#GigglewaterContest: FREE BEER UP FOR GRABS!

Pic credit: http://freebeer.fscons.org/

All these dry-days in Mumbai have made us thirsty and irritable. So, to up the spirits – yours and our own – we’re announcing the #GigglewaterContest. A chance to win free Miller High Life beer!

Read on for the full scoop.

The Prize: Lots of love and luck.

Oh, and an entire crate of Miller High Life beer too. Yep, that’s 24 FREE pints just waiting for you.

The Formula: We’re talking beer here, so of course the contest has to be simple.

‘BEER LOVE’ PHOTO + ONE LINE = FREE BEER

Think ‘BEER LOVE’ – that’s the theme. All you have to do is send in a picture you’ve taken along with a single line that conveys your interpretation of ‘BEER LOVE’- literal, whacky, artistic, delusional… it’s all allowed, minus any nudity and lewdness.

The best combination of caption and picture (and an idea as a whole) is what will decide the winner.

Send entries via…

Facebook: 1. Like the GiggleWater411 Facebook page here 

2. Upload your ‘BEER LOVE’ pictures with a one-line caption to the GiggleWater411 Facebook page (P.S – Images will appear on the wall only once they’ve been approved)

OR

Twitter: 1. Follow @giggle_water here

2. Twitpic with the hashtag #GigglewaterContest

*****Last date for submissions is July 14, 2012*****

All acceptable entries will be put up on the Facebook page, so stay tuned.

The Commandments:

1. All photo submissions must feature BEER. If you’re image shows a brand, then it must be Miller High Life. Although entries showing just beer (in a mug, for example) without a brand will be accepted too.
2. All submissions should be original.
3. Standard bar rules apply — Participants MUST be over 21 years.
4. No restrictions on number of entries. Send in as many pictures as you’d like.
5. Like the Facebook page and follow the blog on Twitter at @giggle_water
6. We’re still working out the kinks of delivering alcohol to other states, so the winner will need to pick up the crate from Andheri West, Mumbai. Otherwise, we’ll just have to drink it all ourselves. Le sigh.

Beer Review: Budweiser Magnum

Budweiser Magnum | Copyright: Gigglewater411

If you’ve read my previous post then you know that Anheuser-Busch InBev launched Budweiser Magnum in Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore and Hyderabad yesterday. It is available in Mumbai at Rs. 150 for 650ml and Rs. 80 for a pint of 330ml.

After trying and failing to acquire a bottle at three local liquor stores (in Andheri West – Mumbai), I finally managed to get my hands on one. Here’s what I thought of it:

Budweiser Magnum | Copyright: Gigglewater411

I should admit at the onset that I’m not the biggest lover of  Indian strong beers; I find most of them undrinkable. Having said that Budweiser Magnum is surprisingly smooth, crisp and easy to drink.

• Appearance is clear and a golden yellow
• Thick white head, good retention and good lacing
• Medium carbonation
• Rice adjuncts and well-balanced hops cuts the bitterness that I find in most Indian strong beers.
• ABV – below 8% is what it says behind the bottle. Kapil Agarwal, CEO AB InBev India was quoted saying, “Inspired by, and created for trendsetters and ambitious aspirers, MAGNUM is a super premium brew at 6.5% ABV.”

And though this might not be very relevant to most, my final test when it comes to beer is this – will I get through more than three sips, if the beer isn’t chilled?  Magnum manages to pass.

So next time I pick a beer to drink, will Magnum be it? Probably not, but amongst the Indian strong beers (above 5% ABV) I’ve tasted so far, I would most likely choose Budweiser Magnum despite it being more expensive (Carlsberg’s Elephant is Rs. 135 for 650ml).

What do you think?

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Kala Ghoda Wine Festival Feb 11-12

It is the season of wine fests. First York Live, then Sulafest and now the Kala Ghoda Wine Festival.

And all the wine loving Mumbaikars who couldn’t make it to Nasik, can try an array of Indian and some imported wines at Rampart Row, Kala Ghoda on February 11 and 12, 2012.

I haven’t been to any of the earlier editions, but from what I’ve heard this is one of the more awaited wine shows in the city.

