Pakistan brewery's beer battle with India

Pakistan brewery's beer battle with India.

Pakistan's colonial era brewery is to step to the forefront of the country's battle with its perennial foe by contesting the dominance of India beer brands in British curry houses.

The Murree Brewery hopes to start distributing to restaurants across the UK in the next two to three months

By Rob Crilly, Rawalpindi

06 Jan 2011

The Murree Brewery is to sidestep a ban on exporting beer by brewing beers based on its historic recipe in Prague.

Isphanyar Bhandara, the company's chief executive, said the firm hoped to started distributing to restaurants across the UK in the next two to three months.

"I am looking at this project not from the financial point of view," he said. "I would like to get this very famous name – it is, after all, a British legacy – on to the streets of the UK. My aim would be to put it in the ethnic restaurants and give the Indian beers, which totally suck, a run for their money."

The brewery was set up in 1860 to slake the thirst of thousands of soldiers and administrators posted to India.

It was originally located near Murree, a hill station nestled 6,000ft above sea level where British officers would seek respite from the brutal summer heat. It relocated to Rawalpindi in the Twenties.

While only non-Muslims and foreigners are allowed to buy alcohol and the company is barred from exporting, the business has endured despite setbacks.

After Partition, in 1947, the brewery's market shrank as it found itself in the new Muslim-dominated country. Then, in the 1970s, the sale of alcohol to Muslims was banned as the country's leaders pursued Islamification policies.

Murree's brewery and distillery is tucked away behind the soft drinks division.

"The future looks very dangerous for this country," said Mr Bhandara, who is teetotal even though, as a Parsee, he is allowed to drink. "Putting a definite future on liquor is very difficult."