Curry Smugglers serves up Desi Lager
South Asian food brand Curry Smugglers is expanding beyond its line of Indian (Desi) street snacks with two Desi Lager craft beers.
Steve Dass, who founded the Margate-based brand with wife Ruby, previously worked with an organic Belgian brewery and is now returning to his brewing roots with the launch of an alcohol-free Mango Mirchi and an 4.2% ABV Rice Lager.
Mango Mirchi combines Alphonso mango and habanero chilli. It is brewed on a pilsner base, with ripe mango aromas, a crisp, dry palate and a gradual chilli warmth. The beer was designed as ‘a serious beer in its own right’, rather than an afterthought for people opting out of alcohol.
Inspired by India’s brewing heritage, the light-bodied Rice Lager is vegan and gluten-free, brewed with basmati rice. With citrus notes of lime zest, it has a clean, crisp character and a subtle green chilli finish.
“We don’t want to splash a few random elephants and palaces on a label, tell people it goes with curry and call that Desi. Modern South Asian culture is far more layered than that.”
Commenting on the new SKUs, Dass says: “For decades, ‘goes well with curry’ seems to have been the entire lazy conversation around Indian beer. And, frankly, most beer goes well with curry. There’s a much richer story to tell. Beer was being brewed in India before IPA became the headline, and rice forms part of that history. DESI Lager takes inspiration from that past but isn’t trying to recreate an old beer. It’s about asking what a modern Desi beer can be today.”
With its snack range, the founders set out to challenge expectations of what South Asian snacks should look and feel like in the UK. Instead of using plastic packaging, products including Pakora, Masala Corn, Margate Mix, Bombay Mix and Chakli are sold in recyclable cans, pairing authentic flavours with contemporary design and a modern Desi identity.
The new beer range builds on the same approach, using the brand’s distinctive can format to challenge conventional ideas of Indian beer. “We don’t want to splash a few random elephants and palaces on a label, tell people it goes with curry and call that Desi,” says Dass. “Modern South Asian culture is far more layered than that. That’s the world we want these beers to represent.”
By Jane Wolfe, contributor