African Brew

Location: R326, Stanford Web: birkenhead.co.za Tel: 028 341 0013 Amenities: Beer tasting, restaurant, winery, accommodation, off-sales

Breweries are often seen as being aesthetically inferior to wineries – as places that are more industrial than attractive. There are, of course, breweries that are designed more for takeaways than for a lingering pint, but Birkenhead Brewery is not one of those places. Perched just outside the picture-perfect town of Stanford, the brewery – and the estate that it sits upon – boasts comfy couches, roaring fires in winter and picnic tables in summer offering majestic views of the Klein River mountains beyond. This is definitely a place that you come to sit and savour a pint of their long-established beer.

The brewery was founded in 1998 and named for the ship that sank in nearby waters 146 years earlier. The survivors sought refuge on a Stanford farm and, in launching the Western Cape’s second microbrewery, the original owners hoped to provide refuge for beer drinkers seeking something different to the mainstream beers then available.

The brewery has changed hands since that time, but some staples remain. The beer catalogue is largely unchanged, the grounds are still as picturesque as ever, and Benson Mocuphe is still a solid member of the Birkenhead staff. Benson joined Birkenhead when it first opened its doors, originally working in the storage area of the brewery. It took only a few weeks for his work ethic to be noticed, and he was soon promoted to working in the fermentation room. From there Benson became the protégé of Andy Mitchell, Birkenhead’s brewmaster, who learnt the trade through a career with SAB.

Today Andy has moved to Australia, but Benson remains and is now the head brewer at Birkenhead. “I love my job,” he beams, his enthusiasm instantly contagious. “I love to brew, though I’m not a big drinker.” Like the general public, Benson’s favourite in the range is the premium lager, though he insists that since his 2007 marriage he is a taster, not a drinker. Birkenhead’s beer menu is varied, from the very popular Honey Blonde Ale to the love-it-or-loathe it Black Snake, a blended beer with a brandy kick.

Of course, for all that has stayed the same at Birkenhead, plenty has changed. There is now accommodation on the property and in 2003 vines were planted with the first harvest happening in 2007. Perhaps the biggest change though has been the renewed interest in beer since the craft revolution began.

“We were perhaps a little ahead of our time,” says General Manager Chris Boshoff. “But recently beer sales have started to take off again.” A new brew was being devised when we visited, but all details were being kept under wraps. Oh well – having to head back to find out what’s new won’t exactly be a chore, when the beer is this drinkable and the views this pretty.

TASTING NOTES

PREMIUM LAGER (4.5% ABV)

A full-flavoured, malty lager whose sweet character is offset perfectly by the bitterness of the Saaz hop.

HONEY BLONDE ALE (6% ABV)

There is upfront honey on the nose, but it’s well harmonised when you taste. This is a deceptive beer, whose high alcohol level is not evident in the light and über-refreshing flavour.

BIRKENHEAD PRIDE OLD ENGLISH ALE (4.5% ABV)

There are savoury notes on the nose of this English-style bitter, as well as hints of allspice and cinnamon. It’s a medium-bodied beer with nutty flavours and a lingering, spicy finish.

CHOCOLATE MALT STOUT (4.5% ABV)

Huge coffee aromas prevail with a prominent sweetness on the nose. It’s surprisingly light in body for a stout, with a robust flavour that’s far drier than the aroma would have you imagine.

BLACK SNAKE (10% ABV)

Most definitely not a session beer, this curious concoction is a blend of the stout and the honey blonde, with a touch of brandy for an added kick. Think cold Irish coffee and you won’t be far off.

Also look out for Birkenhead Pilsner, a refreshing beer that’s light on alcohol but still has plenty of flavour.

TRADITIONAL CAPE MALAY BOBOTIE

RECIPE COURTESY OF CRAIG CORMACK, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT SOFIA’S AT MORGENSTER

Pair with a honey beer, such as Birkenhead Honey Blonde Ale. Chef Craig says: “The ‘almost’ sweetness in the beer is a perfect companion for the spice and ‘almost’ sweetness in the bobotie.” The recipe is based on an old Cape Malay classic and uses braised lamb rather than mince as many modern recipes do.

30 ml beef jus or stock – homemade is best, but the cubed variety is a viable substitute

BOSTON BREWERIES

Chris Barnard’s son, Matthew, is proud of the fact that if it wasn’t for him, Boston Breweries might never have been launched. Not that Matthew had any hand in the brewing process of course – he wasn’t yet in pre-school when Boston sold its first pint. But if Matthew’s nappies hadn’t overtaken Chris’s humble plastic fermenters, he might never have made the leap from home- to craft brewer.

It all started years before when Chris and now-wife Babette took an extended trip to Europe. “We were in this tiny village in Germany and we wanted a beer so we went to the local bottle store, which was basically a cellar underneath a woman’s house. Back in the eighties we didn’t have much to choose from in South Africa, and here we saw all these different beers. So we said ’give us two of every beer you’ve got’.” Chris perhaps underestimated the sheer range of beers available, for when the beers were delivered to their door he got a little more than he bargained for. “In came this guy with a crate of beer. As he was bringing it through there was another knock and in came another person with a crate. In the end we got about four crates of beer. It was an absolute eye-opener – we’d come from having about four brands to having in excess of 40 different brands in this one tiny village!”

Slowly but surely, Chris and Babette set about the not-unpleasant task of tasting all the beers and getting used to new styles. The new-found passion for beer saw them tasting the local brews throughout Europe – and discovering the staunch pride each place had in their beer. “You’d move from one village to another and ask for the beer from the previous village and they’d almost want to beat you up!” Chris laughs. “It was so enlightening as to what beer is about.”

On returning to Cape Town, Chris decided that the only way he could get his beer fix was to brew for himself. Saturday mornings were spent at the only shop selling supplies, the kitchen was commandeered and the bathroom became overrun with fermenters. Once Chris and Babette married and Matthew came along, Chris felt he could no longer take over the kitchen all weekend – and when he started finding baby gear in his fermenters he decided it was time to find a new home for his brewery. It was then that he upgraded to a 100-litre system and set it up in the family factory in Paarden Eiland. He soon found himself with a problem that many people would be keen to suffer with – Chris was brewing too much beer for him and his friends to drink! He started selling his beer to some of the factory workers and it was then that the foundations for a brewery were laid. “A shebeen owner phoned me and asked me where my rep was, saying that he needed stock. I didn’t know what was going on! Then I found out that the guys from the factory were reselling it to shebeens to make some money and that they’d taken the company name – Boston Bag – and just written Boston Breweries on the beer labels.” Thanks to their entrepreneurism, Chris suddenly found himself with a functioning brewery – and a name for it too.

Boston Breweries proper was launched in 2000 with the flagship beer, Boston Lager. For the next six years, the brewery’s success waxed and waned with just two beers in the range – the lager and Whale Tale Ale. Chris began to import malt, allowing him to introduce new styles including the very popular Johnny Gold Weiss, which launched to much acclaim at the inaugural Cape Town Festival of Beer in 2010. It wasn’t the only beer that met instant and – to Chris at least – surprising approval. In 2011 Chris added Van Hunks Pumpkin Ale to the collection following a test brew that was borne out of a dare.

Ask the brewer

My beer kind of smells like Band-Aids – someone said that this is the smell of hops, is that right?

“I have found the most common cause for a Band-Aid or ‘medicine chest’ flavour and aroma is either from our water or yeast. A phenolic flavour can be caused by chlorophenols in the water – the use of a carbon filter will eliminate these in your brewing water. Chlorine sanitizers that haven’t been rinsed properly can be another cause. While Band-Aid aromas are always a sign that something is wrong, and definitely not the aroma of hops, phenolic flavours are not always bad. A Weiss beer yeast will impart a clove-like phenolic flavour that you would want in your Weiss beer.”

TASTING NOTES

BOSTON LAGER (4% ABV)

A well-balanced beer with the hop bitterness backing up the sweetness from the malt. Good body and with a perfect level of carbonation that won’t leave you feeling bloated.

WHALE TALE ALE (3.5% ABV)

A copper-coloured ale that is lighter in body than you might expect. Aromas of toffee and caramelised sugar leave you expecting a sweet beer, but in fact there’s a pleasantly dry finish.

NAKED MEXICAN (4.5% ABV)

There’s a very mild malt aroma on this light lager, which is ideal for summer days. It’s refreshing, with a pleasantly bitter aftertaste.

JOHNNY GOLD WEISS (5% ABV)

Aromas of bubblegum and banana emerge from this Weiss, typical of the style. You’ll also pick up a hint of cloves in the aroma, thanks to the Weiss yeast. Not as heavy as some Weiss beers, but exhibiting all the flavours of the style – bananas, bread and to a lesser extent, cloves.

VAN HUNKS PUMPKIN ALE (5% ABV)

“Like Christmas in a glass” is how some have described this spiced ale. Cinnamon is the predominant aroma – and flavour – with less obvious notes of nutmeg. Dark copper in colour, it’s surprisingly light-bodied for a beer so full in flavour.

HAZZARD TEN ALE (10% ABV)

A bold, after-dinner beer boasting flavours of caramelised sugar, boiled sweets, spice and toffee.

“After the American show Brewmasters had been on TV, people called me asking if I could make a pumpkin ale,” Chris recounts. A friend challenged him to brew a batch, so Chris set about researching the style, concentrating on which spices to use and how much to add. “Six weeks later we brewed it and the very first batch we brewed, people liked,” says Chris. The beer that started as a dare has become a familiar face on the Cape Town beer scene and one that really expanded beer drinkers’ horizons as to what a beer can be.

Introducing new beers helped Boston to finally bloom, but it wasn’t the only reason that the brewery took off after so many years. “The craft beer boom has affected business massively,” says Chris. “Four years ago we were ready to shut. Then the farmers’ markets started and, of course, Jack Black was launched. Ross [McCulloch, of Jack Black] did a lot of work promoting craft beer. In the last two years it has really taken off. It’s great that people have really become open-minded.”

These days Chris spends more time behind his desk than he does at the brew kettle, but he has two assistant brewers to keep things ticking over. He does, however, take the helm when a new beer is added to the catalogue and still prides himself on his hands-on quality control.

“I test every batch we brew,” he says – no mean feat for a brewery that operates 24 hours a day, four days a week.

Chris has various beers in the pipeline as his brewery receives yet another upgrade. “I have a unique way of testing new beers,” Chris says. “On Saturday my house is all about rugby – no one gets invited, people just pitch up, so I try out new beers on them. If a brand works then the next week there are loads of people!”

Whatever the future may bring for Boston, you can be sure it doesn’t suffer with the supply and demand problem from the early years. These days there’s never a shortage of people – friends or otherwise – lining up to drink his beer.

