Powering The Science of Great Beer – Ashwini Rajagopal

 

A sip of ale may be the perfect way to kickstart your weekend. But a lucky few make a living out of tasting beer all week. Pune boasts of watering holes galore that tap the finest mead, yet brewing as a career is certainly a path less trodden..

Breaking the glass ceiling in a male-dominated field is Ashwini Rajagopal; the Head Brew Master at TJ’s Brew Works.

Various streams of engineering like chemical and mechanical can take you into brewing, but Ashwini chose Industrial Biotechnology. Higher studies took her to Scotland for her Masters in Brewing and Distilling from Heriot-Watt University.

She talks about the want of full-time brewing courses in India. “There is a wine course in the country that touches upon the subject, but studying brewing exclusively was what took me to Scotland for a year and a half,” she explains speaking of her journey as a Brew Master.

What marked your foray into brewing?

When I was studying Industrial Biotechnology, an Alumnus gave a talk exclusively for mechanical students during campus placements. We happened to attend. The speaker was the Vice President of SABMiller India- at the time the second largest brewery in the world.

I went up to him, expressed a keen interest in brewing and asked him for an internship. He came in for another talk in October, which later lead to an internship. It was my third internship, the first being with Mohan Meakin Breweries and the second with United Breweries Ltd. But SABMiller was an experience I enjoyed intensely because of the exposure I got to the industry.

Recount your most interesting experience while training to be a brewer?

When I was with SABMiller, we trained for tastings twice a day. There was about a litre of beer per person distributed equally in 10 glasses. Then there were capsules off flavours like onions, garlic, socks, baby’s puke, cheese or even butter. They spiked each of the 9 glasses with a different off flavour. The 10th glass held pure beer.

We were given a sheet to note the flavour and water to rinse. The taste test mandated that we distinguish various flavours in the beer. So as a brewer I’m trained to make neat, clean beers. The minute I sniff beer I can now denote the flavours. The capsules were a bit of a torture though. Imagine tasting baby puke! It used to be daunting at times, but was a beautiful experience.

Who has inspired your brewing career the most?

When I started out, a manager at Mohan Meakin Breweries introduced me to brewing during my internship. The then Vice President of SABMiller, Muthukumar Vemban was a great influence, encouraging me to look at various aspects and styles of brewing.

Today, the person I follow personally and professionally is TJ himself. He’s helped me gain exposure to so many diverse sectors of brewing with designing the prices and the commercial aspect as well. There’s much more to brewing like making beers that sell and creating brews that do justice to your profession.

How open is Pune to experimenting with beer styles?

When I first joined TJ’s, I noticed a trend where guests always requested bottled beers. When we said we didn’t offer them, they’d promptly turn away. Puneites were more inclined toward popular beer brands like Hoegaarden, Guinness and Kingfisher. Our Devil’s Dark is similar to Guinness, and Zen Weiss is similar to Hoegaarden. We also have a Blonde Brew similar to Kingfisher. So, guests swore by these brews.

But Pune’s tastes are evolving now. People are curious, experimenting with new flavours across various beers. People are now wavering from their conventional idea of what beer should look and taste like. The fact that we have eight beers on tap, offers them the perfect opportunity to explore new flavours.

Do you get tipsy on the job?

As a brewer, I mainly sample and test beer rather than chugging a large amount of it. However, I do have a threshold that ensures I don’t get tipsy.

Your go-to in-house brew?

I like my Bock the best. Bock is a German lager and the style is called Bock itself. Here we have TJ’s Premium Bock that is a robust and well-aged beer.

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