we're talking the likes of Joseph's, Bomras, Cavala, Vaayu Village, Gunpowder, Villa Blanche, Zeebop, Baba Au Rhum, That Crazy Hostel and bigger supermarkets like Delfino's.
And why exactly are they so stingy with the supplies? Well, not stingy, just iffy about quality. They make sure all the beer that they produce is freshly bottled and then either transported immediately or sitting in temperature controlled rooms. Oh, they've even got a laboratory where they experiment with flavours, malts and the like. For instance, they're running trials on a cherry flavoured stout and a doughnut flavoured beer! So creativity and instinct is what really drives the beer-making process here.
The star beer we've been loving at our favourite bars, Eight Finger Eddie tasted just as divine at the brewery, with the winter sun warming our back. The beer itself, we learnt, is a tribute to the famous hippie from the 60s whose stories put Goa on the hippie tourist's radar. It is an oat cream India Pale Ale (IPA) with a wonderful aftertaste. With a whiff of mangoes, citrus and even some pineapple, it's indeed a great beer to take to the beach.
The good folks here even recycle bottles of their own beer by picking up empty ones from nearby bars.
Haven't we given you so many reasons to grab a bottle now? Or at least take some to add to your home bar or as souvenirs for beer-loving friends back home?
Pro-Tip
On a few Saturdays of the month, they open their doors to curious beer enthusiasts who want to drop by at the brewery for a look-see. For now, you're lucky because it isn't chargeable but come January, this will be a more structured tour. So, make the best of this time... Write to them on Instagram, fix a time and they'll make sure someone's there to take you around and make you taste some Eight Finger Eddie, freshly brewed.