Region & History

Bengaluru, known as Bangalore until its official renaming in 2014, is regarded in India as the city of pubs. It sits at roughly 900 meters above sea level in the south of the Deccan Plateau, and the climate is noticeably milder than in the sweltering plains to the north.

Its roots lie in the colonial era. After the death of ruler Tipu Sultan in 1799, the British consolidated their power over Mysore, and Bangalore became a garrison town with its own military quarter, the Cantonment. Beer had already been shipped from England to India from 1711 onward, sent for soldiers and officials of the East India Company. As the garrison grew, so did demand for beer, which was eventually brewed locally rather than shipped over for months by sea.

This era gave rise to the company that now shapes India's beer market. United Breweries traces its founding to 1857 in Bangalore and to the merger of several small breweries in 1915. Vittal Mallya took over the company in 1947, the lager has carried the name Kingfisher since the 1960s, and his son Vijay Mallya led the group from 1983 onward. Since 2021, Heineken has held a 61.5 percent majority stake in United Breweries.

A second wave began in 2010. Karnataka had amended its brewery regulations from 1967 to allow bars, clubs, and hotels to brew their own beer. That same year, Toit opened in Indiranagar, founded by three friends. In 2012 came the Arbor Brewing Company, an offshoot from Michigan and the country's first American-style brewpub.

There is no protected designation of origin here. No Indian name appears in the EU's beer register, and even within India itself, no seal ties a particular style to the city.