Here’s a list of the participants:

Imported Wines:

• Wine Stores – wines from different wine regions of France.
• Kiara Wines – wines from different regions of Italy, Spain and USA
• Ixora Vineyards – wines from Chile, Australia, France and Italy
• UB Spirits / Kingfisher –  wines from South Africa
• Tabuni Gvino – wines from the virgin and traditional regions of Georgia – world’s oldest wine producing country

Indian Wines:

• Valle de Vin (Zampa & One Tree Hill)
• Pernod Ricard India (Nine Hills)
• Vintage Wines (Reveilo)
• Vinsura Vineyards (Vinsura)
• Kiara Wines (launching new range under the brand Salvaj and Pimpali)

At the AIWPA common stall-

• Redwing Wines
• India Food Wine Company
• Rajdheer Wines
• Flamingo Wines
• Renaissance Wines
• Empire Wines
• Prathemesh wines
• Mercury Winery

Cheeses

Various types of artisan cheeses will be paired with wines at the festival. You can also find vegetarian and non-vegetarian table cheeses from Italy, France, Switzerland and India.

Schedule

Inauguration on Feb 11 at 2.00pm by Bindu Malhotra, President of Terroir One (Mumbai Chapter of the Delhi Wine Club) and Sonal Holland, Wine educator, consultant and writer.

Feb 11 & Feb 12 (both days)

4.00 – 4.30pm: Nupur Joshi, Mixologist – Talk on creative, refreshingly different ways to enjoy wines. Easy to make delicious wine-based cocktails or “winetails”.

5.00 – 5.30pm: Omkar Phadke, Wine expert – Talk on types and styles of wine; what to assess in a wine; six famous red and white wine grape varietals; how to taste wine; how to open, store and serve wine correctly.

3.00 pm & 6.30 – 10pm: Grape Stomping 

6.30pm onward: Karaoke and music

Feb 12 at 3.00pm Special talk by Prahlad Kakkar, Ad-Guru, connoisseur of fine wines and Vice President of Terroir One.

Prahlad Kakkar Vice President Terroir One at the 2011 Fest

 

 

Dates: February 11 and 12, 2012

Timing:  12.00 noon-10.30 pm

Venue: Rampart Row Kala Ghoda, Mumbai.

Passes: Rs. 450 + taxes till mid-night on Friday

Rs. 550 + taxes at the venue

Bookings: mumbaiwinefest.in

Contact:  +91 22 65222244

Beer Appreciation @ Woodside

Zane Furtado is a complete beer buff. He even boasts of a degree in Fundamentals in Brewing and Packaging from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (IBD), London and runs the page Beer Me Out. Last night he attended a beer tasting on behalf of Gigglewater411. You can find him on twitter @zanefurtado. Enjoy his post.

Woodside All Day Bar & Eatery along with All Things Nice organized a Beer Tasting session at the Andheri branch.

On the menu were six beers from the most popular beer drinking nations of the world:

1. Erdinger – Germany
2. Asahi – Japan
3. Brooklyn Lager – USA
4. London Fuller Pride – England
5. Murphy’s Irish Stout – Ireland
6. Liefmans Fruitesse – Belgium

The tasting was conducted by Nikhil Agarwal, owner of All Things Nice who took us through the history of beer and beer making. Beer lovers were introduced to concepts of malting and kilning as he explained the importance of the bitterness of hops and how water plays an important role in the final taste of the beer.

The most interesting part was the much needed education on the difference between an ale and a lager and the hundreds of varieties of beer available across the globe – Trappist, stout, cider, lambic, dunkel, pilsner, wheat, organic etc.

Mumbai could certainly use some more of these sessions to introduce Indian beer lovers to the different kinds of brews available in Mumbai and give them a better understanding of how their favourite beer is made.

Whoever said appreciation is only limited to wine!

You can catch their next session on Friday, February 10, 2012 from 7:30pm until 9:00pm at Woodside All Day Bar and Eatery, Andheri, Shop No. 11/12, Link Plaza Co-Op Soc, New Link Road, Oshiwara, Andheri (West), Mumbai, India.

The event will be priced at Rs. 995 per person.

More details on the Facebook page.

 Tel: 022- 2632 8963/2633 6549

Email: woodside.andheri@gmail.com

Follow @AllThingsNice and @WoodsideMumbai of twitter. For more pictures like us on Facebook and view the album here.

The golden goodness of Erdinger

• • When

    Time

Weekend Vineyard Getaway

I had the most amazing weekend. I was one of the lucky few bloggers to be invited to the Fratelli estate in Akluj.

We set out from Bandra at 7am, and after a seven hour journey and a few hiccups (we blamed it on the curse of Friday the 13th) we settled into the spacious and extremely comfortable  rooms at the Fratelli guest house. With bay windows opening onto a sprawling lawn and a view of the vineyard, I barely wanted to leave the room. But what we were treated to after was more that any of us could have asked for.

