Friday Beers: Local Brewery & Co. in Cape Town
Friday beers. It has to be one of my favourite rituals in life. It doesn't matter which country I'm in, or what kind of job I'm doing, the arrival of Friday afternoon has always been synonymous with a round or three of cold, local beers with a bunch of happy folk...
Ten years of blogging about beer
It was all a bit of an accident really. When I arrived in South Africa in 2010, I had spent the last few years fulfilling a major life goal and working as a freelance travel writer. But as I'm sure you know, travelling from South Africa is a lot more complicated...
Winners of the 2021 Brewmistress South African Beer Awards
The votes have (finally) been tallied and the results are ready to announce. This is the fifth annual installment of the Brewmistress South African Beer Awards and there are four establishments that have made the honour roll for five years in a row - see if you can...
Vote in the 2021 South African Beer Awards
It's been such a long time since I posted anything on the blog I'm surprised I can remember how to use WordPress. These last few months have been particularly busy for me. I was studying for the Advanced Cicerone exam, which I took in early November (passed the...
Nitro stouts in South Africa and how (not) to pour them
Hello - remember me? I used to blog regularly on things about beer in South Africa! Well I'm back with a highly informative post that not only reviews two recently released nitro stouts available in South Africa, it also contains a somewhat ridiculous video. In...
Castle Double Malt vs Castle Lager vs Castle Lite
A couple of months ago I received an email from a PR company telling me that SAB were about to launch a new "product variant" and that I'd been selected to receive some of said product and to create hype. I must say I was excited. Not about creating hype so much,...
Beer events happening around South Africa this weekend
It's a big weekend for beer. Thursday (5 August) is IPA Day, Friday is, somewhat inconveniently considering the usual IPA-induced hangover, International Beer Day and then you have a couple of rest days before Women's Day on Monday. All of this coincides with the...
Battle of the milk stouts: Castle vs Striped Horse
If you've been drinking beer in South Africa for a while, you'll likely be familiar with Striped Horse. The contract brand launched in 2014 with a lager and a pilsner, at the time both brewed at Cape Brewing Company (CBC). Packaged in unique long-neck bottles, the...
Beer Review: OC Brewery The Dictator IPA
I've often heard brewers and drinkers in South Africa talking about how a beer "doesn't travel well". I mean sure, beer doesn't have the shelf life of wine or whiskey and some styles are certainly best drunk as fresh as possible. But on numerous occasions I have...