Mitchell's Brewery, South Africa's oldest microbrewery, has a brand new brewer. John Horn is a former SAB brewer with many years of experience under his belt. Mitchell's was founded in 1983, staying afloat for decades until the craft beer revolution hit South...
So you've bought a beer, it turned out to not be great, you've taken action to alert the brewer - now what? There are few things sadder than the sound of your R30 bottle of ale glugging down the sink so STOP! Don't tip away that sour ale or the ancient lager you...
At the recent Beer Boot Camp, a well known South African beer geek asked me an interesting question: what do you do when you buy a beer and find that, having paid your R30-ish for a bottle, it's undrinkable and ends up glugging down your sink. It's a topic that's...
Last month saw judging take place for a new beer competition, the South African National Beer Trophy. It was a BJCP event, with five judges sampling brews submitted from around the country. Beers were split into seven broad categories - light, amber, hoppy, wheat,...
It's possible that, at some point in your life, you've paid good money for a bad beer. "There is no such thing as a bad beer," is the oft-repeated quote from businessman, beer promoter and presidential brother, Billy Carter. "It's that some taste better than...
In previous years for Women's Day, I have penned pieces on women in the South African beer scene and also on the whole phenomenon of 'beer for women'. Well, it's Women's Day again (happy day ladies) and what with it being International Beer Day last Friday (sorry,...
It's that time of year again. The day people look forward to all year, that makes grown men behave like kids and sees grown women having sleepless nights in anticipation. I speak, of course, about IPA Day! Last year I dedicated a whole week's worth of blog posts to...
When a beer says "Share the Stoke" on its label, I am definitely going to buy a bottle. No, not because I'm a surf fanatic (though I did give it a go recently and rather enjoyed it). It's because I am, in fact, from Stoke. So already this beer was winning - it's an...
[WARNING: This blog post contains images of booze bloggers wearing wetsuits!!!] There aren't many things that could get me into the Atlantic Ocean in the middle of winter. In fact, other than my son wandering into the path of a shark, or some large lottery-style...
