I was pretty sad to miss out on the Woodstock Winter Beer Fest last year. Everyone I know who went raved about it. Beer was plentiful, tickets were cheap. The queues might have been a little long, but by all accounts everyone, brewers included, had a blast. Well...
Once upon a time, the only beer events in Cape Town were trips to your local with a few friends. Not that there's anything wrong with that of course, but if you wanted a real beer experience, wanted to actually learn something about the beer, you were out of luck....
April 23rd marks the 500th anniversary of the Reinheitsgebot. Better known as the ‘German Purity Law’, the Reinheitsgebot is a medieval bit of legislation that stated only water, hops and barley could be used in brewing. Since then the rules have been bent and...
This is a random way to start a blog post on beer, but I love print publishing. I love flicking through the pages of a magazine. I love the smell of books. I love seeing words I’ve written printed on a real page. But I also understand the limitation of print....
It's that old chestnut again. What is the definition of craft beer? The simple answer, at least in South Africa, is that there isn't one. For me, "craft beer" is kind of an ethos really, and very difficult to define. So is it a pointless term? And can we come up...
Unless you've been living under a Wi-Fi-free rock for the past month, you'll probably be aware that CBC have released their first beer in a can. The pale ale hit fridge shelves in late March and is gradually making its way around the country. But not just on the...
Hooray, it's suddenly gone cold and rainy in Cape Town! (Well, at least it had when I wrote this before the weekend) I hate rain (there's a reason I left the UK) and despise being cold (there's a reason I moved to Africa) but I am happy about this change in weather...
I suppose it had to happen. Those of you who know Greg Casey, the madcap brewer behind Afro-Caribbean Brewing Company, might know that he's a bit of a fan of Rogue Ales. Most likely inspired by their Beard Beer, which was fermented using natural yeast...
It used to be an easy job, keeping the list of South African microbreweries up to date. Not any longer. Breweries are opening all over the place and while I try to keep my database of licenced, functioning breweries and beer companies up to date, there's a chance...
