Sixty-four breweries, 199 beers, 22 gold medals, 62 silver, one massive party and countless hangovers. This is how the third annual South African National Beer Trophy panned out.
Bruce and Karen Collins from Stellenbosch Brewing Co celebrating their big win
The overall prize for best beer in show went to Stellenbosch Brewing Company for their Hoenderhok Bock, which also took home the Best Amber Beer prize. Three other trophies were handed out for Best Dark Beer – Woodstock’s Sugarman; Best Light Beer – Darling’s Bonecrusher and Best Speciality Beer – Devil’s Peak’s Vannie Hout.
Brewers flew down from Limpopo, Gauteng, North West, KZN and the Free State to collect their medals, certificates and trophies – and to network and jol with their brewing contemporaries. Bottles of the gold and silver medal winning beers were available for tasting, alongside plenty of food in a great evening hosted at Beerhouse on Long. I swiped a few of the lesser seen brews to review on the blog – coming just as soon as this hangover wears off.
For me, one of the highlights was that the awards have marked a return to the scene for Mitchell’s. The Knysna-based microbrewery is South Africa’s oldest but has recently been eclipsed by newer brands. Their rebrand and recipe overhaul has really paid off and it’s great to see them getting back in the game.
Here’s a full list of the gold medal winners:
Brauhaus am Damm Brauhaus Dunkel
Cape Brewing Co. Pale Ale
Cape Brewing Co. Pilsner
Clockwork Brewhouse Schwarzbier
Darling Brewery Bonecrusher
Darling Brewery Gypsy Mask
Devil’s Peak Brewing Co. Juicy Lucy NEIPA
Devil’s Peak Brewing Co. Pale Ale
Devil’s Peak Brewing Co. Vannie Hout Farmhouse Ale
Fraser’s Folly Moer Koffie Stout
Hermanus Brewery Old Harbour Lager
Mad Giant Killer Hop APA
Mitchell’s Bosun’s Pale Ale
Mitchell’s Old Wobbly Strong Lager
Riot Beer Valve IPA
Robertson Brewing Co. Rhythm & Blues Blonde Ale
Stellenbosch Brewing Co. Hoenderhok Bock
Triggerfish Brewing Apocalypse
Tuk Tuk Microbrewery Pale Ale
Urban Brewing Co. Judas Peak Blonde Ale
Woodstock Brewery Hazy Daze Wit
Woodstock Brewery Sugarman
Scroll down for the full list of silver medal winners.
Jörg Finkeldey celebrates a pile of trophies for the breweries he works with – Urban, Berg River and Mitchell’s
After the high of learning that a small brewery had taken the top prize, there was a bit of a downer. Beerhouse had been running the People’s Choice competition both online and in-store, allowing the public to choose the best beer in South Africa. And the winner was…Black Label. Not going to lie, there were a few boos and an instant energy drop. It was sad that after tasting all these great, award-winning beers, the public still see Black Label as their go-to. Maybe it’s because SAB have spent so many years telling us just how award-winning Black Label is, so people just think it should win… It was pretty amusing to see that no-one from SAB wanted to get up on stage and accept the prize. But it does speak to the fact that when it comes to craft beer, we have a long way to go. This was voted for by the public, but not exactly the general public I mean, it was voted for by people that either visit Beerhouse or follow them on social media. Maybe it’s time for beer bars dedicated to the cause to pull Black Label from the taps and force people to move to a craft lager…
Still, the vibe quickly picked up again as people sipped on dunkels and imperial stouts, witbiers and blondes and red IPAs and bocks and cheersed each other’s successes. The competition has grown immensely since last year and I’d like to extend my congrats to the organisers, Jean-Vincent Ridon, Matthew Hurst and William Ridon.
All of the beers are commercially available, but if you want a hand-picked selection, get yourself over to League of Beers for the September mixed case, made up of medal-winners from this year’s Trophy.
Congratulations to all the winners. Keep fighting the good fight!
