The first time I wrote about SAB’s monthly horse-drawn beer delivery, I was a mere bystander in the proceedings. In fact I turned up late and just managed to see a horse’s ass disappearing along Newlands Avenue as I sat down to my wood-fired pizza at Forries.

Well the initiative is still going strong and this year, on International Beer Day (August 2^nd) I actually got to ride on the cart, getting much closer to the aforementioned horse’s ass. I know that International Beer Day was a long time ago, but there’s a reason I haven’t written about it until now. It’s not down to the general trauma of the ride; in fact this post is designed to coincide with this month’s delivery, so you can go and see beer being delivered by horsies (and get a free pint) if you want to. (Disclaimer: the horsies do have some help in delivering beer and don’t roll the kegs into each pub and tap them themselves).

A bit of background: the folks at Newlands Brewery decided to honour their history and recreate an old beer route that would have been trodden by horse hooves back in the 19^thcentury. On the first Friday of each month, a horse-drawn cart (known as a dray) leaves the brewery with a couple of kegs of Castle Lager on board and clip-clops through Newlands to drop a 50-litre keg at the Foresters Arms and another at Barristers. Anyone drinking Castle when the keg is brought in is presented with a free pint (though in my experience, staff are generally quite generous with the free beer and will treat you to a pint, whatever you’re drinking!)

It’s a great idea and one that harps back to a time when Newlands was truly the brewing capital of the country, with half a dozen breweries and who knows how many pubs.

Now about that trauma – well, I don’t think the pair of horses were terribly keen on the extra load that a dozen journalists, writers and bloggers provided. Between the not-too-friendly bickering the horses seemed to be engaged in, the near-miss with someone’s car on Dean Street and the fact that we ‘broke down’ at the lights on Newlands Avenue causing a huge traffic jam and a lot of grumpy commuters trying to get to their Friday post-work drinks post-haste, it was quite an eventful ride. Good job Newlands’ trade brewer Denis Da Silva was on hand – turns out he’s a jack-of-all-trades and a dab hand at directing traffic (plus he stopped me from falling out of the cart a couple of times – thanks Denis).

Get down to Forries or Barristers at around 1pm on the first Friday of each month for free beer, a chat with the brewers and a pat of the horsies – they’ll be much friendlier without a cargo of thirsty journos on board!

This post was first published on The Craft Beer Project.