OXTAIL AGNOLOTTI WITH PARMESAN CHEESE SAUCE

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETER TEMPELHOFF, GROUP EXECUTIVE CHEF FOR THE COLLECTION BY LIZ MCGRATH & RELAIS & CHÂTEAUX GRAND CHEF

Pair with Boston Breweries Van Hunks Pumpkin Ale. Chef Peter says: “The pumpkin beer has hints of clove and coriander, which are accentuated by the salty yet neutral Parmesan sauce.”

CARROT AND CITRUS SALAD WITH JOHNNY GOLD DRESSING

RECIPE COURTESY OF TANJA KRUGER, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT MAKARON AT MAJEKA HOUSE

Chef Tanja says: “I paired this salad with the Johnny Gold because I wanted to enhance the beer’s fruity notes with the citrus and also because the slight bitterness from the grapefruit is a great compliment to the beer. It’s a light, fresh, summery beer and pairs well with a light fresh salad.”

HAZZARD TEN BBQ PORK BELLY

RECIPE COURTESY OF GREG CASEY, OWNER OF BANANA JAM CAFÉ

330 ml bottle Boston Breweries Hazzard Ten or 330 ml cola for the teetotallers out there

CITIZEN BEER

Need to know...

Location: Cape Town Web: citizenbeer.co.za Tel: 072 657 9851 Amenities: The beer is available at bars around Cape Town

Across the globe, people tolerate jobs they despise with only one thought in mind – the weekend and the blissful beers it might bring. Gary Pnematicatos decided that rather than making beer his weekend goal, he would bid farewell to an unfulfilling job and make beer his life.

“I started making champagne and wine with friends,” says Gary, “when I overheard them discussing plans to make beer. I thought that sounded amazing and started brewing all-grain with them. About six months later I was sitting at my desk at work and I thought – I hate this. I’d been making beer every weekend and I realised that was what I wanted to be doing.”

Fast-forward two years and the dream Gary conjured up at his desk has been realised. Along with local restaurant entrepreneur Hugo Berolsky, Gary launched Citizen Beer in April 2012 with their debut beer, Alliance American Amber Ale. Although currently brewed under contract at Boston Breweries (see page 45), the recipe is very much Gary’s baby and it took half a dozen brews for him to perfect it. “When I initially quit my job, my intention was to build a 1 000-litre system, have lots of fermenters and brew every day, but we came up against licencing and the difficulty in getting equipment so we decided to focus instead on the brand and the logistics of selling the beer. I’d already been speaking to Chris [Barnard, of Boston Breweries] about brewing in general as he’s a very affable guy, so it just made sense to ask him to brew the beer for us.”

But that’s not to say that the guys won’t have their own brewery in the future. “We would love to have our own brewery someday, maybe three or four years from now,” says Hugo. They’re both keen brewers, constantly working on future recipes in their R&D lab – the 30-litre homebrewery Gary built when he left the corporate world. Hugo admits that his eyes were opened to a beer culture he had no idea about when he started brewing with Gary. “I didn’t realise how much there was,” Hugo admits. “Suddenly I started realising this complex and hugely interesting world of endless variety.”

Their combined enthusiasm for all things beer is evident and infectious, from the eye-catching labels and logo to the beer itself, refined over time thanks to Gary’s perfectionism. When he first left his job he brewed every second day until he felt he’d made enough mistakes – and good beer – to introduce his beer to a wider world.

And it seems the wider world is grateful, with demand quickly outstripping supply and exceeding the duo’s every expectation. “It’s been a very humbling experience,” says Hugo, referring not only to the customer response to their beer, but also to the support from within the brewing community. “The first thing we noticed about this industry is just how helpful everyone in it is,” he beams. “It’s not about keeping secrets to stay ahead of the game. Everyone pours out their knowledge. Everyone is just so excited for more beer. I’ve never encountered anything like it in any other industry.”

When Gary quit his job, the craft boom was very much in its infancy but his brave gamble for a fun-filled working life paid off. “I quit because I was passionate about making beer and I wanted a profession where I would love to wake up every day. Now this is all I do – and it’s the best job in the world,” he says.

The next step is to get back to the brewery and there are plenty of plans for further beers, with an English IPA, Saboteur, on its way and “two new beers that promise to widen the South African beer landscape” in the pipeline. In the meantime, enjoy the Alliance – maybe it will inspire you to follow a dream as well.

TASTING NOTES

ALLIANCE AMERICAN AMBER ALE (5.5% ABV)

This roasty, toasty beer is full of rich toffee aromas. It starts with the expected sweetness of caramelised sugar and crème brûlée flavours, but finishes with a pleasant, bitter note.

Also look out for the Saboteur English IPA, a malty, moderately bitter beer that uses East Kent Goldings hops.

DARLING BREW

When Kevin and Philippa Wood set off on a ninemonth trip through Africa, there was one goal in mind – to seek out spots for the new safari company they were planning to launch. They were three days into the trip when the entire plan changed and the safari company they had long discussed morphed into a microbrewery.

“We stopped in Nieu-Bethesda because I’d always wanted to see the Owl House,” explains Kevin. “A friend had also told me to go to the brewery there to taste the kudu salami, so we dropped in. I wasn’t a big beer drinker at all and when I got to this brewery and said I was there for the kudu salami and cheese platter, the guy looked at me like I was mad – I mean, who comes to a brewery and doesn’t order a beer?” Although hesitant to sample “homemade beer”, the brewer – André Cilliers of Sneeuberg Brewery (see page 151) – convinced Kevin to taste, telling him that if he didn’t enjoy it, he wouldn’t have to pay. “I tasted the beer and it was really nice and that’s basically where it started,” says Kevin of his five-year journey into beer.

Kevin could instantly see the concept working in his adopted hometown of Darling, with the then unusual anchor of microbrewed beer working in conjunction with homemade bread and cheese. Before they left the little Karoo town, Kevin had made a deal to buy equipment and recipes from André and a whole new dream was born.

“We quickly forgot all about the safari idea,” he admits. “Suddenly it was all focused on how many beers there were in Africa in the countries we went to. We started to notice lots of new things – from the flavour of the beer to the size of the bottle and during the trip we talked a lot about opening a microbrewery.”

Nine months later they returned home and the “Romeo and Juliet” phase of planning a brewery had come to an end. “Now you’ve got to do what you said you were going to do and it’s pretty daunting,” says Kevin. “Especially when you don’t know what you’re doing!” But he was adamant that this was the path he wanted to walk and what followed is a story that is as entertaining – and sometimes ridiculous – as it is inspiring for anybody considering a career change. Kevin is the first to acknowledge that he had bitten off more than he could chew, describing himself as “like a rabbit in headlights, numb because I didn’t know where to start”.

André arrived from Nieu Bethesda with the equipment – a bakkie full of plastic vats, some hops and malt extract – that left Kevin wondering how on earth he’d ever make any money from his new brewing venture.

Problems prevailed, beginning with finding premises and continuing with tensions between the various parties involved. Meanwhile Kevin kept brewing, fastidiously churning out 100 litres of beer every day in a bid to build up considerable stock before launching his brand. Luckily he took to the whole process, falling instantly in love with the aromas emerging from the boil. “I thought the smell of brewing was the most amazing smell from the first batch we did,” he recalls.

The beer reserves were filling up – aided enormously by Kevin purchasing another 50 food vats to add to the original eight – and Kevin poured his first pint at the 2008 Voorkamerfest in Darling. Despite technical problems, the beer was well received, Kevin remembers. “We had a lot of trouble with the kegs as the pressure was wrong because of the altitude difference between Darling and Nieu Bethesda. It was like having a foam bath, and by the time we’d worked it out, we were selling flat beer!”

Although jovial about the whole experience, Kevin’s frustration at taking on something he knew almost nothing about is evident. “You’re doing something that no one else is doing and you’re almost embarrassed because people think that you don’t know what you’re doing – and they’re quite right!” he says, acknowledging that by that time he had ploughed so much money into the project there was no turning back. But the operation was getting too large – Kevin had close to 6 000 litres of beer that he couldn’t sell and was running out of capital when someone recommended that he chat to Chris Barnard of Boston Breweries (see page 45).

“I went to meet Chris, not to see if he would brew my beer for me but to see if he could bottle and keg it,” says Kevin. “Imagine the situation – I’ve got 6 000 litres and only five kegs!” Kevin poured out his story to Chris and, by the end of the meeting, Kevin was so impressed with Boston that he decided he would like Chris to brew the beer for him after all. Kevin brought his recipes and Chris soon started to produce the beer that Kevin had been so desperately trying to create and sell.

The first pint of Darling Brew as we know it today was poured at a Stellenbosch market in May 2010. With production fully up and running, Kevin’s challenges changed totally, with the next issue being how and where to sell it all. But when he looks back you can quickly tell that Kevin doesn’t regret a moment. “Craft brewing is everything one wants,” he gushes. “There’s adventure, there’s innovation. People say I’m living the dream and in a way that’s exactly what I’m doing. I’m able to take all my corporate knowledge and take my biggest passion, which is wildlife, and put it all together.”

The wildlife side of things can be seen in the labels, each of which features a South African animal hand-picked to represent each beer. For Kevin, the crowning glory of the collection to date is Bone Crusher, a cloudy, Belgian-style witbier represented by the hyaena. “The beer is misunderstood and so is the animal,” he says, rolling the striking 550 ml bottle in his hand.

For now it seems that Darling Brew’s biggest hurdles have been left far behind, with the über-fashionable brand well established in the Cape and starting to take off elsewhere in the country. And what of those 6 000 litres of beer, you might ask? “Most of it was thrown away,” reveals Kevin. “Though I did drink a lot of it at home – it was a great beer … in fact I think I’ve still got two 20-litre kegs of it in my store room …”

TASTING NOTES

SLOW BEER (4% ABV)

Darling’s flagship beer and biggest seller is a full-flavoured lager. You won’t find much on the nose, but it’s a crisp, dry sipper that’s a perfect intro to craft beer.

NATIVE ALE (4% ABV)

A clear, rust-coloured ale with mild caramel notes on the nose. It’s a light yet flavourful beer with hints of candi sugar.

BONE CRUSHER (6% ABV)

A bottle-conditioned witbier seasoned with coriander and orange peel. There’s perfume and spice on the nose and a highly spiced flavour that hits you in the face but leaves your palate clean and refreshed.

BLACK MIST (5% ABV)

This dark ale is a deep, deep brown with a light tan head. There’s a definite coffee aroma and flavour, with a mild but lingering hint of molasses.

BONE CRUSHER TEMPURA PRAWNS

RECIPE COURTESY OF PHILIPPA WOOD OF DARLING BREW

Serve with a Belgian-style witbier, such as Darling’s Bone Crusher. Witbier is a delicate beer and its flavours and body make it a perfect partner for seafood.

