South Africa is, as far as I know, the only country in the world that has a major intervarsity brewing competition (although do feel free to correct me if that’s not accurate). Imagine this: you’re a student of microbiology or chemical engineering or some such sciencey discipline and you discover that within the walls of your tertiary institution there is a little microbrewery. You join the brewing team to devise recipes and experiment with new beers. And then once a year, your team joins others from around the country to compete in Intervarsitybrew: Brewing & Tasting Challenge. If this had existed when I was younger, well, it might have encouraged me to occasionally pay attention in high school science.

Of course, this doesn’t exist everywhere. In fact, as I have said, I’ve asked around and while I have heard of intervarsity competitions taking place in other countries, they’re not on this scale and certainly not on this level of professionalism. The main reason we have such a thriving intervarsity brewing scene is because there are no universities or higher education colleges that offer brewing degrees in South Africa. So 15 years ago, some of SAB’s trade brewers (led by the now-retired Ben Lamaletie) set up a little competition to encourage science students to brew.

Humble beginnings

Tasting at the CUT stand with event organiser Olga de Smidt, Intervarsity veteran Megan Gemmell and Doctrine Brewing’s Dion van Huyssteen

I don’t think they could have known then just how much the event would take off. That first year saw students from half a dozen universities congregating at a KZN campground to share their homebrews around a fire. This year, students from 17 establishments of higher learning journeyed to the Central University of Technology (CUT) in Bloemfontein for a slickly-run three-day programme of learning, tasting, networking and celebration.

For a while, the competition ran in Eurovision style, with each year’s winner hosting the following year’s competition. It then moved to SAB’s World of Learning in Kyalami, a kind of summer camp for adults, with basic accommodation, a canteen (with beer), and a test brewery on-site. But since 2019, the competition has been hosted by CUT, specifically in the glorious, light-filled atrium of their hotel school.

The programme includes visits to local craft breweries, tutored tasting sessions and a half-day conference, this year featuring US beer legend Pete Slosberg as well as a line-up of local speakers there to inspire a new generation of brewers. While the students listen to talks on all aspects of the beer industry, judges convene nearby to assess the students’ beers in a BJCP-sanctioned competition.

African innovation

I stole Greg Casey’s beerfest tradition of taking a selfie at every stand, pictured here with Team TUKS (and some tasting buddies from Heineken)

This year, students were asked to enter in six overarching categories: lager, IPA, sour, summer (below 3.5% ABV), aged beers and for me the most exciting category – African wild ales, in which students have to isolate and propagate their own yeast and combine it with other African ingredients.

We tasted an Italian Grape Ale with yeast captured from Pinotage grape skins, beers featuring rooibos and sorghum, cassava and honey. And from Cape Peninsula University of Technology, a beer that looked just like your average blonde ale but smelled and tasted almost exactly like a batch of umqombothi. The students are still learning the ins and outs of brewing, but in some ways, they are leading the industry, experimenting with truly South African styles that will make our beer scene stand out from the rest.

I was judging sours this year and was truly impressed with the quality. Nothing on our table scored below 30 (out of 50) and there were a few I would happily pay craft beer prices for. So it was with great excitement that I headed into the main event of the Intervarsity weekend: the student showcase. Remember those events you did in high school where you set up a little business then had a market day where you sold your product? Well it’s kind of like that, but with beer. And no money changing hands. So it’s way, way better.

All smiles at the UJ stand

It’s basically a beer festival. A really cool one, with unlimited tasters and dozens of beers you’ve never had before. And some of them are good – like really good. As usual I was too busy chatting to the students and generally enjoying myself to remember to take any notes, but from memory, I particularly enjoyed the strong British ale from the University of Johannesburg team, the blueberry Catharina Sour from the 1000 Hills Chefs School and I loved CPUT’s aged beer, a super-complex Gueuze-style ale whose name I can no longer remember. CUT had a marvellous Old Ale and a clean, bright Berliner Weisse and the University of Cape Town’s session IPA could actually compete in a professional competition.

In general, the IPAs lacked aroma across the board, but there was one that stood out – so much in fact that it won not only its category, but the overall prize as well. It is perhaps not a surprise that the best hop-forward beers both came from UCT. Living in a city with no shortage of IPAs certainly doesn’t hurt when you’re researching and planning your recipes and the team had clearly worked hard to create some outstanding beers.

Sponsors and success stories

First, second and third place beers in each category win a cash prize to take home – but it goes to equipment and ingredients, not a team night out at the local brewpub. Although there was plenty of celebrating going on throughout the evening, both with the students’ brews and with beers by the competition’s sponsors, SAB and Heineken. The event, which must have astronomical costs including accommodation, food and transport for the participants among many other things, is also strongly supported by the Beer Association of South Africa as well as FoodBev SETA. 

The 2023 grand prize winners, Brewing UCT collect their cheques. Image by Maryke Venter

Those outside the industry are usually intrigued to hear that such a competition exists, but it is quickly becoming a key date on South Africa’s beer calendar. And it’s not just about what happens over the course of the weekend. Past alumni of the Intervarsity Brewing Competition include Eben Uys, founder of Mad Giant in Johannesburg, Niall Cook, founder of Richmond Hill Brewing Company in Gqeberha, Olaf Morgenroth, former head brewer at Franschhoek Brewing Co. and now head brewer at Fermentis in France, and intervarsity veteran Megan Gemmell of Clockwork Brewhouse, who has attended ten editions – first as a student, then a judge and later as a mentor. Considering the caliber of the Intervarsity graduates, the programme clearly works. I can’t wait to see what some of these students go on to achieve in the industry.

Here are all the winners of the 2023 edition:

• Best IPA: University of Cape Town (Public OutCryo – American IPA)
• Best Sour Beer: Central University of Technology (CUT) (Champopo – Berliner Weisse)
• Best African Wild Ale: Stellenbosch University (Chimera – Italian Grape Ale)
• Best Aged Beer: Central University of Technology (CUT) (Grumpy Old Goat – Old Ale)
• Best Lager: University of KwaZulu-Natal Pietermaritzburg (SANDZ Lager – American Lager)
• Best Low-Alcohol (Summer) Beer: 1000 Hills Chef School (Ed Sheeran’s Foot – Catharina Sour)

The award for the best bottle label design went to Rhodes University for their Inombe, a Hazy IPA. The 2023 Mentorship Award went to Errol Cason from the University of the Free State. 

Massive congrats to all the winners and to the organisers for making this an event that other countries will doubtless want to replicate. Oh, and a shout out to the student that told me off for posting too many events and not enough reviews and proper blog posts lately. This one goes out to you…