And here are all the silver medal winners:
Afro Caribbean Brewing ACBC Porter
Atlantic Storm Black Tempest
Barking Dog Fetch Lager
Berg River Brewing Weizenbock (Dunkel)
Berg River Brewing Munich Helles
Black Eagle Brewing Fisker: Belgian Pale Ale
Black Eagle Brewing Hoppy In Love:Red IPA
Brauhaus am Damm Brauhaus Weizen
Cape Brewing Co CBC Lager
Cape Brewing Co CBC Mandarina Bavaria IPA
Cape Brewing Co CBC Krystal Weiss
Cape Brewing Co CBC Amber Weiss
Citizen Beer Patriot
Citizen Beer Pacifist
Citizen Beer Diplomat
Darling Brewery Slow Beer
Darling Brewery Godfather
Devil’s Peak Imperial Café Racer
Devil’s Peak First Light Golden Ale
Devil’s Peak Grapefruit Express IPA
Dissident Brewing Golden Ale
Franschhoek Beer Co The Stout
Franschhoek Beer Co Three Oaks
Hazeldean/Frontier The Haymaker
Helderberg Breweries Smoked Golden Ale
Hoghouse Brewing Company Haybale Saison
Karoo Craft Breweries Kudu Lager
Karoo Craft Breweries Jackal India Pale Ale
Kings Craft Brewing Lionheart Lager
Little Wolf Brewery American Wheat
Long Beach Brewery Green Room IPA
Mad Giant Urban Legend
Metal Lane Brewery American Pale Ale
Mitchell’s 90 Shilling Ale
Mitchell’s Milk and Honey Ale
Mountain Brewing Co English IPA
Mountain Brewing Co Loadshed Lager
Mountain Brewing Co Madala’s Gold
Newlands Spring Passionate Blond
Newlands Spring Jacobs Pale Ale
Red Sky Brewing Vampire Robust Porter
Redrock Brewing Rusty Trigger Lager
Redrock Brewing Storm Rider Pilsner
Robertson Brewing Celtic Stout
Robertson Brewing Reggae
Spilhaus Brewery Lager then life
St Francis Beach Blonde Ale
Stellar Brewery No RIS no fun
Stellenbosch Brewing Mass Hoppiness IPA
Stickman Brewery Indoda Pale Ale
Stickman Brewery G-Man Amber Ale
Striped Horse Pilsner
Striped Horse Lager
The Italian Job Famiglia
The Italian Job Amore
The Kennel Brewery Maltyeast Poodle
Triggerfish Brewing Black Marlin
Triggerfish Brewing Empowered Stout
Tuk Tuk Microbrewery Dunkel
Urban Brewing Co Monkeys Paw
Woodstock Brewery Happy Pills
Zwakala Brewery Naked Ale
Congrats to all the winners! I’d love to see more breweries enter their beer next year. 64 really isn’t good enough. We have, what, 180/200 breweries in SA? Poor showing. Still – great results, especially for the smaller breweries.
Where is the list of silver winners?
I don’t have that yet…have asked. check back tomorrow and will hopefully have it posted here…
Sorry I missed the event! Love the comment about pulling macro beers. My just opened bar in Marbella Spain has 10 taps of local craft and 12 bottles. Not a macro amongst them and the paying public are very receptive.
Cheers and congrats to all the winners and those striving for better beer. Thanks to the organisers and judges. We are fortunate to be part of such a passionate brewing community of beer loving peeps. We are humbled and honoured by the awards and will keep brewing inspired beers fro inspired moments! See you at Stellies!
Lucy, in my humble opinion, the issue of an ‘industrial’ beers winning the People’s Choice award is not a reflection of this brands sales at Beerhouse, but rather their marketing campaign and where craft brewers need to up their marketing game to gain real market share
For next year, I’d probably change the question we asked on http://www.beerhouse.co.za/vote from: “Best South African beer? Which beer brewed in South Africa deserves to win the title of South Africa’s best beer?” to “Your favourite South African beer?”, but with the 20% lead in total votes I’m sceptical, that another brand will win for now…
How does it work that Californicator doesn’t get a medal given Woodstock won 3? To me that is the best beer in SA at the moment.
Well it could be one of three things:
1) they didn’t enter it
B) it’s a good beer but out of style
iii) it’s not as good as you think it is!!!
Personally, I don’t think it’s their best beer…
urrrr, this style rubbish nonsense….
Option 1) is the only possible explanation.
Why do you think styles are nonsense? If you buy something that says IPA on the label, don’t you want it to taste like an IPA? Does it not bother you when people brew a pale ale then call it an IPA because they think it’s cool and when challenged say “oh well I didn’t want it to be too bitter or hoppy.”??!!!
(I am not suggesting that Californicator fits into this category – it’s an example of why styles matter).
Another example: You taste a beer blind. It’s full of phenols and banana esters and is hazy AF. Nice weissbier you think and score it a 35/50. Then you discover that on the label of the bottle it’s meant to be a blonde. It is a shit blonde and this suggests that either the brewer knows nothing about brewing and has used weiss yeast (and possiibly wheat) or that they have some serious production issues.
My (lets see how much I can rile Lucy up) response to your question is I don’t like beers with phenols and banana esters whether they should be there or not.
I enjoy beer that tastes good and if its called an IPA buts actually an APA i don’t care. But if it tastes like kak I won’t buy it again.
I even don’t mind if they call it an Indian Pale Ale …. 🙂
So if you bought something that said it was a blonde, when in fact it tasted like a weiss, you’d be annoyed then! If only the brewer had got the style on the label correct, you could have saved yourself R30…
I get (got) your point (the first time). But the truth is sadly sadder than that. Besides what I get from the tasting league I don’t buy bottled craft beer. The only time I buy craft beer is on tap and if I am trying something new I will have a taster first.
Can we start debating Ireland Unification now that we have slaughtered this one?
I was thinking the Middle East peace process, but I guess we could tackle Ireland…
That is a sad truth, but one I fully understand.
I also love the californicator ?