A pale ale for curry night, brewed in Bradford

It makes sense that a beer built for curry is brewed in Bradford, a city with a good claim to be Britain’s curry capital.

SimplyCook, the recipe kit company, has teamed up with Amity Brew Co on SimplyJuicy, a limited-edition pale ale meant to go with its new Curry House Collection. The box costs £15, currently reduced to £12. It holds four spice kits: Bombay Biryani, Jalfrezi, Moghul Korma and Saag Curry. You supply the meat and vegetables, and SimplyCook supplies the pre-measured spices.

The beer is a 4.6 per cent pale ale made with Motueka, Mosaic and Simcoe hops. Amity’s head brewer, Tom Summerscales, says it was designed to stand up to “the bold, layered flavours of an Indian banquet without competing with the food”. It’s said to taste of lime, papaya and pineapple.

You can’t easily get hold of it, though. Only the first 100 people to order the box get a link to claim two cans. The beer is free, but postage isn’t: orders under £50 carry a £6.99 delivery charge. The offer closes on 30 November, or earlier if the 100 links run out.

SimplyCook’s reason for the tie-in is a survey of 2,000 adults it commissioned in July. It found that more than eight in ten people now make “fakeaways” at home and that one in five attempt Indian food. Whether that says more about the cost of a Friday night takeaway or about Britain’s cooking ambitions, the survey doesn’t say.