If Bone Crusher is not available, you can substitute another witbier in the recipe.

SPRINGBOK, BLACK MIST AND DUMPLING STEW

RECIPE COURTESY OF PHILIPPA WOOD OF DARLING BREW

If Darling Black Mist is not available, you can substitute another dark ale in the recipe.

DEVIL’S PEAK BREWING COMPANY

While other breweries have tiptoed towards the bold styles that they really want to make, conscious of keeping the consumer happy, Devil’s Peak has basically punched South Africa in the face with a bag of hops. Launching to a fanfare of praise at the 2011 Cape Town Festival of Beer, the brewery seemed to emerge from nowhere with its brazen American beers and teased us with a rich, chocolaty stout that is yet to be repeated. But of course this brewery did not come from nowhere – it is the product of years of planning, passion and hard work.

It all started in 2008 when consulting services company owner Russell Boltman began to sneak beer into the wine tasting group he enjoyed with friends. Having lived for two years in San Francisco and travelled extensively in the US, Russell had got hooked on hops and was a huge fan of big, bold American-style beers. Russell’s varsity friend and now partner in the brewery, Dan Badenhorst, recalls Russell introducing him to the idea that beer, too, could be sipped and savoured, though Russell remembers “it taking a while to convince him that beer could be as good as wine”. But convince him he did and soon the friends decided they wanted to start a craft brewery. Of course, there was one obvious hurdle to begin with – while Dan and Russell were keen beer appreciators, neither was a brewer. “We thought of approaching guys to put up a brewery but we couldn’t afford it,” says Dan. “And in retrospect it was good that we didn’t as we wouldn’t have known what to do with it!” It was through one of Cape Town’s best-known and best-loved brewers, Wolfgang Ködel, that the guys found their brewmaster – and a third partner in the business – Greg Crum.

Hailing from New Mexico, Greg was an engineer and a passionate homebrewer, churning out superlative American-style beers from his garage in Somerset West. It was a match made in heaven – hop heaven that was, although Greg was also dabbling in Belgian beers, another genre that Dan and Russell were interested in. After a few false starts, Greg built the 500-litre brewery from scratch, using tanks bought from wine farms, from dairy farms and there were even tanks bought from a cattery, though Dan is quick to add that they didn’t end up using them! In the meantime, Greg was furiously brewing on a 90-litre system to gather together the stock for the Cape Town Festival of Beer. Although most people attending the festival had never tasted anything quite like Devil’s Peak’s in-your-face flavours, the beers were the hit of the festival. Then, just when it seemed that everything was working out, Greg announced his move back to the States. “Greg’s wife got a job offer over there,” says Dan. “We thought that might derail us a bit.” But luckily Greg was around long enough to train a replacement brewer – and that brewer would be JC Steyn.

TASTING NOTES

FIRST LIGHT GOLDEN ALE (4.5% ABV)

From the first whiff you can tell this is a perfectly balanced beer offering equal doses of hoppy spice and malty sweetness. On the palate, sweetness and bitterness are in perfect harmony. It’s the perfect “intro to hops” beer.

WOODHEAD AMBER ALE (5% ABV)

There’s a hint of grapefruit on the nose here and a touch of sweetness. A faint flavour of caramelised sugar is overridden with awesome hoppiness on this bitter, balanced beer whose finish is so clean it’s like a palate-cleanser.

THE KING’S BLOCKHOUSE IPA (6% ABV)

If you’re obsessed with the olfactory, this is your beer – you could sit and sniff the sharp, tropical fruit aromas for hours. Flavour-wise, the heavily-hopped IPA continues to wow, with granadilla notes and a slightly sweet, malty backbone.

SILVERTREE SAISON (5% ABV)

Typical aromas characteristic of Belgian yeast waft from this delicate beer, as well as a welcome noseful of spice. It’s a complex beer with restrained flavours of orange peel and spice.

“I was a winemaker at Dornier for seven years,” says JC, “and I was getting frustrated. There’s so much competition and you’re constantly trying to make your wine stand out and be different.” That would not be a problem at Devil’s Peak, whose beers were immensely different to most of what was available in South Africa. JC admits that he’d always wanted to brew and decided to take the plunge with the fledgling brewery. Dan calls it a “great leap of faith”, but it’s definitely one that has paid off. “I’m loving it!” JC effuses. “It’s a big change but I’m stoked that I did it.” And how does brewing compare with winemaking? “Well, the thing about wine that kind of frustrates me a little bit is that there are so many variables,” JC explains. “you can do your best, you can work hard every day but you might not make the best wine if, for example, your vineyard is lacking. With beer you’re working with very few variables; the variables are more in control so it’s all down to the brewer.”

The only challenge now is to keep up with demand in a city that seems to have a new-found thirst for hops. Luckily, there are plans to upgrade the brewery and the team – including fourth partner Derek Szabo – is seeking a spot in Cape Town for their swanky new setup, using the much sought-after equipment from the former Paulaner Brewery at the V&A Waterfront. No doubt the public will be thrilled once the new equipment is installed and the beers are more widely available.

But it’s not just what’s within the bottle that has wowed – Devil’s Peak have also been lauded for their elegant labels, each emblazoned with a tarot-card style ambigram. “For us it’s important that what’s outside the bottle represents the same craft and creativity as what’s inside the bottle,” Russell explains. The names all relate to Devil’s Peak itself, with the Blockhouse a well-known feature and the Woodhead Dam sitting atop the mountain. “We make largely Belgian and US-driven beers so we wanted to localise them, to give them a sense of place in Cape Town,” says Russell who, like the rest of the team, hails from the Mother City. There are also plans to use more local ingredients, though at present the ingredients are largely imported.

And along with the imported hops, it seems Devil’s Peak have imported a new attitude towards beer. Some would have snubbed the idea of entering the market with a beer so far from the familiar, but the public is literally lapping it up. “Even if some South Africans are not ready for it now, they will be,” Russell asserts. “We’re at the start of what’s basically a revolution,” adds Dan. “It would be wonderful if in 10 years’ time we could feel that we were partly responsible for setting it in motion.”

ALLEPEY FISH CURRY

RECIPE COURTESY OF HARPREET KAUR, EXECUTIVE SOUS CHEF AT THE BOMBAY BRASSERIE

Pair with an American-style IPA, such as Devil’s Peak The King’s Blockhouse IPA. “The full-bodied structure of the beer and its intense hoppiness brings out the coconut flavours in the dish,” says Chef Harpreet. “Extra spice in the dish complements the robust spiciness of the beer.”

CAPE MALAY-INSPIRED KABELJOU

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETER TEMPELHOFF, GROUP EXECUTIVE CHEF FOR THE COLLECTION BY LIZ MCGRATH & RELAIS & CHÂTEAUX GRAND CHEF

Pair with a lightly-hopped ale, such as Devil’s Peak First Light Golden Ale. Chef Peter says: “The First Light has hints of passion fruit and coriander which just scream Malay curry flavours. We serve this combination in the Greenhouse to rave reviews.”

DIEKS’ BRU

Need to know...

Location: 1 Church Street, De Rust Web: dieksbru.com Tel: 073 232 2527 Amenities: Tasting room, off-sales

Dieks Theron’s first ever brew was not exactly a rousing success. He brewed a kit beer in 1968, bottled it and then it exploded, leading his wife to understandably quash the hobby while her nerves healed. His interest in brewing lay dormant for close to four decades, when Dieks and a friend decided they fancied trying their hand at making a homemade version of Jack Daniels. “But to make whisky, you first have to make beer!” Dieks says. Luckily for the South African brew scene, Dieks hasn’t quite made it to the whisky, getting hooked on brewing in the interim.

“I used kits for the first six months,” says Dieks, “then said to myself – this is for the birds; I’ve got to have control over what I’m doing!” He went to a meeting of the Wort Hogs – a Gauteng-based homebrewing club – and soon got hooked on all-grain, but his job as a metallurgist hindered his progress somewhat. “I was working in the Congo and you couldn’t get any supplies or equipment there,” he says, admitting that he sneaked some malt and a mill in with him so that he could pursue his new hobby. The job required him to work six days out of seven, but it was worth it for the joy that the seventh day brought. “On Sunday I would play golf in the morning and then brew in the afternoon,” he recalls fondly. He would share his homebrew with colleagues and quickly found they couldn’t get enough of his beer – especially the Americans, who were well acquainted with a range of beer styles.

Soon afterwards Dieks decided that he had found the retirement job that he had been seeking as he neared his 70^th birthday. He and wife Frances uprooted from their Somerset West home to join their daughter in the tiny Karoo dorp of De Rust and plans for the brewery got underway. It’s a brave move to launch a range of beers in a town with a mere 300 residents, but Dieks is tapping into the region’s tourism market, selling his beers in Oudtshoorn as well as in De Rust’s six restaurants. The feather in his new brewery’s cap though, is getting his beer into that ultimate of Route 62 institutions, Ronnie’s Sex Shop, where a light beer will be on sale to passing bikers and anyone else who stops to admire the bar’s impressive bra collection.

Diek’s Bru was established in 2012 and he plans to do a brew a week on his 280-litre system, much of which he has built himself. His scientific background has also helped keep the brewery green. “The spent grain will be used as animal feed and the liquid residues will be going into a digester to make biogas for heating the boiler,” Dieks explains. “My fermenters are designed to capture the carbon dioxide and compress it for carbonating my beers and later on I will sell what I don’t need to homebrewers.” Most of Diek’s beer will be bottled rather than kegged and the labels are as close to his heart as the beers they represent, since they feature paintings by his daughter, well-established Karoo artist Glendine.

Throughout his almost-seven decades, Dieks has worked as a metallurgist and a minister, lived in virtually every South African province plus a handful of other southern African countries but it seems that in De Rust – and his brewery – he has finally found his true calling.

JACK BLACK

Need to know...

Web: jackblackbeer.com Tel: 021 447 4151 Amenities: Jack Black is available in bars throughout Cape Town

It takes a lot of beer to make good wine, the old saying goes, but in the case of Ross McCulloch and Meghan MacCallum things worked the other way around. The two met in Meghan’s native Canada in 2002 over a wine tasting stand, where Ross was representing the well-known Gallo brand and Meghan was embarking on a career as a wine writer and sommelier. “There’s kind of an underground beer culture within the wine industry,” says Meghan, and that’s exactly how the two started dabbling in craft beer, a trend that was just starting to show its face in Canada.

