Lucknow, Apr 23 (IANS): Uttar Pradesh is scaling up beer production by 15 to 20 per cent to meet the increased demand amid the intense summer heat.

In the last fiscal year, more than 60 crore units of 500-ml beer cans were consumed in the state and officials are confident of a spurge in demand this season.

The sixth brewing unit that has come up in Sonbhadra, has launched the homebred product in the market earlier this month and it will compete with existing brands.

The state's first brewery was established in 1959, while the fifth came up in August 2015.

Various domestic and international beer companies have introduced 162 different products (330-ml pint, 500-ml can and 650-ml bottle).

Of these, 15 are imported while 96 brands being marketed in the state are bottled and manufactured in breweries in other states.

The remaining 51 brands are from six breweries in Uttar Pradesh.

Senior excise officials said that the sale of beer will pick up between May and July.

"Last year, several beer brands were not available in the market till mid-May, so we got in touch with the five breweries in the state to see if they could scale up production. Out of five, four wanted to increase their daily capacity," said a senior excise official.

After the Sonbhadra unit, another brewery in the state is slated to get operational in a few months in Barabanki.

Sharing the timeline of the brewing units, officials of the department said the first unit in the state came up in Ghaziabad in 1959.

The second one in Meerut was established in 1976. Another brewery in Ghaziabad came up in June 2003.

Aligarh and Unnao became beer producers in October 2011 and August 2015, respectively.