In this time of uncertainty for South African brewers, it's wonderful to see some breweries still daring to innovate. Saggy Stone is one of those breweries. Many of you will be familiar with their Brut IPA. First released two years ago in collaboration with the now...
It has been a while since I've written a beer review. I did a pretty good job of stocking up for lockdown, but I wasn't drinking anything particularly newsworthy (mostly Pilsner Urquell, Blockhouse, a woefully small amount of Grapefruit Blockhouse and a good range...
Devil’s Peak have come up against a lot of flack in recent years. Their focus has shifted quite dramatically from cutting edge craft to mainstream lager. They’ve upset brewers large and small with price wars and tap takeovers, and even The King’s Blockhouse has...
I have been writing about beer in South Africa for almost nine years and yet you could probably squeeze every word I've ever written about traditional sorghum beer into a single tweet. It's kind of sad that while South Africa has been having this beer awakening, or...
For some reason I'm not aware of, I haven't written anything about Hey Joe Brewing Company on the blog yet. After a few false starts and many months of anticipation, the brewery opened in Franschhoek in April. If you haven't visited yet, put it on your summer to-do...
It is perhaps no secret to those that know me, or regularly follow my ramblings, that I am not the beer world's biggest NEIPA fan. I tend to like my IPAs bitter and crisp and don't generally find New England IPAs to be particularly thirst quenching. Also, in South...
This isn't so much a beer review as a story I want to tell, dressed up as a beer review. It all began somewhere on the N5 between Clarens and Bloemfontein. We had epically roadtripped from Cape Town to Clarens along the coast, spent a spectacular few days at the...
DISCLOSURE: Last night, Dissident Beer (AKA my husband, Shawn) wanted 'one last beer' and the only thing in the fridge was the final remaining bottle of Camelthorn's new IPA that was delivered last week. I had been saving it to review but as you might have noticed,...
There's always been a bit of a dearth of dark beers in South Africa. Well, there has, at least, been a dearth of good dark beers in South Africa. Too many of them are thin. Too many are overly acidic thanks to the brewer's indifference to mash pH. Too many are...