“I was travelling for one or two weeks each month for my job,” says Ross. “I’d stop in a lot of small places but I wouldn’t go and hang out with the reps and drink wine in the evenings, I’d go and find the craft beer bars in whatever town I was in and try the beers. It was something I really looked forward to – I became a kind of a travelling beer taster.” Meanwhile Cape Town was calling, as Meghan recollects: “We’d be sitting in dark, cold offices and getting emails with photos of people surfing in the sun.” Ross made occasional trips back to his home town to visit family – and of course to start researching the craft beer industry in South Africa, or at least to see if one existed. By the middle of 2005, the seed of an idea had been sown and the couple decided to leave their corporate jobs and take a chance. “I was enjoying my job,” says Ross, “but we decided that either we were going to make a break for it or we were going to just drink craft beer that other people made.”

So plans were put into place and research – much of it of the rather enjoyable tasting kind – began. “It all starts with the beer,” says Meghan, speaking of the pre-prohibition-style lager that they decided they wanted to make after researching and tasting different beer styles. “We wanted an amazing all-malt lager that makes something more of a lager than most people are used to,” Meghan continues. But it wasn’t only about the style – Ross and Meghan loved everything about the pre-prohibition idea: the story, the era and, of course, the flavour.

To get the flavour they were looking for, Ross and Meghan developed a recipe in Vancouver, brewing test batches of the beer at the Russell Brewing Company. After experimenting with various recipes using traditional hops found in the US during the pre-prohibition era, such as the cluster hop, Jack Black Premium Lager was born. The name comes from an early twentieth-century American brewer, John Jack Black, whose family had a flourishing farm in the hop-growing region of New York State.

With recipe in hand, Ross and Meghan moved to Cape Town in 2006, quickly realising that their beer would have to change a little to use locally available ingredients. “We had to make natural changes because of what was available in raw materials,” says Ross. “We have also made some tweaks based on consumer preferences here, but we have remained true to a pre-prohibition style. We feel strongly about the heritage of the beer that we’re doing but we’re also integrating it into what’s locally available.”

So with a recipe, a name and enough capital to keep them afloat for a couple of years, Ross and Meghan set out to find a brewery that could help them achieve their dream. Jack Black was first brewed at Birkenhead Brewery and later moved to Boston Breweries in Cape Town. Ross and Meghan had allowed themselves two years, thinking that if it hadn’t worked in that time they would return to Canada and the corporate world. It was touch and go at times, Ross admits, and they were starting to think that it wasn’t going to work when suddenly things took off. “After two years we could see that it was going to be a success,” says Ross, who has been instrumental in helping get South Africa’s craft beer industry off the ground. “There was a real demand suddenly and the third year was very exciting.”

TASTING NOTES

PREMIUM LAGER (5% ABV)

A good dose of malt on the nose and a malty fruitiness on the palate. It’s a very refreshing brew, with richer mouthfeel than most lagers provide, and a clean, dry finish.

PALE ALE (4.5% ABV)

An amber-coloured brew with subtle flavours of toffee and biscuit. Like all of Jack Black’s beers, the Pale Ale leaves your glass with superb lacing.

PILSNER (5.2% ABV)

There’s almost no aroma on this light straw-coloured beer. A slightly fruity entry is followed up with mild spice from the hops. Hugely refreshing on a summer’s day.

Look out also for Lumberjack Amber Ale and the seasonal Great White Weiss.

Early on, Ross and Meghan realised that draught beer was where it was at, installing their first tap into a most illustrious location – the Mount Nelson Hotel. Since then, well over 100 Jack Black taps have been fitted in Cape Town and around the Western Cape, with Ross overseeing or installing a great number of them himself. “I call myself the sales guy,” he says, “but I can install a tap like nobody’s business!”

With the first taps recently installed in Johannesburg, things are looking rosy for Jack Black, though Ross still refuses to look at a spreadsheet he penned back before the company had launched. “After about three months I never looked at it again because according to that we became millionaires within six months!” he laughs. “We’re still smaller now than after three months on that spreadsheet. It’s been harder than we thought, but if I was working in a normal job, I wouldn’t be having as much fun.”

You can expect plenty from Jack Black in the not-too-distant future, with speciality brews to take place at other breweries and Ross’s desire to “come out with a bloody great IPA at some point”. Whatever the team comes up with, you can be sure that it will stay in line with the company’s mantra – to make craft beer accessible to the average guy on the street. We’ll all drink to that!

KARUSA

Need to know...

Location: Off the R328, Schoemanshoek, just outside Oudtshoorn Web: karusa.co.za Tel: 044 272 8717 Amenities: Restaurant, tasting room, wine tasting

Brewing was a natural leap for Jacques Conradie. Having already produced wine, port and MCC at some point in his career, it was only a matter of time before he added beer to his repertoire. Jacques is a trained winemaker and after years working at Graham Beck and Boplaas among others, he took the reins at his family vineyard just outside Oudtshoorn. “We pretty much reached our maximum wine volume, so the beer just seems to make sense,” says Jacques, himself a keen beer drinker.

Indeed it makes sense in more ways than one. Karusa sits just off the road to the Cango Caves, giving Jacques a steady stream of thirsty tourists passing by. Add to that the Klein Karoo summer heat – perfect beer-drinking weather – and it seems he’s onto a winner. In fact, the biggest problem has been keeping up with local demand – well, that and mastering the finer points that set brewing aside from winemaking.

“I’ve struggled with my mash temperatures and fermentation temperatures,” says Jacques, whose first foray into brewing was in June 2011. “But it’s coming together now! I understand winemaking holistically and it’s important that I do the same with brewing so I’ve been doing a lot of reading and a lot of practising.”

Self-taught from brewing books, his background in booze production has surely been a great help, though Jacques is well aware of the differences between wine and beer – not least the resilience of the former and the absence of preservatives in the latter, something that Jacques admits he finds challenging, especially with Oudtshoorn’s elevated summer temperatures.

Jacques is brewing just one beer – a pale ale – but there are plans to add an amber ale and a stout to the list once the brewery is fully up and running. His ales are available on tap at Karusa and a couple of venues in Oudtshoorn, as well as in bottles to sip at home. Other plans will fuse together his winemaking background with his new-found love in a beer matured in red muscadel barrels. And of course, having mastered champagne, wine, port and beer, Jacques intends to dabble in one of beer’s by-products, whisky, giving visitors a tour of the entire alcohol spectrum in just one stop.

TASTING NOTES

KAROO DRAUGHT (4% ABV)

A good dose of malt and fruitiness on the nose belies the bitter finish of this gold-hued pale ale.

MISTY MEADOWS MICROBREWERY

Sometimes, when you’re enjoying a pint, you want hustle and bustle, music and banter. And sometimes you just want to sit quietly and sip – to be at one with your beer, if you will. Misty Meadows is definitely a spot to head to if you’re seeking the latter. Situated on a former dairy farm just outside George, it’s a tranquil place where both the weather and landscape often live up to the brewery’s name. Established in 2008, it is the brainchild of Jo’burg-based property developer Howard Rawlings. “I looked all over the country for a spot to set up,” Howard explains. “One day I was driving from Groot-Brakrivier and suddenly I was hit by all this green. It was amazing and I knew I’d found the right spot.”

It turned out to be the right spot for more than just its view. Close to the country’s hop-growing region, Howard was sourcing ingredients when one of the hop farmers mentioned a retired SAB brewer living in George. Howard now had property, a recipe designed by Moritz Kallmeyer of Drayman’s in Pretoria (see page 179), a brewery and the missing piece of the puzzle – a brewer, Johann Steenberg.

“I didn’t say yes straightaway,” says Johann, who had retired in 2005 after 34 years with SAB. “But it of course raised some interest. Once a brewer, always a brewer!” It didn’t take too long for Johann to relent and the first batch of Buzzard Country Ale was brewed at the end of 2009, a process that for Johannes was like going back to his early brewing years. “The equipment here is of course totally different to what I was used to at SAB. You’re doing things manually and nowadays in large breweries it’s all computerised – I refer to them as TV screen brewers. But when I started it was very much a manual process and this is like stepping back to my roots. It’s much more hands-on and you get much more of a feel for what you’re doing.”

That’s largely the ethos of Misty Meadows, where Howard has plans to create a self-sustaining village filled with hands-on artisanal foodies. The beer is already in place and there’s a butcher on site. “I’d like to start making cheese on the property as well and would like to produce honey, leather, muesli, ice cream and bread. Eventually all the waste products will go back into the cycle – like we feed our spent grain to the chickens and any extra beer now gets distilled into whisky.” Misty Meadows is all about staying local, with all of the ingredients for the sole beer, Buzzard, coming from within South Africa. Whenever demand dictates, Johann brews an 800-litre batch along with Artsheal Oktober, who lives and works on the farm.

TASTING NOTES

BUZZARD COUNTRY ALE (4% ABV)

Easy-drinking and uncomplicated yet expertly made, this ale has malt aromas and a mild sweetness that lends itself well as a partner for pizza.

Along with the beer itself, perhaps the farm’s biggest draw card is its brewing weekends, where beer fans can follow the process from mash to fermentation while nipping out for the occasional round of golf on George’s renowned courses. The rest of the time the brewery is open to casual visitors who want to sample wood-fired pizza, buy a braai pack to throw on the coals or to just sit and sip while enjoying the meadows beyond.

Ask the brewer

Are there any chemicals in beer?

“Many brewers use what we call processing aids. These can vary from specific enzymes to materials that assist with breaking down of troublesome compounds such as proteins. Calcium salt is also a common addition that brewers use to balance the minerals in brewing. Some brewers will add it straight into the mash tun with the base volume of brewing water or liquor, others will mix it into the brewing water tank prior to pumping it to the mash tun. Food-grade acid is also common for pH control.”

MITCHELL’S BREWERY

You know a beer is good when it stops someone in their tracks and it alters their whole career path; their entire life plan. This is just what happened to Dave McRae in 1985. Fresh from university and with the smell of Cape Town in his nostrils, Dave left his native Port Elizabeth, travelling the coast en route to a Mother City job hunt. On the way, he stopped off in Knysna to host his 21^st birthday bash at his parents’ holiday home on the lagoon. When he popped in to the newly opened Mitchell’s Brewery, he couldn’t have known that opting to put on draft beer for his party guests would have changed the course of his whole life, for Dave never quite made it to Cape Town. Dave walked into Mitchell’s to buy a birthday keg and essentially never left.

“The brewery had just started and I went in to get a keg of Forester’s,” says Dave. “I remember helping Lex carry it up the 39 steps to my parents’ place. Jokingly I said: ‘If you ever need anyone to sell your product, I’m your man.’ Two weeks later I’d fallen in love with Knysna and I found a job with CNA Gallo.” A month down the line the brewery’s founder and then owner, Lex Mitchell, offered Dave a sales position and Dave has never looked back.

