So, the conspiracy theories have somewhat died down and the beers have been released. Whatever your opinion on the matter – and many of you voiced yours here – 3 Fransen Street, the “craft” arm of SAB is now open for business.
After a low-key launch at SAB HQ in Sandton, the beers first found their way into the drinking public’s glasses at the Johannesburg Festival of Beer last weekend. Here’s what they’re brewing and what I thought of them:
Fransen Street beers at the Jo’burg Festival of Beer
Krystal Weiss (4.5%): A filtered wheat beer that is as clear as you’d expect an SAB brew to be. Delivers plenty of banana on the aroma, with a touch of spice. Sweet entry, something of a dry finish – a fine example of the style and for me (and the beer geeks I tasted the launch beers with), the best of the initial trio of Fransen Street brews.
Red Ale (4.5%): Gorgeous deep copper colour. Toffee and toast on the nose – flavours that follow up when you sip. A pleasant roasted bitterness, but a little lacking in body for my liking.
Cream Ale (4.5%): Wow. Just wow. Bizarre is a word that springs to mind. As I sat and sniffed with my beer geek buddies, each uttered a slightly different opinion on what they could smell. “Waffles”, said one. “Ice cream”, said another. “Those milk bottle candies”, “vanilla essence”, “fudge” or just plain toffee. Me? I feel like SAB have gone a little literal here, for what I got was cream soda. None of the above is appropriate for the style but comes from the addition of toffee and vanilla extract. I was told that women love it. I beg to differ.By all accounts, it was extremely popular at the Fest of Beer. It tastes just like it smells, by the way. If you don’t like beer, you’ll probably love it.
So there you have the launch beers, but there are more to come.3 Fransen Street will brew a total of eight beers, though only three will be available at a time. That’s where the “batch” brewing comes in. They will brew a “small” (that’s 6000 litres in case you were wondering) batch of each ale, send it out to the 75-ish Gauteng outlets where it will be sold, then set about brewing the next on the list, rotating them according to popularity and such.
The five remaining beers are dunkel weiss, pale ale, bock, porter and honey weiss.
Have you tasted the Fransen Street beers? What did you think? Which are you looking forward to tasting? Or are you a hater who resolves to never taste the beers?
The Cream ale sounds hideous.
What are the sizes of the batches at CBC?
I believe their brew length is 3000 litres…
Weiss was pretty good,best of all 3
Red,like you said,lacks body
Cream,not my cup of tea.
All in all,decent.
Looking forward to the bock,pale ales and porter.
Cheer
“comes from the addition of toffee and vanilla extract”
Perhaps I’m being naive here, but would any true self-respecting “craft brewer’ toss the spice cupboard into their brew to achieve a certain flavour? Surely that’s what hops, yeasts and skill are meant to accomplish? Slapping a ‘craft’ label on doesn’t (necessarily) make it so?
Some craft brewers add herbs, spices and things like coffee to their brews, though the toffee in a cream ale is a little odd. Still – apparently it’s a big hit with the general public!
If i had to choose, out of the 3 I also prefer the Weiss
I had the ‘cream’ style at The Baron on Main on Tuesday evening at the insistence of my husband who thought it would be funny to watch my reaction. Cream soda on the nose and a watered down taste of it too. Let’s just say that I’m a hop-head and leave it at that…… 😛
You don’t like beer that tastes of fudge and cream? Strange! 😉
Tried all 3 and my favorite was the Cream Ale, tasted heavenly… a real dessert beer. Just like paring wines and whisky with different courses, I’m glad they brought out a dessert beer and really hope they continue to brew it.
Visiting from Australia, tries the cream ale at a Baron and LOVE it! And I like beer a lot, of many varieties, including hoppy IPA’s etc. But this was just great, bugger what the beer snobs above may think (not traditional etc). You’d probably max out at 3 pints though as the cream taste becomes too pronounced at that point 🙂
had my first cream ale this weekend in clarens where can I buy ????? its the best , and don’t forget the irish one aswell damn I need a place to buy it from in bulk
Best bet is to find them on Twitter and ask for stockists…
We had the selection of beers at 2015 Bierfest – the Cream Ale was by far everyone’s favourite!
I tried the irish pale and cream ale, must say the cream ale was the better one. They should consider bottling it.