Craft beer is a very fluid industry. And I’m not just talking about what’s in the cans/bottles/growlers/glasses. Breweries close, equipment gets sold. A new place opens in an old venue, perhaps with a new name, perhaps continuing the old brand. Equipment moves around and brewers do the same. Here’s a quick round-up of what’s happened recently in SA beer.

Mashing in at Stellenbosch Brewing Co. for South African National Beer Day 2020

Closures

Bad news first – always. A couple of months back, Drifter Brewing Company announced that they would be closing after seven years in business. The popular brewery moved from its Woodstock home to a Paarl wine farm in May 2021 but red tape and the fallout of the pandemic forced the team to close in July of this year.

Earlier this week, Stellenbosch Brewing Company held their final day of trading at Joostenberg, and their equipment went up for auction. Owner Bruce Collins has said that they are looking for new premises to launch a different Stellies venture, but for the moment, the brewery is out of action.

Frontier Beer in Johannesburg has also ceased trading, with equipment and premises available to interested parties – you can get in touch with me for more info on that.

If you’re looking to enter the SA brewing scene, check out my evolving post on brewing equipment that’s up for sale.

Openings

As documented earlier this week, the latest brewery to open in Cape Town is Beerworks, in Salt River. You can read all about that here.

I haven’t yet written about the two latest breweries to open in Gauteng, largely because I haven’t yet visited them (and yes, partly because until very recently I’ve been a bit crap at posting on the blog). I’m heading up there at the end of September, but in the meantime here’s a brief overview.

Binary Brew Worx opened earlier this year in the Hartbeespoort area. Run by Jakes and Elbie Louw, well-known faces on the local homebrewing scene, Binary is a chilled brewpub currently open Friday to Sunday, as well as public holidays.  On tap you’ll usually find blonde ale, Irish red, APA and IPA plus some experimental brews on rotation. There’s a kids’ play area and occasional live music.

Hazeldean Brewing Co. finally opened their own facility just outside Pretoria at the start of August. Hazeldean had been operating as a contract brewery since first launching in 2015. Construction on the brewery and restaurant began in late 2019 – just in time to be stopped by Covid. The new brewery launched on the family cattle farm in August 2022 (side note: if you’ve never spotted, it, check out the cow’s head hidden in the beer glass on Hazeldean’s labels) It’s a chilled, family-friendly venue with good food and plenty of beer (plus a bit of wine and spirits if you must). The taproom and restaurant are open Thursday to Sunday.

A sad day as the sun sets on Drifter Brewing Co.

Movements

While Kwench, the collaborative taproom between Hopman Brewery and Featherstone, has closed, both breweries are still going – and growing. Hopman has moved to a new location – in the former Drifter premises on Victoria Road in Woodstock, where they’ll have a taproom open to the public. The official relaunch party is happening on October 1.

Featherstone, based in Makhanda (Grahamstown) has also opened a tasting facility. The beer garden at the brewery is kid- and pet-friendly and serves light meals alongside the beers – open Friday, Saturday and Sunday afternoons.

Route 62 Brewery in Montagu, which closed during the pandemic, is now under new ownership. New boss Peter Ventner has added a restaurant and is in the process of extending the beer garden.

And in brewer news, Woodstock Brewery’s Etienne Louw has moved to Franschhoek to take the head brewer position at Hey Joe Brewery. Hey Joe’s Chris Greyling is moving to northern Bali to take on a senior brewing position at a brand new brewery on the Indonesian island. In another international move, Stefan Wiswedel, founder of Little Wolf and former head brewer at Hoghouse, has left the South African brewing scene to take up a position at Denmark’s To Øl Brewery. Ross Eaton, former head brewer at Barrington’s has moved to Nigeria to join the team at Bature Brewery, leaving the position vacant at the Garden Route brewery. Barrington’s is currently looking for an experienced and ideally qualified brewer to take the reins – drop me a line if you think that might be you!

If you’ve heard something I haven’t – a brewery closing, a new one launching, a snippet of news, please let me know!