Geist Brewing Co. – Old Madras Road

Geist Brewing Co. has brewed in Bangalore since 2017, and this is its flagship: a beer garden and casual restaurant beside its production brewery on Old Madras Road at Nimbekaipura, on the city's eastern edge. The brewery was built by converting an abandoned plywood factory among the fields of the village, whose name translates as the village of lemons, and Geist describes it as South India's first distribution craft brewery. The beer garden opened in 2020 under a 100-year-old banyan tree.

Beer here is poured a few metres from where it is brewed. Geist makes a broad range of international styles, from wheat beers and lagers to IPAs and stouts, alongside limited releases. Its Uncle Dunkel, a Bavarian-style dark wheat beer, won gold in the South German-style hefeweizen dunkel category at the 2025 European Beer Star awards in Munich, a year after Geist became the first Indian brewery to win a European Beer Star medal with a silver. The brewery was also the first in South India licensed to sell fresh beer to take away in 2-litre growlers, which are filled here.

The menu is home-style cooking from India and around the world, with breakfast served at weekends, and there is a cocktail list for non-beer drinkers. The venue lists outdoor seating, a smoking area, parking and a welcome for families and dogs.

It is a drive from central Bangalore, which suits a long weekend lunch in the garden. Hours are noon to 11.30pm on weekdays and 9am to 11.30pm at weekends. Geist also runs bars at Orion Mall in Rajajinagar and at Bhartiya Mall of Bengaluru near Hennur.