Visakhapatnam: Beer has emerged the most favorite drink of Vizagites during the festival season, followed by whisky and brandy, according to the excise officials.
Despite the weather conditions, be it a sultry or wet spell, beer is the Vizagites’ most preferred drink and majority of the consumers are youngsters and students of various colleges. Excise officials said that a total of 1.4 lakh boxes of beer and 1.2 lakh boxes of liquor (IMFL_ Whisky, Brandy, Rum, Vodka and others) were sold out from October 1 to 25 this year (Dasara festival season) while the number was 1.3 lakh boxes of beer and 1 lakh boxes of IMFL respectively in the same period the previous year.
Vizag, the cosmopolitan socio-cultural hub in Andhra Pradesh and listed top in many development indices in the state, has also emerged as the highest grosser of the excise department from sale of liquor in the state. Whisky and Brandy also appear on the favourite list of the Vizag’s tipplers but rank lower than beer.
Strong beers like Carls-berg Elephant, Knockout and Kingfisher are the most preferred beer amo-ng the youth, said liquor businessmen S. Srinivas. As Vizag is a coastal city with high humidity levels round the year, spirit lovers are choosing beer ahead of liquor, he added.
A regular at a beer shop Ranjith Kumar said that he developed the habit of consuming chilled beer during his engineering days and continues even today to beat the heat and moreover, beer is good for health.
Deputy commissioner of prohibition and excise, Vizag, C. Viveka-nanda Reddy said the sale of beer was about three lakh boxes in a month during the summer and while the number was around two lakh even in winter season in Vizag city whereas the sale of liquor is high only in one or two months, he added.
Sources in the excise said that as a pilot project the department has been chalking out plans to develop microbreweries in Vizag city, which have been developing leaps and bounds that will have licence to brew their own beer in different flavours. Later, the microbreweries will co-me up in other big cities in the state. Micro-breweries concept is catching up across the country.
