A few years ago, on any given Saturday you could find a whole load of beer fests to choose from in the Cape Town area. Some were amazing, others badly run and others just a total rip off. Many have fallen away and the cream, as it tends to do, has risen. The...

It's a debate that will never end, a question as old as time itself (or at least as old as the invention of glass bottles): which is better, draught beer or bottled beer? There's a time and a place for both  and while beers that benefit from ageing are probably...

Between 2014 and 2016, brewery numbers in South Africa almost doubled (from 86 to 154). Two years on, the growth has slowed and today we have around 225 microbreweries and contract brewers, some of which are rarely, if ever, heard from. In the past 12 months or so,...

Last night, just as I was tucking into my "yay the child is in bed" beer, my phoned beeped. It was a message from our Women in Beer group, a screen grab of labels from a new contract brewery in Gauteng. There was a fairly instant uproar. I read a lot about sexism...

When I received the press release about Bicycle Kick, a couple of things grabbed me. It's a collab Kölsch, designed for the forthcoming World Cup in Russia and I thought the addition of chamomile (apparently Russia's national flower) was a clever idea, though...

This blog is generally all about beer, beer, beer, but do you know what beer lovers love? Whiskey. It’s kind of beer’s closest cousin and this weekend Cape Town is host to a festival dedicated to American whiskey. The House of Machines has partnered with Jack...

Cask ale has never really been a thing in South Africa. I'm not sure it has any reputation at all, but if it does, it's probably not a particularly positive one, sadly. But as our beer culture grows, cask ale is gradually beginning to trickle into our pint mugs....