Here’s a photo journey of the trip:

The guest house

Equipped with four spacious bedrooms and a lounge area completely pimped out with a pool table, flat screen TV and home theatre. The staff is extremely warm and they all went out of their way to make our stay comfortable.  They share a very obvious friendship and mutual respect amongst themselves which creates a very homely environment.  The food tastes so good, very ghar ka khana (home food) like.  We overate at every meal!

Our BLUE room

And the blue bathroom

A room with a view

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Tour of the winery and cellar

We missed Fratelli’s Tuscan Viticulturist and Oenologist Piero Masi on our trip to the vineyard, but Sandeep, the Assistant Winemaker took us through the entire winemaking process in their state of the art winery. The post-modern winery designed of glass and metal is modelled after a European Ferrari showroom.  The cellar houses the Sette, which is the Fratelli Reserve oaked for a year, and currently only available for purchase at the vineyard.

Italian equipment with the capacity of 6 lac litres

The oak casks in the cellar hold the 2011 reserve

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Wine tasting

Sipping eleven Fratelli wines directly under millions of stars in the sky in the early January chill. What more could you ask for?! If it is crackers, cheese and olives, we had that too.

I’m partial to the whites and loved the Chardonnay 2011. I also enjoyed the Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Sangiovese. More tasting notes here.

The entire range

All set for the tasting

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A night at the vineyard

Fellow bloggers Sonu and Jasleen from Fashion Bombay and Anisha from The Backpackers Co. were my travel mates. And as the wine flowed, so did the conversation 🙂

Settling in for the night

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ATV awesomeness

The ATVs are the perfect way to get around the vineyard around the winery, and such good fun!

Vrooooomm

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Vineyard tour, grape tasting, Syrah hill

A 20 minute ride away from the estate is Fratelli’s 150 acre vineyard where they’ve created three reservoirs to irrigate the entire property. We tasted different grape varieties as we drove up to the quaint hut on Syrah hill. A beautiful 360 degree view, cool breeze and chilled wine – the perfect spot to spend a couple of hours in the afternoon, enjoying the beauty around.

Bunches and bunches of grapes all around

Vineyards as far as the eye can see

Syrah Hill

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Our last night at the vineyard ended with a cultural performance (lejhim) by a troupe from the village as we huddled around the bonfire. A great end to a great weekend. I’m looking forward to going back there during harvest next month.

See more pictures here

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New in the market – Teacher’s RTD

Have you tried the new Teacher’s Scotch ready to drink mixes yet?

Premixed with Cola and Soda, these cans are currently sold at most retail stores in Mumbai and will soon be made available across the country. Teacher’s RTD with 4.8% ABV in a  330ml can is priced at Rs 160 in Maharashtra.

Black can – Teacher’s & Soda; Red can – Teacher’s & Cola. Wouldn’t it have made more sense the other way around?

Refreshing Alcoholic Beverage????

 

The Highs & Lows of Doolally Oktoberfest

This post is way overdue. Apologies.

It’s been a week now, but going back to the ‘Oktoberfest weekend’, here’s a roundup of the Doolally Oktoberfest.

Doolally’s Oktoberfest lasted from Friday evening (14^th October) to Sunday night (16^th October).  This is what it looked like on Saturday.

Saturday morning the Doolally Wagon left Andheri East at 11.30am, filling up as it headed toward its destination – The Corinthian Hotel. I rode the Wagon from Andheri to Bandra and then decided to wait for a friend who was running late. Post that it all when downhill.

I had an awful journey to Pune on a Volvo bus. Everything that could possible go wrong, did. A 3 hour journey lasted 5 and a half hours, the AC wouldn’t work and so when it started raining the windshield fogged up and the wipers didn’t work either so we were stranded until it stopped raining. And that’s only the half of it. But the disastrous trip is another story best left for another day.

If I had to try really, really hard to find a silver lining it would be that the Doolally brews were good enough to make me forget all the misadventures of the day. I reached 30 mins before Happy Hours ended (4-8pm) and could tell that the crowd had made the best use of it. There were 5 different craft beers on tap – Oktoberfestbier Märzen, Hefeweizen (Wheat Beer), Irish Red Ale, Bohemian Pale Ale and Apple Cider.

