Rajan Bisla, you might say, leads a mixed-up life.
Are you sure you want to take the drink neat? Some people hiccup due to the spice,” Rajan Bisla asks, concerned. I assure him I’m perfectly fine. Bisla wouldn’t find a bigger fan of his home brew — Royal Inferno. Oh, yes, it lives up to its name: it is Smirnoff, into which have been infused the flavours of a goodly amount of fresh green chillies, ginger and citrus. There is nothing better to warm you up on a nippy winter night than a shot of this.
The search for Bisla began when a friend recently offered me a single sip of Royal Inferno from his bar. Intrigued by the new bottle and label, I agreed. “Only one shot — you must sample this. I have saved the bottle for a special occasion,”
I was warned. Once I downed that, its maker had to be met, I must confess, for utterly selfish reasons.
The art of home brewing is not new, but the level of detail that goes into Bisla’s handiwork is. Not only was the Royal Inferno finely finished, the label added a creative touch and, to top it all off, the bottle wore a red wax seal of quality. The 38-year-old project manager with Kaplan Financial confesses: “I have dreamt of one day having my own distillery. If I do it will be called Bisla’s Home Made and this will be my label.”
Bisla’s tryst with alcohol began when he started looking beyond the venerable Old Monk, along with his friend and relative, the designer Jatin Kochhar. The mindboggling variety of booze and the things he could do with it, says Bisla, set off the “kalakar keeda” within him. A particular source of heartburn was watching the typical Delhiite mix Coke with something as “sacred” as a single malt. He thought that if people wanted a flavoured drink, he could offer them something with more finesse.
Much to the amusement of his family, Bisla trucked vast quantities of cheap vodka into the house for “testing”. He infused different ingredients in various quantities into the alcohol and basically drank himself silly afterwards while tasting it. “I don’t experiment on others,” he explains, though he wouldn’t be short of volunteers if he were to call for them.
Royal Inferno was the formula which finally worked. To prepare it, Bisla lets the green chillies, ginger and lime soak in vodka for upto a week before filtering it twice or thrice to clarify it.
It was no surprise that soon Bisla was a hit on his party circuit. But since he says he only gifts his own concoctions, he was in for an expensive pastime, as anyone who sampled the liquor wanted some for themselves. It was no surprise that soon Bisla was brewing at his friends’ homes. They get the liquor and Bisla applies his formula to it. A week later he is back to filter it. The first time he tried this was at his friend Kochhar’s party. “It was some art launch, so he wanted something unique to drink. But the way people were downing my drink, there was a serious danger of people missing the point of the evening altogether,” laughs Bisla.
Bisla naturally took to brewing wine at his home. A fan of fruit wines, he says he has tried fermenting bananas, apples, pineapples and oranges, along with table grapes. A wine he fondly remembers is one he brewed from table grapes for the raising day party of a unit in the Indian Army. “My friend was an officer in the unit. So I made a special crate for him, complete with a unique label for the bottles,” Bisla says.
Bisla says anyone can add zing to the alcohol that they have at home. All it takes is a “little interest and taste”. He says the Internet is a great resource for him to find new formulas, but he often learns from them and does something different. And, while travelling, Bisla always makes it a point to sample any local liquor that is available. Being part-Ladakhi, Bisla says he loves enjoying his drinks with some churpi, hardened cheese made from yak’s milk.
As our meeting winds down, Bisla tells me to hang on. He gets me a shot of Irish cream and offers it as “dessert”. After I take a sip, he asks me what is it.
I reply, “Bailey’s”. He laughs aloud and hands me a bottle, which reads, “Bisla’s Irish Cream”. Well, he has been at it again. I take my leave, as his wife begins to admonish him for not sticking to his diet plan.