You could say that Lex Mitchell is the godfather of craft brewing in South Africa. University dabblings in the likes of pineapple beer escalated into a career with SAB in 1977. “They put you through all departments very thoroughly, so you get an incredibly good grounding,” says Lex, though four years later the urge to brew his own way took hold. “When I joined SAB it was the first time I’d been exposed to a brewing magazine and in the very first magazine I looked in there was an article about small breweries in Britain.” A year later Lex and his beer-loving wife Sue toured British breweries for six weeks “stealing with their eyes” on a fact-finding mission that would result in South Africa’s first and longest-standing microbrewery.

Mitchell’s was established in 1983, originally at Thesen House in Knysna’s town centre, but two years later, when sales demanded a bigger brewery, it moved to the industrial area. The brewery has changed hands a few times over the years, including a stint with British brewing giant Scottish and Newcastle in the 1990s and forays into breweries based in Johannesburg and Cape Town. But today all of the beer is once more brewed in Knysna and Mitchell’s is again a locally owned company, with Dave McRae as a director and shareholder. Lex no longer has a stake in Mitchell’s but has recently made a welcome and long-awaited return to the craft in a new Port Elizabeth brewpub. He fondly recalls his early encounters with Dave. “In 1985 I realised I needed somebody else at the brewery,” says Lex. “I’m not very happy being the frontman and I decided that I needed a buffer and that David was going to be it.” But demand soon outstripped supply and Dave quickly moved from sales to brewing. “I cleaned tanks and scrubbed floors and learned the ropes from Lex,” Dave laughs. “It’s the last thing I thought I’d land up doing and it’s become my life. It is my life – here I am 27 years later.”

Despite its obvious staying power and success, Mitchell’s remains a surprisingly modest brewery. The atmosphere is familial and you get the idea that one of the factors behind its prosperity is Dave’s cheery demeanour. He’s particularly effusive about the craft beer boom in South Africa – a boom that Mitchell’s had been awaiting for almost three decades. “The interest in craft these past three or four years has been phenomenal. Of course there’s a little bit of competition, but I think that the positives far outweigh that. At the end of the day we’re all in the same game – to promote beer.”

The beers have remained largely unchanged since the eighties and nineties. The original beer, Forester’s Lager, is still the most popular, with the moreish and very drinkable Bosun’s Bitter coming a close second. “Bosun’s was launched in the mid-1980s and it shot to 80% of our sales immediately,” says Dave. “People were crying out for something different – we’d had lager, lager, lager until then.” Next on the brew sheet were Raven Stout and 90 Shilling Ale, the latter designed as a carbo-loader for the Knysna Forest Marathon but whose unusual cinnamon notes made it a perennial favourite. Milk & Honey Ale and Old Wobbly Lager completed the family in the early 1990s. Sadly there are no current plans to expand the range. “Space is a huge issue,” explains Dave. “We’d love to add more beers but we would need to expand first.”

But Mitchell’s isn’t stuck in the past and there are changes afoot, including a long-awaited move to glass bottles, stout pairings with Knysna’s famous oysters and a new deck where you can enjoy a pint of your favourite after a tasting session in the brewery. Here’s to another three decades of British-style ales, hopefully with Dave at the helm.

TASTING NOTES

FORESTER’S LAGER (3.6% ABV)

Not as heavily carbonated as lagers you might be used to, Forester’s is a light-bodied brew with malty undertones and a finish less dry than commonly found in lager.

MILK & HONEY ALE (5% ABV)

A delightful copper colour draws you into this speciality pint that is sweet but not cloying. Lactose and honey add both body and flavour, including hints of caramelised sugar.

90 SHILLING ALE (5% ABV)

A festive-smelling pint, thanks to the addition of cinnamon in the boil. Although caramelised sugar and cinnamon flavours jump out, it’s a well-balanced pint whose nose belies its not-too-sweet taste.

RAVEN STOUT (5% ABV)

There’s an underlying sweetness beneath the savoury notes and coffee aromas of this stout, a lighter-bodied beer than you might be expecting.

BOSUN’S BITTER (3.6% ABV)

SA’s first “real ale” was modelled on a Yorkshire Bitter. English in flavour, body and appearance, it has a barely-there hop aroma and toffee notes that don’t follow through to the palate. It’s a subtle and perfectly balanced blend of malt and hops with a finish that is bitter but not overly so.

Also look out for Old Wobbly, a strong lager brewed in two batches, with a stronger version served at Mitchell’s pub at the V&A Waterfront in Cape Town.

SALDANHA BAY MUSSELS COOKED IN OLD WOBBLY LAGER

RECIPE COURTESY OF LEON COETZEE, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT KURLAND HOTEL, MEMBER OF RELAIS & CHÂTEAUX

“I chose Old Wobbly Lager to go with the mussels due to its strong, robust flavour. For me it was a perfect marriage of the mussels and the seasoning, which when combined create a hearty, full-bodied flavour.”

* To roast the garlic, place a bulb of garlic in a preheated oven at 200 °C until soft. Squeeze out all the garlic purée.

SAGGY STONE BREWING COMPANY

Need to know...

Location: Off the R60, Nuy Valley, near Robertson Web: saggystone.co.za Tel: 072 550 7602 Amenities: Restaurant and pub, children’s play area, brewery tours by appointment

A butcher, a baker, a candlestick-maker – you might know it as a nonsensical nursery rhyme, but it also sounds a little bit like Adrian Robinson’s CV. OK, so he never worked as a butcher and doubtless hasn’t got the most impressive homemade candlestick collection – but he did use to be a baker. He was also a geography teacher, a warehouse worker packing peanut butter and a soldier, and it seems he still can’t quite decide on one job, now working simultaneously as a production manager for a peat moss plant, a fruit farmer and, of course, the reason he belongs in this book – a brewer.

Of all the earlier jobs, it was his 12-year stint baking bread in his own Cape Town bakery that was most helpful in learning to brew, for beer is really just liquid bread after all. But there would be a few steps that Adrian would take to get from bread to beer, starting with a life-changing motorbike accident in 2002. “I almost died. I had an epiphany and decided I wanted a change. I was making lots of money but just chasing my tail – I was working insane hours and never saw my wife,” Adrian explains. “Then one day I was sitting in a Jacuzzi with my brother, Phillip, drinking red wine and we decided to buy a wine farm!” Adrian’s farm sits in the Nuy Valley, just west of Robertson. There he grows grapes and other fruit; the former to sell to local wineries, the latter for export. He decided not to try and enter the highly competitive wine market but then, in 2007, he and Phillip began to experiment with homebrewing.

After a couple of kit beers, Adrian decided it was all-grain or nothing and for the next three years the brothers brewed for themselves and their buddies before deciding to make a business out of it. Phillip had spent time travelling in Australia and noticed a healthy smattering of breweries woven in among the vineyards there, yet among Robertson’s wineries there wasn’t a sole beer being brewed. And so the idea was born. “We didn’t originally want a brewpub,” admits Adrian. “We were just going to distribute our beer to other pubs, but then we decided we wanted to see how the customers reacted rather than just delivering and not knowing what they were saying about our beers.”

Adrian is a humble guy, happy to talk about early teething troubles and competing with other craft beers in the market. “You get a bit intimidated, but then you get out there and realise that people are really friendly and sharing. Some of the guys will even share recipes because, at the end of the day, everyone’s water is different, so even if I gave you my recipe you couldn’t make it the same.”

The story behind the brewery’s unusual name is a cute one, since the moniker was thought up by Adrian’s daughter, then 10 years old. “I had built a stone lapa out on the farm. I was trying to make it look really natural and it looked great until the baboons came and jumped on it, then it sagged in the middle,” Adrian explains. “Then my daughter called it a saggy stone lapa and it just came off the tongue nicely. We Googled it to see if anyone else had the name and all it came up with was saggy boobs, so we thought it was a sign from God!”

Work then began on the brewery building, a striking stone structure that is one of the country’s cutest brewpubs. Adrian built the pub himself, giving up his weekends for a year to create the dry stone walling effect and the wooden deck. He was aiming for a building that would blend with the environment and he’s rightfully thrilled with the result. “I love it!” says Adrian, a rare burst of pride from one of the country’s most modest brewers. “It came out even better than the original concept. What’s amazing is how it blends into the environment, which is what we wanted. We live on our own in the middle of nowhere and it’s not that we didn’t want to share it, but that we didn’t want to spoil it.” Adrian’s other stipulation was that the brewpub must be family friendly and a playground and plenty of outdoor space certainly fulfils that goal.

The brewpub opened in November 2010 with Adrian and Phillip’s flagship beer, the very well-received steam ale. The big launch though, came a year later at the first Cape Town Festival of Beer. “The festival was an eye-opener,” says Adrian. “It’s quite hard to put yourself out there, competing with 30 other guys. We got a lot of feedback – some good and some bad, so we tweaked some of the recipes afterwards.” Phillip is largely responsible for the recipes, while Adrian brews on the 200-litre system along with his father who he claims “is getting old and needed something to do!” At the moment Adrian admits that the setup is tiny but hopes that it will expand. “The future of farming is rough, so I see the brewery as my cash cow for later,” he says. “I hope that when you come back in two or three years’ time I’ll have six or eight beers and they’ll all be different.”

Future projects include some “edgier” beers to add to the current easy-drinking range, as well as a plan to host an Oktoberfest event where revellers could camp on the farm afterwards. “Our philosophy is very basic,” adds Adrian. “We want it to be really accessible; we want people to come and drink the beer that they like. You might not like all of them but hopefully you’ll like one of them.” And you’ll certainly love the setting and the laidback, family-friendly vibe that the Saggy Stone team is successfully striving for.

TASTING NOTES

CALIFORNIA STEAM (6.5% ABV)

Tropical fruit aromas on the nose lead you into this beer that is dangerously sippable considering its high alcohol content. Tropical fruit and a hint of toffee give a somewhat sweet taste, but it’s nicely balanced with the bitterness lent by the cascade hops.

DESERT LAGER (4.5% ABV)

A lightly carbonated lager with a pleasant, slightly fruity aroma. An understated bitterness makes this a moreish pint, perfect for summer drinking.

Also look for Big Red, a dark Irish ale with nutty flavours.

CHEESE ’N BEER BREAD

RECIPE COURTESY OF ADRIAN ROBINSON OF SAGGY STONE BREWING COMPANY

SOUTH AFRICAN BREWERIES – NEWLANDS BREWERY

It was 1820 when Swedish businessman Jacob Letterstedt decided to build a brewery in the shadow of Table Mountain. It was clear that the man knew what he was doing, since an important brewery still stands on that same site – undoubtedly SAB’s prettiest premises, Newlands Brewery.

