Subcontinent Jackfruit Lager Release

South Asian Beer Club & the Chicago Brewseum present: Subcontinental Jackfruit Lager: A South Asian Beer Club Collaboration Brew

South Asian Beer Club and the Chicago Brewseum are launching Subcontinental Jackfruit Lager: A South Asian Beer Club Collaboration Brew on May 20th 2023, as part of AAPI Heritage Month. This will be the first collaboration beer bringing together brewery owners of South Asian heritage in the US.

Bringing together four of the very few South Asian-owned breweries in the US, Roughhouse Brewing in San Marcos TX, Misfit Outpost in Cypress TX, Windmills USA in Dallas TX and Azadi Brewing in Chicago IL, the project aims to celebrate and share South Asian culture with the beer community, amplify the presence of South Asians in the beer world, and encourage more South Asians to try craft beer. This beer aims to showcase our collective heritage as well as our passion for the beer we create and drink, offering an insight into the possibilities South Asian culture offers the craft beer world.

The project came about in response to the 2021 Chicago Brewseum Beer Culture Summit panel ‘Where Are All The South Asians in Beer?’, which was the first panel at a US beer event made up entirely of beer industry professionals of South Asian Heritage. The panel was coordinated and chaired by Ruvani de Silva, a beer writer and founder of South Asian Beer Club, an online forum for South Asians in the beer world to share ideas and information, which she started due to the lack of representation of South Asians in the beer community. The discussion explored critical issues around being a South Asian in American craft beer, and asked relevant, pertinent questions that allowed panelists to share their collective experience and expertise productively.

Part of the Brewseum’s ongoing series of history and culture-focused collaboration beer releases, Subcontinental is a jackfruit lager. Jackfruit is a culturally significant fruit across South Asia, where it is eaten ripe and unripe, curried and often used as a meat replacement due to its thick, chewy flesh. The plant’s fruit, leaves and bark also feature in traditional medicine, and wood from the jackfruit tree is used in certain Hindu and Buddhist ceremonies. It is also the national fruit of Bangladesh and the state fruit of the Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Pairing jackfruit with a lager, the most popular beer style consumed in South Asia, came about through close collaboration between the four breweries, and extensive discussion on ways to make a beer that captured a specific South Asian flavor that would be new to some drinkers in a fashion that would be both approachable and exciting.