The Newfie Beer

(ST. JOHN'S, N.L.) "India Beer has been a staple of the downtown St. John's bar scene for a long time. Brewed and distributed exclusively in Newfoundland and Labrador, its iconic logo features a Newfoundland dog above the tagline 'Man's Best Friend.'

Jason Hull, area sales manager for Molson in Atlantic Canada, reckons India has plenty of friends in St. John's, estimating 80 per cent of the lager’s sales are in Newfoundland and Labrador's capital city.

'We never really pushed it as a company,' said Hull, who has worked with Molson since 1999 and can recall how it was embraced back then as a brand by the local arts community and other folks in the downtown scene. 'We never hid that it was a Molson product or anything, but people just really love the history behind it — the fact that it's made here in Newfoundland and Labrador, and it just resonates with that group.' First brewed by the Newfoundland Brewing Co. in the late 1800s, India Beer found a new home with Molson in the 1960s when it acquired the independent brewery. For a long time, Molson and Labatt products were just about the only options in town when it came to beer, but the blossoming craft brewing industry has changed the landscape dramatically. Local beer drinkers like to try all kinds of style, with India pale ales (IPAs) proving to be especially popular nowadays.

'Certainly, there's been an explosion of craft products across North America and in Newfoundland and Labrador," Hull said. "We see that (IPA) is the Number One style out there.' With that in mind, Molson is lending the India name and logo to a new beer brewed exclusively out of its Circular Road brewery in St. John's. The India Beer IPA, a session IPA with five per cent alcohol by volume, was released in stores this past week. 'It was really just to give our India drinkers a little different flavour out there,' Hull explained. 'We have lots (of IPAs) in our portfolio. We can get beers from B.C., get beers from anywhere we want and get an IPA. But there was something about having it made on Circular Road and putting the India name on it that made it kind of special for us and the people at the brewery.' The Newfoundland Brewing Co. did have its own IPA decades ago, but it's not serving as a direct inspiration for the new brew’s recipe. Hull said the India Beer IPA has a hazy look and tropical notes in its taste, making use of Citra, Mosaic and El Dorado hops. 'It’s very sessionable,' Hull said. 'It’s for someone that wants to sip on a couple of them. It’s pretty easy drinking.'

The idea for producing an India-branded IPA came about a year ago. 'We just thought we have a lot of drinkers out there that like India, that like other Molson products, and we just wanted to open up the offering to them really and show them what we have ... We're known obviously for our mainstream beers ... we can put out a really good IPA as well if they're looking for one from us.' India Beer IPA is available in 473-mililitre pint cans and as an eight-pack of 355-millilitre cans. It's also available on tap at select locations."