Jacob’s reason for building his brewery here is the same reason that a spate of nineteenth-century breweries popped up in the area; the same reason that SAB still brews here today – its proximity to a pristine source of what many brewers consider to be beer’s most important ingredient – water. The Newlands Spring and the lesser-known Kommetjie Spring both feed the brewery, which has owned the rights to the water for more than 150 years. Alcohol production here predates Letterstedt though, with the original farm being used for wine production back in the 1670s. The farm, known as Questenburg, eventually made its way into the hands of the recently widowed Maria Barendina Dreyer. After jumping ship en route to Settler Country, Letterstedt ended up working as Maria’s gardener and he didn’t waste too much time before marrying her. The brewery he set up soon afterwards was named for his wife, while the adjacent mill took its name from Sweden’s then-queen, Josephine.

As rival breweries popped up and in some cases popped off again, the Mariendahl brewery continued to trade until 1889, more than two decades after Letterstedt’s death. The brewery and mill, along with the rights to the Newlands Spring, were then leased to Anders Ohlsson, who was rapidly establishing himself as a brewing mogul in Cape Town. He later bought the brewery and it remained a part of the Ohlsson’s Cape Brewing until 1956, when South African Breweries took over the historic site. Although Newlands is not SAB’s largest brewery, it quickly expanded and today the historic brewing buildings have been retired in favour of a larger, more modern plant. The malt house, oast house (where hops and barley were once dried) and nineteenth-century tower brewery still stand though and form an essential part of Newlands Brewery’s tour, showcasing the Cape’s brewing history and giving insight into how beer-making practices have changed throughout the ages.

Naturally, more than one brewer heads up Newlands Brewery but who better to talk beer with than a man who boasts almost as much beer history as the time-honoured brewery in which he spent most of his career. Reto Jaeger is a brewing legend in Cape Town, a Swiss beer maker representing the fourth generation of brewers in his family. Actually, to be accurate, Reto was not born in Switzerland, though he was born to Swiss parents. In fact, his father was heading up a Cairo-based brewery when he came into the world and it seems only fitting that he should be born in a spot also boasting a lengthy history with beer. His own beer education though, began in Switzerland. “I never felt pressured to continue the tradition,” Reto says, “but I was very interested in beer and brewing and started a technical traineeship as a brewer when I was 17.”

Reto worked for seven years in various Swiss breweries, brewing to the strict statutes of the Reinheitsgebot (see page 195). In 1975 he moved to South Africa, though it was not his first trip to the country. Reto had completed much of his schooling here, while his father headed up Johannesburg’s Chandler’s Brewery, later bought by SAB. Reto returned to South Africa for a “brief stint” to widen his brewing knowledge – a stint that would turn into a career spanning close to four decades. “I came to South Africa to understand a different way of brewing, to learn about different brewing processes and culture,” says Reto. “Here they use maize in the brewing process. If I had been brewing in China or Korea it would have been rice that I’d have been using,” he explains.

TASTING NOTES

CASTLE LITE (4% ABV)

There’s a mild maltiness on the nose and a good balance between malt and hops when you taste, with a lingering finish. Light and refreshing, it’s a great beer for summer afternoon imbibition.

PERONI NASTRO AZZURRO (5.1% ABV)

An uncomplicated, sweet aroma with malt and hops in equal doses if you sniff hard enough! There’s a faint hoppiness in this dry, easy-drinking lager.

CASTLE LAGER (5% ABV)

There’s virtually no aroma – a characteristic of the style. There’s both a hint of sweetness and a mild dose of bitterness, with a dry finish.

CARLING BLACK LABEL (5.5% ABV)

Of all SAB’s lagers, Black Label perhaps has the most recognisable aroma and flavour, with its characteristic fruitiness making it instantly identifiable. Some smell banana, others get pears, but there’s definitely fruit and a sweetness when you sip.

HANSA PILSNER (4.5% ABV)

Like all of SAB’s beers, Hansa is well balanced, with malt and hops both evident but with neither overpowering the other.

PILSNER URQUELL (4.4% ABV)

Look for the distinctive hop aroma of this thoroughbred beer. It’s not the tropical fruit aroma characteristic of American hops, but a more subtle, spicy character that carries through to the palate. Perfectly balanced and endlessly refreshing.

CASTLE MILK STOUT (6% ABV)

A definite whiff of coffee, with a distinctly sweet, toffee-like aroma. Flavour-wise, look for coffee and molasses, though the beer is not as sweet as it smells. In bottles, it is quite light-bodied, though the draught version has a luscious mouthfeel.

Also look out for Grolsch and Miller Genuine Draft, as well as the limited edition beers brewed for various beer festivals throughout the year.

Reto might well have had plans to move to the Far East to learn about brewing with rice, but he fell in love with Cape Town. “I’ll never forget telling the production manager at the time that I planned on staying for five to eight years – 10 as an absolute maximum, then I wanted to move on and gain more brewing experience.” Instead, Reto ended up working at Newlands Brewery for almost 37 years, retiring in the winter of 2012.

Whether it was the beer, the beauty of Cape Town or more likely meeting his wife Nina while working at Newlands that kept Reto here, one thing is for sure – he will be missed at the brewery. But as seems the trend with retired SAB brewers, Reto isn’t likely to stay away from the beer scene for long. He’s planning to help out at local beer festivals and with training sessions – and there are a few independent plans bubbling away. “I would like to take tourists on a beer route instead of the usual wine route – once I’ve had a bit of a breather that is!” he says. Of course, the question that everyone asks is not just about Reto’s future, but the future of the Jaeger family – will there be a fifth generation brewer? Reto smiles as he shakes his head and talks about his son, a passionate musician and 3D animator, and his daughter, who works in catering. “They both enjoy the product,” he laughs, “but there isn’t much interest in brewing.”

Ask the brewer

What’s the difference between a bottle of Castle Lager and a bottle of Castle Draught?

The word “draught” is derived from an Old English word dragen, meaning “to carry”, with the original word evolving over time to drag, draw and eventually draught. Over time draught became associated with both a beer type and serving style. Draught was traditionally described as an unpasteurised beer supplied in kegs or casks and as this beer was not pasteurised or aseptically filled, the shelf life of the product was limited. Due to the short turnaround in trade of draught beer, it was the freshest beer and as such draught has come to reflect beer that is served in a glass or tankard from a keg that is “brewery fresh”.
In modern brewing, this is translated as beer that is differentiated on taste from bottled or canned beer as having a “fresher” flavour, achieved by being sterile filtered, unpasteurised and unfiltered or flash pasteurised. In all of these beer treatments, no or very low heat is used to stabilise the beer, enhancing the shelf life but maintaining the “draught fresh taste”. Draught beers are also carbonated at a slightly lower level to help with product differentiation and palate smoothness.

But Reto has a plan that he hopes will appeal to his son so that the Jaeger tradition might continue. “Maybe the two of us will start a microbrewery,” he says. “So there may still be a fifth generation …”

The craft brewing industry has long been close to Reto’s heart. “The brewery I did my traineeship at was purchased by Heineken and closed five years later,” he says. “They decided it wasn’t a viable brewery. In that town now four or five microbreweries have opened, making me think about ‘my’ brewery. My great grandfather, Franz Jäger, had his own brewery, the Jäger Brewery, in Switzerland so it’s definitely something I have a connection with and something I’ve given a lot of thought to.”

Reto talks effusively about South Africa’s craft beer boom as he sips a pint from one of the Western Cape’s craft breweries. You can tell he’s spent years appreciating beer – he served on one of SAB’s rigorous tasting panels – as he looks and sniffs before each savoured sip. “Now there’s more interest in beer, which is absolutely great. I will support it in any way I can,” he says. “All these new styles really interest me – I’ve never been exposed to this range of beers.”

Back at Newlands Reto is sorely missed, though business must continue as usual. The brewery can put out two million quarts in 24 hours and operates 365 days a year. Despite this, Newlands is only the fourth largest of SAB’s seven South African breweries. The largest, Alrode, sits near Johannesburg, while other breweries operate in Polokwane, Port Elizabeth, Durban, Pretoria and Krugersdorp. There is no doubt that the beer industry is changing in South Africa, but SAB is not being left behind. Their speciality beers have appeared at beer festivals across the country and have covered everything from a blueberry Weiss to the chocolaty goodness of the Newlands Extra Special Stout, lovingly known as Nessy.

Norman Adami, SAB’s chairman and managing director, is in no doubt as to who holds the key to the future of South Africa’s beer scene. “I think consumers are being more adventurous and including more types within their repertoire,” he says. “I think they’re exploring and experimenting more and we are listening and experimenting too.”

Norman maintains that competition is good for the category of beer, an opinion that is echoed by others in the brewing community who believe that as long as people are drinking beer, they’re not drinking wine or coolers or spirits. “Competition has lifted the quality of all the players involved,” says Norman. “It has stimulated creativity, and if we ensure that the beer category remains exciting then that’s going to be good for all of us.”

Although SAB is still the giant of the South African beer world and there are differences in style, equipment and quantity when you compare them to the craft brewers, there is an obvious thread that ties all of the breweries together – a shared passion for beer. Norman perfectly sums up all that the brewers, large and small, have in common. “We don’t only believe in beer,” he says, “we believe in South African beer. There is something special about it and while we may not have the heritage that the Europeans have, we certainly don’t have to stand back when it comes to brewing credentials, imagination or producing a beer that is just right for the palate of South Africans, for the climate of South Africa, for South Africa itself.”

VEAL AND BACON MEAT LOAF WITH MARINATED CABBAGE

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

Pair with a pilsner, such as Pilsner Urquell. Chef Pete says: “This full-bodied pilsner is the ideal accompaniment for this meat loaf, which can be served hot or cold. The bitterness of the beer works very well with the smokiness of the bacon. In addition, the veal and sage work wonderfully with the lovely ‘hoppiness’ of the pilsner and the astringency and crispness of the cabbage brings out a sweetness in the beer.”

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

Pair with a sweet stout, such as Castle Milk Stout. Chef Pete says: “The richness of the pudding brings out wonderful caramel flavours in the stout. You can also pick up a hint of liquorice on the beer that was not evident before combining it with the pudding. There is also a beautiful clean finish on the stout that is a perfect counterbalance to the very sweet dessert.”

STELLENBRAU

It’s no exaggeration to say that when Deon Engelbrecht first tasted Luyt Lager, he enjoyed it so much he bought the brewery. The brewery wasn’t even for sale at the time, yet just 18 months after he first chatted with the brewery boss, the equipment and recipes were enjoying a new home in Stellenbosch.

