Bengaluru, the pub city, runs out of heady brew!

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The pub city seems to have run dry with watering holes, especially those selling tap (draught) beer, hanging up a “No beer’ board, much to the disappointment of their customers.

“There’s no draught beer. We have had no supply this week from KSBCL (Karnataka State Beverages Corporation Limited) because of the confusion on the new pricing policy on beer, liquor and wine. We were informed that supply will resume on Friday,” said the owner of Down Town Pub, Mr Ashok Sadhwani.

Barring the micro breweries, which brew their own beer, most pubs and bars in the City ran out of draught beer.

“We were asked to stock up draught beer last weekend, so we bought additional four to five kegs, which lasted us till Tuesday. We have run out of stock today and are serving only food now. We hope the supply resumes tomorrow,” said Mr Anand Joshi of Windsor Pub, which is known for serving tap beer.

“There’s been no supply of draught beer this week. We managed till today with the stocks we had,” said Mr Prakash of Plan B, a popular rest-o-bar in Bengaluru’s central business district Ashokanagar.

The increase in excise duty from 7.5 per cent to 10 per cent in the State budget has led to a rise if prices of all types of liquor. The KSBCL, through which retailers buy liquor, fixes the MRP. “The government notification on the new prices was issued on April 2 after which we fixed the new MRP. There have been series of government holidays this week, which delayed the procedure. The supply will be normalised now,” said Managing Director, KSBCL, Mr Sandeep Dave, who called the delay a “normal annual post-budget phenomenon.”

“There’s also a scarcity of Indian-made liquor (IML) due to the same reason. Those who have stocked beer are selling at exorbitant prices,” said a liquor retailer.

“We managed to survive because we sell bottled beer and other liquor. Some pubs have downed their shutters,” said Mr Ashish Kothare of Legends of Rock and president of the Association of Bars & Restaurants, Pubs & Hotels.

The absence of an Excise Commissioner, who is on leave because of a family emergency, has further worsened the crisis since he is the signing authority.