If beer festivals were wine festivals…
South Africa’s beer culture is young. It is not a nation that’s new to drinking beer by any means, but savouring beer, appreciating beer as something other than a beverage to glug with the cricket or to douse the summer heat – this is still a fairly new concept to...
Free beer on the first Friday of every month
The first time I wrote about SAB’s monthly horse-drawn beer delivery, I was a mere bystander in the proceedings. In fact I turned up late and just managed to see a horse’s ass disappearing along Newlands Avenue as I sat down to my wood-fired pizza at Forries. Well...
Eight things I’m sick of hearing about beer
Before I start on my latest rant, I must make something clear. The vast majority of my friends are, in some way, involved in the beer industry. Virtually every ‘work’ meeting I have is held at Banana Jam Cafe, most social engagements involve lengthy discussions...
How to get started in homebrewing
Birds do it (women that is), beards do it, even people that aren’t weird do it. So in honour of International Beer Day I present to you a quick Q&A on how to get started in South Africa’s most happening hobby – homebrewing. Why would I want to brew my own beer?...
Beer review: CBC Mandarina Bavaria IPA
Every time a new IPA is launched, my Twitter feed goes wild, so it was inevitably full of excited retweets when the first photos of CBC’s swanky IPA label started to circulate. Well, the Mandarina Bavaria IPA has now hit the shelves/taps and I managed to get my...
Lakeside Beerworks
The list of microbreweries in South Africa is constantly expanding, but as one of the Western Cape’s latest breweries gathers momentum, it’s goodbye to another much-loved player on the Cape Town scene. Lakeside Beerworks officially launched at the SouthYeasters...
Beer in the can
OK, just so’s we’re clear, the title of this piece does not refer to drinking beer on the toilet. (Note to self: I do like this as an idea – add to blog post schedule). It does of course refer to the recent debate on whether craft beer is better stored in/served...
Karoo Brew gets new brewers
t was Route 62’s first microbrewery, but we haven’t heard much about Karoo Brew of late. The small brewing setup in Montagu has changed hands a couple of times in recent years and is now under new brewagement. We dropped by The Mystic Tin – a restaurant/guest house...
South African homebrewing has a history
Beer is everywhere right now. You can’t move for magazine pieces on craft beer, homebrewing supply shops are on the increase, bar owners are having to buy extra large sheets of paper in order to fit their ever-expanding beer menus on one page. People are even...
