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| Edward Dyer's Lion Brand navrangindia.blogspot.com |
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| Dyer-Meakin &Co, Burma advisers.com |
Drinking beer has been in India for several centuries, as a matter of fact, more than 1000 years, but the traditional beer is prepared from rice or millet. Unlike the west, presently, Indian beer has more alcoholic content and is strong. A beer-like drink called sura, the favorite of demigod Indira, is mentioned in the Vedas and also in the Ramayana. The Greek traveler Megasthenes mentioned about the use of rice beer in India. . Historian Kautalya made references to intoxicating beverages made from rice called Medaka and Prasanna. In the past and also in the present drinking beer is common among the Indian tribes, particularly in the NE India. Some tribes prepare beer from rice, others from millet, invariably, womenfolks take care of the preparation of alcoholic beverages in the tribal families J. B. S. Haldane, well-known biologist, says that local beer prepared by the tribes checks diseases like beri beri. As for rice beer, Ruellia suffruticosa (flowering plants) is added for better flavor. some of these plants have medicinal properties.
In the 18th century, it was the British who introduced European beer to India to meet the needs of the Britons and other Europeans living in the subcontinent. In 1716, pale ale and Burton ale were being imported to India all the way from England and because of poor shelf-life and long rough sea-journey lasting several months, upon arrival in India, the beer turned tasteless and sour, and countless containers cracked during transit. So, there arose a necessity for the beer-starved British Bobs to import beer from Britain that had a long shelf life with good flavor suitable to the tropical climate. Then the brewers came up with a better variety called India pale ale - highly hopped beer - high alcohol content and hops were added to it. This led to the invention of India pale ale in about 1787 by Bow Brewery.
The man who popularized the beer in India was Edward Dyer, father of Reginald Dyer, who master minded the Jalianwalla bagh massacre of April 1919. In 1830, Edward Abraham Dyer came to India to try his luck in beer business and set up India's first brewery in Kasauli. It was here he produced the famous Lion Brand Beer which got international acclaim later and this brand is popular in some commonwealth countries. In 1835, the Kasauli brewery was shifted to Solan near Shimla for reasons of availability of good quality ground water most suitable for making beer. After incorporation as Dyer Breweries in 1885, the sale picked up manifold and to meet fresh demand from the European community and others more breweries came up in places like Burma and Sri Lanka, etc.
H. G. Meakin bought the Solan brewery and added some more plants. It came to be known as ''Dyer Meakin & Co'' and later was listed on the London Stock Exchange. There were 12 breweries in India in all, including the one in Rangoon in the year 1882 all operating under the name of Meakin Dyer & Co. After the 3rd Anglo-Burmese War of 1885, and in 1886 the canon factory owned by the Burmese king was converted into a brewery. Dyer, over a period of three years, produced 232,804 gallons (million litres) . Dyer company's Mandalay Brewery, Burma represented one third of his “global” volume (his other breweries were in Lucknow and Solan ). His major clients were army men who had to deal with all kinds of people including dacoits and bootleggers. In 1937, Burma was separated from India and the company lost its Burmese assets.
Dyer Breweries in the 1840 sold it originally as ''India Pale Ale'' (IPA) but the beer style was changed in the 1960s to a lager.. Lion remained the number one beer in India for over a century from the 1840s until the 1960s. In the 1970s and 1980s, the company had to face stiff competition. In the 2000 lion brand beer was sold to the Indian Army through the Canteen Services Department (CSD). Mohan Meakin then entrusted the marketing of its original beer to International Breweries Pvt. Ltd. Lion was gradually picking up the civilian market and is now on an expansion mode across India. In 1949, N. N Mohan acquired all the assets of Dyer Meakin Breweries and added a few more units. In 1967, the company was renamed to Mohan Meakin Breweries as the Indian government under PM Nehru wanted the name ''Dyer'' dropped because of Edward Dyer's son happened to be a mass killer of Indian natives (see Jallianwalla Bagh massacre).
Lion beer first introduced by Edward Dyer has the rare distinction of being Asia's first beer brand. The beer was quite popular wherever the Union Jack was flying way high. Lion's popularity with the British during the heyday of the British empire was so high it became part of the British legacy and a symbol of British imperialism. Obviously, it led to the start-up of other Lion beers around the world, in New Zealand, South Africa and elsewhere. Lion still remains the number-one brand in neighboring Sri Lanka, where Mohan Meakin had introduced it in the 1880s through their Ceylon brewery.
Old Monk is a vatted Indian rum, blended and aged for 7 years (though there is also more expensive, 12-year-old version). It is dark, with an alcohol content of 42.8 (army allows up to 50% alcohol content). It is produced by Mohan Meakin, based in Mohan Nagar, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh. This brand is popular globally. .