It was in 2010 that Deon had that first fateful sip, when a colleague brought a bottle to Deon’s hometown of Potchefstroom. Tasting it gave Deon a kind of epiphany as he explains: “I had stopped drinking beer because I always felt bloated and I got headaches. But I drank one Luyt beer and then another one and instantly loved it. I said next time I go to Ballito I want to meet Louis Luyt.” Deon’s wife, Margriet, must already have been trembling then, as Deon admits that “when I say I have a plan she gets very worried”. True to form, Deon stuck to his plan and in January 2011 he met up with Louis Luyt, founder of the KZN-based brewery. After chatting beer the two started to drink some and Deon’s epiphany continued. “I can’t remember how much beer I drank,” he admits, grinning. “But it was a lot! Yet I didn’t feel bloated and I really enjoyed the taste, the aroma. I knew straightaway that there was something special there. Then the next morning I went for a run – I always take my running shoes wherever I go – and I felt nothing, no headache at all. This beer tasted good, it felt good and I started liking the beer environment again.”

Negotiations soon began for Deon to set up a sister brewery in Stellenbosch, brewing under licence from the long-established Ballito branch, but within months the plans changed and Deon was offered the chance to buy the brewery outright. He snapped it up and began the preparations to move both the extensive brewing equipment and his entire life to the Cape Winelands. By February 2012 the brewery was installed, along with two staff members so passionate about their jobs that they uprooted to continue brewing in the Cape. “There’s a Zulu in my brewery,” Deon jokes, in reference to the 1993 Hofmeyr movie. In fact there are two – assistant brewer Nosh Cingo and draught machine specialist Vincent Magwaza – and it’s evident that Deon is thrilled to have them on board.

The head brewer though, is a new addition to the team. After interviewing a number of established commercial brewers, Deon and his interview panel met Stephen de Jager. Stephen had been homebrewing for 15 years, but it wasn’t just his obvious passion for beer that wowed his prospective employer – there wasn’t a single technical question that they threw at him that Stephen couldn’t answer. “I was basically waiting 12 years for this job,” Stephen says. He started making beer when he was at Cape Technikon, where he admits he did more brewing than studying. A career in the electronic engineering field followed, but it was brewing that he always wanted to do. “The whole thing started way back when I was in Standard 6,” he remembers, his eyes lighting up at the chance to discuss his passion. “I walked past a chemist and saw a ‘make your own beer’ kit. I told my dad I wanted it and he said ‘there is no chance in hell, your mother would kill me!’” But at the first opportunity Stephen started to brew, shunning commercial kits in favour of a 200-litre stainless steel setup that he made himself. From the first brew he knew it was what he wanted to be doing with his life. His sheer enthusiasm is utterly contagious as he raves about Stellenbrau’s equipment – a brewery that most craft brewers would indeed envy deeply.

TASTING NOTES

CRAVEN CRAFT LAGER (4.5% ABV)

A sparklingly clear beer that’s completely true to style. Refreshing, crisp and dry with an obvious but not overpowering malt aroma and flavour.

Also look out for Alumni Ale and Hausbrau, the first beer recipe to be devised in-house at Stellenbrau.

Stellenbrau completed its first brew in June 2012 and the Craven Craft Lager – named for rugby guru Danie Craven – was released to an influential and rather daunting audience. Dozens of fellow brewers and others from the beer industry met at Pete Goffe-Wood’s Kitchen Cowboys Canteen in Cape Town and Deon served his beer alongside other Cape craft brewers. The reception was good – so good in fact that the temporary tap system he set up became a permanent one, with the celebrity chef’s restaurant inadvertently becoming Stellenbrau’s first outlet. The lager – based heavily upon the recipe that caused Deon to change his whole life – has been well-received wherever it has been served, leaving Deon admitting: “I’m having fun – that’s the best thing. I’m very happy.”

If just a fraction of the passion and joy that is shared by every member of the Stellenbrau team can find its way into the beer, you’ll be in for something special. And the self-proclaimed “beer drinker that stopped drinking beer” has been returned to his rightful state as a lover of malt and hops.

TRIGGERFISH BREWING

There was definitely something in the water in Eric van Heerden’s year at varsity. No fewer than four of South Africa’s craft breweries were set up by graduates of the same year at TUKS – one of which is Triggerfish in Somerset West. In fact, it was a couple of Eric’s university pals who introduced him to the idea of homebrewing – André de Beer of The Cockpit Brewhouse (see page 159) and Stephan Meyer of Clarens Brewery (see page 215).

“I had travelled widely so I had tasted a lot of different beers, but five years ago there was pretty much no other way to try different beers than to brew them yourself,” Eric explains. “Stephan and André were already brewing but I never got a chance to get up there and see their systems, so I spent five or six months on the telephone to them to learn all about homebrewing!”

Eric brewed his first batch in 2007 – a blonde ale from an André de Beer recipe – and was instantly impressed with the results. Lucky, since he had already sunk a fair amount of money into setting up his equipment. “When I started homebrewing I had it in the back of my mind that I’d like to turn it into a small business at some point,” he says. “So I built a single-tier, all-grain brewery from the word go and started kegging from day one.” Soon, Eric realised that his 40-litre system was too large, meaning he couldn’t brew as often as he’d like since he and his friends couldn’t drink the beer fast enough. Then a year later, a work opportunity in the USA arose and Eric’s homebrewing hobby really took off.

With a new 20-litre system in place, Eric could brew every couple of weeks, offering up his beers for critique at meetings of the local homebrew club, Charlotte Brewmasters. “It was a very active, very competitive homebrewing club,” says Eric. “The average brewer had between 10 and 15 years of experience behind them and the range of equipment and supplies available was amazing.” When Eric returned to the Western Cape in July 2010, he had a year of intensive brewing behind him and the decision to start up a microbrewery didn’t take long to reach, thanks in part to a nudge from his old friend Stephan. “He is the ultimate optimist and remembers only the good,” Eric smiles. “He was the one who convinced me to go into it commercially.” The decision was sealed when Eric took some of his American-brewed beers for tasting at the local homebrewers’ club, the SouthYeasters, and they met with instant approval.

Equipment was upgraded and in late 2010 Eric launched his beers at a Stellenbosch market to instant acclaim. Premises were sought, though costs prohibited Eric from finding what he considered the perfect location, instead setting up the brewery at an old dynamite factory outside Somerset West. “I was still actively looking for premises for a tap room,” says Eric, “because I was behind a security gate in the middle of nowhere and nobody knew where it was!” But then a bustling eatery in Stellenbosch asked to stock his beers and, with an outlet in town secured, Eric decided to keep his offbeat location for brewing. A small tasting room – sitting in the old anthracite store room – followed, then in 2012 Eric had to expand to house the ever-growing number of beer drinkers descending on the brewery each weekend to taste his eclectic range. Now, with the well-known cheetah outreach project around the corner, visitor numbers are set to rise even higher. “I grew into this brewpub in this funny location by accident and it just worked,” beams Eric.

Something else that really works is the theme that Eric chose for his brewery and beer names. A keen scuba diver, Eric always knew that his brewery would be named for something oceanic, but pinning down a specific sea creature ended up being a very last-minute decision. “I’d been trying to think of a name for six months,” he recollects, “but in the end we came up with it the night before I handed in my licensing application! They needed a name on the form so we had to make the decision.” It was in part a homage to Eric’s brewing hero, Sam Calagione of Dogfish Head Brewery in the USA, but the final choice came from something that Eric’s wife, scuba instructor Wilna, commented on. “She said that when she took students on a dive, the one fish they always asked about was the clown triggerfish,” says Eric, and so the striking and instantly memorable fish became the name of the brewery and its gold-and-black markings the company logo. After that the beer names – some of the most memorable in the country – just flowed. “I have a backlog of cool-sounding fish names for future beers!” says Eric.

Since Triggerfish opened its doors in April 2011 business has been booming, with volumes doubling in a year. Eric juggles the brewing with his IT job, but luckily there is help very much on hand when the brewery gets really busy. “It’s very much a family operation,” Eric says, “and when it comes down to the wire I call in the kids and they’ll be labelling bottles. Just before Christmas people were coming into the brewery and buying beers as fast as the kids could label them!”

TASTING NOTES

SWEET LIPS BLONDE ALE (4.2% ABV)

A clear, golden beer that’s light-bodied and easy to drink. The light malt aroma is followed up with plenty of malt on the palate.

OCEAN POTION APA (5.4% ABV)

A punch of passion fruit, lychee and other tropical fruits hits when you inhale this beer. Velvety mouthfeel brings with it fruit flavours associated with American hops; finishes dry.

HAMMERHEAD IPA (6.2% ABV)

A somewhat sweet aroma leaning a little more towards malt than hops. From the first sip you can tell this is a big beer, full of flavour yet well balanced.

ROMAN RED AMERICAN AMBER ALE (5.2% ABV)

A dark copper-coloured beer with a creamy off-white head. The overriding aroma is of toffee, though there are subtle undertones of tropical fruit. Although the initial perception is of sweetness, the beer has a dry finish.

BONITO BOMBSHELL BUCHU BLONDE (4.2% ABV)

The buchu aroma is evident but not overpowering and you can smell the malt beneath. It’s a summer sipper, with smoky notes and a subtle buchu flavour.

TITAN IMPERIAL IPA (8% ABV)

The heady grapefruit aromas might make you expect a fruity, refreshing beer, but in fact this IPA is full of toffee flavours. It’s a big, boozy beer that should be sipped in small doses.

EMPOWERED STOUT (5.2% ABV)

Light on aroma but bold on flavour, this is a warming pint with rich coffee notes and plenty of body.

BLACK MARLIN RUSSIAN IMPERIAL STOUT (9.9% ABV)

If you’re not afraid of flavour, this could well be the beer for you. Rich coffee and chocolate aromas and flavours and a velvety mouthfeel make it the perfect end-of-the-night beer.

Also look out for Triggerfish’s occasional beers, including Great Weiss, Black Bass Oatmeal Stout, Englishman Mild Brown Ale and Four Legs Altbier.

Eric’s oldest son, Francois, is a keen brewer himself, with a penchant for unusual ingredients and experimentation that he must surely have picked up from his father. Eric’s ever-expanding beer collection is as varied as it is bold, featuring an imperial IPA, a blonde ale infused with buchu and a not insignificant sprinkling of American hops to be found throughout the range. The most recent addition to the family was Black Marlin, a Russian imperial stout. Like many of Eric’s beers, it started as a one-off brew but he admits it’s likely to become a fixture. “I’m a sucker for imperial stout so the Marlin might well become a staple because I want to drink it!” he acknowledges.

There are no plans to expand at present and to explain why Eric refers to Dogfish Head in Delaware. “I saw their system and realised that until you brew six batches a day, six days a week, you haven’t outgrown your brewery – you just haven’t got your process right.” One thing you can expect though is a continued range of cutting-edge beers, each with their own carefully thought out fishy nametag.

HOT-SMOKED YELLOWTAIL, FENNEL AND ASPARAGUS SALAD WITH AÏOLI

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

Pair with Triggerfish Bonito Bombshell Buchu Blonde. Chef Pete says: “This fragrant beer has summer written all over it. The clean palate from the buchu works perfectly with the smoky fish and the rich aïoli. The fennel and asparagus will give a lovely textural element to the dish, as well as complement the earthy flavours that are evident in the beer.”

