From importing other people’s craft beer to launching an Indian one.

Bira 91 is the beer brand of B9 Beverages, the company founded by Ankur Jain. English Wikipedia, citing The Times of India (2017), says Jain moved from India to the United States in 1998 to study computer science in Chicago and sold a healthcare business in New York in 2007. In 2008 he started a business importing European and American craft beers into India, and B9 launched its own brand, Bira 91, in early 2015.

The first Bira 91 was not brewed in India. English Wikipedia, citing Forbes India (2016), says the beer was first made under contract in Flanders, Belgium and imported, and the drinks site Tulleeho, in its write-up of the launch, said the beers were brewed to the company’s specifications in Belgium and shipped to India, with local production to follow. The launch event was held at the residence of the Belgian ambassador to India, and the two launch beers were the White, a wheat beer, and the Blonde, a lager. English Wikipedia says brewing later moved to India with the same ingredients, and that a supply crunch in 2016 took the beer off shelves for a while.

The range grew quickly. According to English Wikipedia, citing Mint and The Economic Times, a Light lager and a Strong wheat beer were launched in June 2017 and an IPA in October 2017. In India the company came to run a hybrid model of its own brewing and contract brewing: the trade site Asia Brewers Network reported in July 2025 that the brewery at Mysuru, in Karnataka, that forms part of B9’s brewing had restarted after an upgrade, and named taprooms in Bengaluru’s Koramangala and at the city’s airport.

Outside money came early. English Wikipedia lists investment from Sequoia Capital in January 2016, its first in an alcoholic-drinks company, from the Belgian family-owned investor Sofina in 2018, and from Japan’s Kirin Holdings in January 2021, the last as reported by The Economic Times. Inc42 listed Peak XV Partners, Sofina and Kirin among the company’s shareholders in July 2026.

A monkey, a country code and a word for brother.

The name is built from two pieces. English Wikipedia says “Bira” echoes birra, the Italian word for beer, and a colloquial North Indian word for brother or friend, while 91 is India’s international dialling code. Tulleeho described the name as standing for craft beer conceived in India and made with Belgian brewing expertise.

The emblem is an animal rather than a crest. Tulleeho described the logo as a playful monkey, meant to signal the brand’s youthful, playful character and the intelligence associated with monkeys, and English Wikipedia says the monkey mascot was created with young urban drinkers in mind. It positioned the brand, in Tulleeho’s words, as a craft beer with a youthful Indian identity. The company began selling branded merchandise in 2017, English Wikipedia says.

Much of the brand’s visibility came from sponsorship rather than conventional beer advertising. English Wikipedia records Bira 91 as chief beer sponsor of the Tribeca Film Festival in 2016, a sponsor of the Global Citizen Festival in 2017, and the producer of an eight-episode travel series, Bira 91 Hot Stuff, the same year. In November 2018, Mint reported, the company announced a global sponsorship of the Cricket World Cup and other International Cricket Council events.

By June 2018, English Wikipedia says, the beer was sold in India, the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand and the United Arab Emirates.

Design and documentation.

The seven brands in this group are all lagers and beers from South and Southeast Asia: Angkor from Cambodia, 333, Huda and Larue from Vietnam, Bira 91 from India, Lion Lager from Sri Lanka and Myanmar Beer from Myanmar. Beer brands in general sit at many different points in the trade, from names that grew up inside a single national brewery to labels that now belong to much larger international brewing groups, and a single brand can be poured everywhere from a street-side stall to a hotel bar.

A beer brand’s identity is usually carried less by the liquid than by a name, a label, a can and the place it promises, because the company behind the name may have changed hands, taken on foreign partners or moved its brewing far beyond the city where it started. That makes the questions behind each name worth asking plainly: who started it, who owns it now, and where its beer is actually brewed and packed.

Each guide separates what independent sources record from what the company says about itself — its founding story, its shareholders over time, where its beer is brewed and how its labels and advertising have changed — and marks plainly what rests only on the company’s own word.

A fast-growing brand, then a long financial strain.

The brand’s recent history is one of strain. Inc42 reported in July 2026 that the company’s troubles began after B9 Beverages converted into a public company, a change that triggered fresh excise approvals for its products across several Indian states and disrupted production and sales. The trade site Asia Brewers Network reported in July 2026 that production had been halted since July 2025 and remained suspended.

In July 2026 the founder left. Inc42, following a report first published by The Economic Times, wrote on 22 July 2026 that Ankur Jain had stepped down from the board of B9 Beverages and given up executive control, and that the promoter family’s shareholding of about 17.8 per cent had been surrendered in a settlement with investors and lenders. Under the settlement, Inc42 reported, lenders withdrew their claims and released his personal guarantees on company loans, and both sides withdrew pending cases. The company was to be recapitalised by its existing investors and lenders to clear its dues and restart operations; Asia Brewers Network reported an aim of resuming within three to six months. On 28 July 2026 Inc42 reported that the lender Anicut Capital had reportedly taken control of the family’s stake and, according to The Economic Times, was expected to nominate three directors and lead the restructuring.

For a design guide, Bira 91 shows how a cartoon monkey, a dialling code and a short word for brother gave an Indian beer an identity built for young drinkers and for sponsorship rather than for heritage. Compare Kingfisher, the Bangalore lager of United Breweries, and Kirin, the Japanese brewer that invested in B9 in 2021. For this guide we use monkey orange, rust and can black with a rounded sans, an unofficial interpretation; no product or logo is reproduced.

Keep Bira 91’s identity on hand — save it to a board in the Made Good inspiration library.