Pic Credit: Neil Valles

What worked

• The Doolally Beer Wagon was an inspired idea -taking a bus load of people from Mumbai-Pune and back, without them having to worry about finding the Corinthian (not an easy task, trust me). But I heard there were complaints regarding the lack of an AC and entertainment didn’t live up to what was promised. Still, the boys from The Blue Bulb did a great job handling all the logistics.
• The range of beers. The Marzen and Hefeweizen were my favourites.
• The little quest/challenge cards were exciting and fun.
• The Happy Hour rates were a steal. No one minded shelling out 1000 bucks for the passes since it was full cover.

What didn’t

• The cops played kill-joys when they turned up too early. At about 11.30 the live band had to stop playing. But the crowd shifted indoors where the DJ took over.
• The Bohemian Pale Ale didn’t last through half the night. By 7.30pm they were all out so I didn’t get to try any.

I’m not sure how true the Doolally Oktoberfest was to the spirit of Oktoberfest. But as a beer fest which served up some good brews and got a great crowd together, Doolally definitely did an outstanding job. At the end of the night everyone was left asking for more.  Oliver Schauf, Co-owner and Brew master said that the response was a lot more than they had expected and so we’re probably going to see a 2012 repeat! 😀

See what some tweeps had to say. You can follow Doolally at @godoolally or on Facebook

Twitter feeds

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Doolally’s Oktoberfest 2011

I’ve been wanting to go to the Doolally Brew Pub in Pune  for a while now, but haven’t gotten around to it yet. I hear that they have some awesome brews and now I have even more incentive – Doolally’s own version of Oktoberfest.

From October 14 to 16, 2011 Doolally promises great handcrafted beer, authentic German food and loud Bavarian music!

Brewmaster and co-founder Oliver Schauf is a German national and will be keeping a close eye on the freshly brewed Märzen, which is the traditional Munich Oktoberfest bier. And he promises that you won’t put your mug down.

But that is hardly the most exciting part. If you’re in Mumbai and still want a taste of the fresh brew, you are in luck! Doolally and Blue Bulb confirmed today that they are kickstarting the Oktoberfest Wagon.

This means that for Rs. 200 you can be part of a helluva crazy ride Mumbai-Pune-Mumbai. Of course the Wagon comes with complete entertainment solutions and a whole lot of madness.

I think the Oktoberfest Wagon is a great idea. Hopefully you’ll read a review here soon!

For more details e-mail tresha@brewcrafts.in

The schedule:

 Friday: 8 pm onwards – Rs 500 (Full Cover)

8.00 pm:

Tapping of the Oktoberfestbier – ‘Marzen’ amidst traditional festivities (i.e. authentic costumes, music etc.). The beer will be given for free till the 30 litre keg runs dry. What a great way to kick start the festivities!

8.30 pm:

Live rock music with 10 artists opening the festival with rock covers and originals. Food and various styles of handcrafted beer can be ordered à la carte. Four styles of beer available on tap – Marzen, Hefeweizen, Apple Cider and Irish Red Ale.

10.30 pm:

A DJ will be spinning music till 1.30 am. Food and beer can be ordered à  la carte.

Saturday: 4 pm onwards – Rs 1000 (Full Cover – This ensures you a reserved table) 

                6 pm onwards – Rs 500 (Full Cover) 

4.00 pm:

An open air barbecue with a mix of German cuisine and Indian Tandoor. (It’s the Oktoberfest – you better not be ordering Tandoor!) Happy Hour deals on beer (Pint: Rs 70, English Mug: Rs 100)

8.00 pm:

10 artists playing rock music and setting the stage on fire. Food and beer will be served à  la carte (Pint Rs 160, English Mug Rs 227).

10.30 pm:

Get your groove on with some dance floor thumping music till 1.30 am. Go home and get ready for tomorrow!

Sunday: 12 noon onwards – Rs 1000 (Full Cover – This ensures you a reserved table)

              8 pm onwards – Rs 500 (Full Cover)

12 noon:

An unlimited brunch with German favourites like Schnitzel, Pretzels, etc and Happy Hour beer. Unlimited brunch will be priced at Rs. 350. And get set for the beer games- Beer Pong and Chug Relay!

4 pm:

The beer games continue. As do the happy hours! YAY!!

8 pm:

Stand Up comedian Tarunesh Irani will perform his set.

9 pm:

Live rock music till the end of the night.

What: Doolally’s Oktoberfest 2011

When: October 14, 15, 16

Where: The 1st Brewhouse (Doolally on tap!), The Corinthians Boutique Hotel