Beer Boot Camp is coming back to Johannesburg following a three-year hiatus and I for one am pretty excited. This year’s event will see five international speakers from three continents heading to Johannesburg to impart their beery wisdom.

Meeting Pete Brown at Beer Boot Camp 2016

It’s a solid line-up and tough to say who the headline speaker is, although the best-known is probably beer style guru Gordon Strong. Strong is the highest ranking judge in the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) and the principal author of the BJCP guidelines.

He is joined by returning speaker Mazen Hajjar, from Hawkers Beer in Melbourne, Australia; Paul Corbett, managing director of Charles Faram hop farms in the UK and Australian brewer and founder of Rockstar Brewer Academy Steve Henderson.

And of course, Boot Camp just wouldn’t be Boot Camp without enviably prolific British beer writer (this man writes more books in a year than I seem to find time to read in the same time frame) and superb public speaker Pete Brown, who this year will deliver a trio of talks throughout the day. Check out the full itinerary here.

The main conference takes place at Birchwood Hotel and Conference Centre on Saturday 12 August but the proceedings kick off on 8 August with a fancy five-course beer and food pairing dinner at Shed & Silo in Benoni (tickets R500). You’ll taste 10 beers, including a number of African Beer Cup award winners as well as some some SAB staples.

On Thursday 10 August there’s a barrel aged beer workshop and tasting with Mazen Hajjar (R300) where you’ll be able to  sample a selection of award-winning barrel-aged beers from Hawker’s cellar that you’ll never get to taste anywhere else in SA.

The festivities end on Sunday with family day at At Hops End in Benoni. Entry to Family Day is free, but if you want to attend the sessions (three in-person talks, plus a live Q&A with John Palmer beamed in from Los Angeles), tickets are R500. There will be lamb on the spit, beers on tap and a homebrew showdown happening. Family Day in 2019 was a jol – I still have the pics proudly stuck to my fridge and look forward to adding more this year.

And if all that sounds amazing but you just can’t travel to Jo’burg, you can buy yourself a virtual ticket (and I would recommend a selection of fine beers to sip on while you listen from afar) for R1100.

All tickets are available on the Beer Boot Camp website here and don’t leave it too long – tickets for all in person events are limited.

Disclosure: I sometimes work with certain trusted and respected brands and occasionally do trade exchanges. This is a sponsored post.