CHINESE BRAISED PORK BELLY, EGG NOODLES AND PAK CHOI

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

Pair with an Imperial IPA, such as Triggerfish Titan. Chef Pete says: “The rich maltiness of the fragrant ale is the perfect accompaniment for this unctuous dish. The bitterness of the ale cuts through the fattiness of the belly and the aromatic broth stands up perfectly to the high alcohol content.”

CARAMEL AND DARK CHOCOLATE FONDANT SERVED WITH WHIPPED CREAM

RECIPE COURTESY OF STÉFAN MARAIS, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT SOCIETI BISTRO AND SOCIETI BRASSERIE

Pair with a sweet stout, such as Triggerfish Empowered Stout. Chef Stefan says: “The Empowered Stout’s bitterness is well balanced, with a detectable sweetness that works very well with the caramel and dark chocolate flavours in this dessert. I find that this complex and full-bodied sweet stout pairs very well with braised meat dishes as well as desserts.”

VALLEY BREWERY

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Location: 20 Fish Eagle Park, Kommetjie, Cape Town Web: facebook.com/valleybrewery Tel: 083 709 6759 Amenities: Brewery tours, tasting, off-sales

What do you do when your lifestyle means you could go for weeks without seeing a bottle store, and even when you finally find one, a cold beer costs almost as much as you’d pay for Champagne at home? It’s simple – you dock your yacht, invest in some plastic buckets, pots and yeast and brew your own beer on board. That’s exactly what Glenn Adams did when he and his wife, Margie, took four years out to sail around the globe.

“I drank some great beers in Central and South America,” says Glenn, “but when we got to the South Sea Islands we hadn’t had a beer for a while and it was just so expensive – I had to go without until we got to Australia!”

Not an ideal situation for a beer lover who was following a lifelong dream to quit the rat race and sail around the world. So on arrival in Australia, Glenn decided to take his thirst into his own hands and stock up on homebrewing equipment so there would never be an on-board drought again.

Whenever they docked, Glenn brewed kit beer in the 28-foot yacht’s lazarette and later bottled it in the cabin. “I had 90 quart bottles on board, so it was enough to get us across the Indian Ocean as we headed home!” says Glenn. The bottles had to be well-packed in case of stormy weather, but all in all it was a perfect place to start homebrewing. “When you’re cruising, you have nothing to do and all day to do it in, so there couldn’t be a nicer place for kit brewing,” Glenn reminisces.

On returning to Cape Town, Glenn started all-grain brewing, aided by members of the SouthYeasters Home Brewers Club. Soon, homebrewsized batches weren’t enough and Glenn put his steel manufacturing knowledge to use, building a 300-litre brewery at his Kommetjie workshop. “I built the brewery on weekends over about eight months,” he says. “Then I decided to try and sell my beers. I wanted to see if I could turn my hobby into a business.” Thanks to his passion for beer and the superlative equipment he’s built from scratch, Glenn is now proudly at the helm of Valley Brewery, producing flawless beers to a loyal local audience.

Glenn’s enthusiasm for his duo of trades is infectious and the brewery is a jovial place where locals drop in to chat, taste and buy beer. And it’s not just beer that Glenn sells – his much-admired self-made brewery brings in brewers from around the Cape seeking bottle washers and other equipment for their own breweries. “There’s been a lot of interest in the equipment,” says Glenn. “And luckily a lot of interest in the beers as well!”

TASTING NOTES

LONDON ALE (4.5% ABV)

A beautiful, golden beer topped with creamy foam. London Ale is an understated brew, with a subtle, fruity nose and perfectly balanced fruitiness and bitterness.

Also look for Dublin Dark Ale and Valley Weiss.

CREAMY SALT HAKE WITH GRILLED POLENTA AND SLOW-ROASTED TOMATOES

RECIPE COURTESY OF STÉFAN MARAIS, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT SOCIETI BISTRO AND SOCIETI BRASSERIE

Pair with a blonde ale, such as Valley’s London Ale. Chef Stéfan says: “I find that the salty, creamy texture of the hake works very well with this blonde ale’s subtle but complex flavours. The smoky flavour of the grilled polenta also contrasts well with the beer.”

WILD CLOVER BREWERY

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Location: R304, Stellenbosch Web: wildclover.co.za Tel: 021 865 2248 Amenities: Restaurant, tasting room, wine tasting, accommodation

Beer before wine makes you feel fine, they say, but for Ampie Kruger, opting for wine first has also worked out pretty well – making it that is. An accomplished garagiste winemaker, Ampie’s winery Notre Rêve put out its first vintage in 2007 – the year he was also introduced to the hobby of homebrewing. It had been a long time coming for Ampie, who experimented with kit beers while at university. “I was drinking beer like hell as a student,” he says, “but after a while I just couldn’t drink it any more. Then whenever I went to England, the beer was fantastic and I could pub-crawl from one bar to the next.”

In 2007, Ampie hosted a braai to which a friend brought a batch of homebrew. “I tasted it and said ‘yes, this is the beer that I remember from the UK; this is what I can drink’ and I asked how to make it.” Ampie soon fell in love with the process, deciding to make both wine and beer. “It’s the same sort of equipment, the same idea – except that wine is easier since you’ve already got the sugar in the grapes,” he explains. “With beer you first need to convert the starches to sugar.”

In the interests of “paying it forward” Ampie introduced his friend Karel Coetzee to the world of homebrewing and so Ampie’s fate was sealed. “I had my reservations about homebrewing,” admits Karel, who became a discerning beer drinker during a six-year stint living in Chicago, “but I realised that this was good stuff and in 2009 I told him the beer was good enough to put onto the market.” The two decided to embark on a commercial microbrewery together. Ampie was already looking for a spot for his winery, feeling the time was right to move out of his garage. That’s when he happened upon Wild Clover Farm in the northern reaches of Stellenbosch.

Plans to upgrade from the 30-litre homebrew system were put into place, though all did not run smoothly with the first 300-litre brew. “It was farcical,” Karel laughs. First there was the gas accident that nearly saw them burning the brewery’s new-found home to the ground; the hole in Karel’s hand; the “blood all over the place”. And then there was the issue of a 300-litre batch of undrinkable beer. “You think it will be easy to scale things up 10 times,” says Ampie. “Wow, what a wakeup call that was!” Fluctuating mash temperatures meant the starch converted to the wrong type of sugar so although it fermented, Ampie admits he didn’t finish a single glass. Unfortunately, some other people did.

“I wanted to test out all the equipment, so I put the beer through every process regardless and had kegged some of it,” Ampie explains, shaking his head. “While I was on leave, the restaurant ran out of beer so they sold a keg of ours. I say to this day that they have damaged our name for life – those people will never come back!”

Wild Clover currently produces a porter, a much-lauded brown ale and a “summer beer” brewed with wine yeast, and plans to add a pilsner and a weiss are on the cards. Eventually, the dream is that one or both of the brewers can quit their IT day jobs, but for the moment, Ampie is happy that he made the first leap from homebrew to a setup he likes to call “farm brew”.

Western Cape

BIRKENHEAD BREWERY

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TASTING NOTES

TRADITIONAL CAPE MALAY BOBOTIE

RECIPE COURTESY OF CRAIG CORMACK, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT SOFIA’S AT MORGENSTER

Need to know...

Ask the brewer

TASTING NOTES

OXTAIL AGNOLOTTI WITH PARMESAN CHEESE SAUCE

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETER TEMPELHOFF, GROUP EXECUTIVE CHEF FOR THE COLLECTION BY LIZ MCGRATH & RELAIS & CHÂTEAUX GRAND CHEF

CARROT AND CITRUS SALAD WITH JOHNNY GOLD DRESSING

RECIPE COURTESY OF TANJA KRUGER, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT MAKARON AT MAJEKA HOUSE

HAZZARD TEN BBQ PORK BELLY

RECIPE COURTESY OF GREG CASEY, OWNER OF BANANA JAM CAFÉ

CITIZEN BEER

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TASTING NOTES

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TASTING NOTES

BONE CRUSHER TEMPURA PRAWNS

RECIPE COURTESY OF PHILIPPA WOOD OF DARLING BREW

SPRINGBOK, BLACK MIST AND DUMPLING STEW

RECIPE COURTESY OF PHILIPPA WOOD OF DARLING BREW

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TASTING NOTES

ALLEPEY FISH CURRY

RECIPE COURTESY OF HARPREET KAUR, EXECUTIVE SOUS CHEF AT THE BOMBAY BRASSERIE

CAPE MALAY-INSPIRED KABELJOU

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETER TEMPELHOFF, GROUP EXECUTIVE CHEF FOR THE COLLECTION BY LIZ MCGRATH & RELAIS & CHÂTEAUX GRAND CHEF

DIEKS’ BRU

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JACK BLACK

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TASTING NOTES

KARUSA

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TASTING NOTES

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TASTING NOTES

Ask the brewer

Are there any chemicals in beer?

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Ask the brewer

TASTING NOTES

SALDANHA BAY MUSSELS COOKED IN OLD WOBBLY LAGER

RECIPE COURTESY OF LEON COETZEE, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT KURLAND HOTEL, MEMBER OF RELAIS & CHÂTEAUX

SAGGY STONE BREWING COMPANY

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TASTING NOTES

CHEESE ’N BEER BREAD

RECIPE COURTESY OF ADRIAN ROBINSON OF SAGGY STONE BREWING COMPANY

Need to know...

TASTING NOTES

Ask the brewer

VEAL AND BACON MEAT LOAF WITH MARINATED CABBAGE

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

STICKY TOFFEE PUDDING

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

Need to know...

TASTING NOTES

Need to know...

TASTING NOTES

HOT-SMOKED YELLOWTAIL, FENNEL AND ASPARAGUS SALAD WITH AÏOLI

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

CHINESE BRAISED PORK BELLY, EGG NOODLES AND PAK CHOI

RECIPE COURTESY OF PETE GOFFE-WOOD, FOOD ALCHEMIST

CARAMEL AND DARK CHOCOLATE FONDANT SERVED WITH WHIPPED CREAM

RECIPE COURTESY OF STÉFAN MARAIS, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT SOCIETI BISTRO AND SOCIETI BRASSERIE

VALLEY BREWERY

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TASTING NOTES

CREAMY SALT HAKE WITH GRILLED POLENTA AND SLOW-ROASTED TOMATOES

RECIPE COURTESY OF STÉFAN MARAIS, EXECUTIVE CHEF AT SOCIETI BISTRO AND SOCIETI BRASSERIE

WILD CLOVER BREWERY

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