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 spot them among this year’s winners. Thanks as always for voting. Voter numbers were down in 2021, which I largely put down to me blogging considerably less this year and losing a few followers. Must do better in 2022… So here are all the winners and runners up for the 2021 Brewmistress South African Beer Awards:

Best brewery 

Best brewery and best new brewery – 2021’s big winner was Starke Brews

This category focuses on breweries producing all-round excellent beer. This year’s winner was a newcomer to the scene, only opening at the start of 2021. It’s become an instant hit and it somehow feels like they’ve been around for ages.

WINNER: Starke Brews

2nd: Richmond Hill Brewing Co.

3rd: Devils Peak Beer Co.

Best destination brewery

This category takes everything into account – great beer, great food, a nice vibe. Just the sort of place you want to spend a whole Saturday. And Sunday. And probably Monday too…

WINNER: Aegir Project

2nd: Starke Brews

3rd: Mad Giant

Honourable mention: Paternoster Brewery

Best liquor store:

WINNER: Liquor City Groenkloof 

2nd: Liquor City Claremont

3rd: Tops Radiokop

Best beer bar/restaurant

This year, it was a landslide for Capital Craft, with Banana Jam – one of the places that’s featured in the list every year since the awards began – taking the silver. It’s the first time Den Anker has made the list which is somewhat surprising considering their decades-long dedication to serving fine Belgian beers.

WINNER: Capital Craft

2nd: Banana Jam Cafe

3rd: Den Anker

Drinking beer is hard during a pandemic…

Best festival or event

About a quarter of all respondents sadly admitted that they hadn’t been to any events in 2021, with some claiming that there weren’t any events to attend. But while festivals were thin on the ground, there were plenty of small scale launches and mini fests taking place. Shout out to the guy whose best event was “drinking homebrew with my mates by the pool” – I love it. But I had to wholeheartedly agree with the clear winner here, even if it wasn’t a fest that didn’t happen. And its organiser didn’t not vote for it… 

WINNER: (Not) Fools & Fans

2nd: Blacktoberfest

3rd: Benoni Beer & Gin Fest

Biggest beer story of the year

There hasn’t been as much big beer news this year due to fairly obvious reasons. A few people mentioned Heineken buying Distell, BrewDog announcing plans to open a brewery in South Africa and one person wrote “I heard that SAB bought Jack Black. Not sure if that is true. Can’t find any news about it…” (and generally, if you can’t find anything written on it, it’s because it didn’t happen). A few people shared news stories that were personal to them, my favourite being “I got married and had Mad Giant on Tap courtesy of Real on Tap” – big congrats Pieter!

It’s no great surprise that the pandemic was top of people’s minds when answering this question. Lots of people mentioned the various brewery closures this year, or mentioned lockdown and the associated bans. Happily though, more concentrated on the fact that the bans, for now at least, appear to have stopped, writing things like “That we are still able to buy beer (…at least when filling in this form)”. But the biggest – and best – story was that things didn’t end up being as bleak as we’d all imagined, summed up perfectly by Anna (no surname provided): “Just the fact that so many breweries have survived 2021.” And I think we can all raise a glass of our favourite to that.

Best beer branding

Probably no great surprise in this category – another win for a brewery that’s now even opened its own design company.

WINNER: The Kennel Brewery

2nd: Richmond Hill Brewing Co.

3rd: Devil’s Peak Beer Co.

Honourable mention: “Silver cans”…but let’s hope we won’t have to see any more of them next year.

Best new brewery

This was the only category where multiple options were given, and and a whopping 35% admitted they hadn’t tried anything from a new brewery in the past year. Time to set yourselves some 2022 goals good people! I was pleased to be able to include a  dozen breweries on the list (although I admit I made a mistake – Barrington’s actually launched in 2020, not 2021).

WINNER: Starke Brews

2nd: The Cape Town Brewery

3rd: Jump Brewing

Pear-a-normal from Yeti Underground Movement

Doc Brown Award for outstanding innovation

WINNER: OC Brewery/Yeti Underground Movement

2nd: Mad Giant

3rd: Soul Barrel

Honourable mentions: Jump Brewing, who got a lot of love across the categories, and nitro stouts, of which we saw a few this year…

Best new beer

WINNER: Richmond Hill Fever Dream

2nd: The Cape Town Brewery Dry Irish Nitro Stout

3rd: Devil’s Peak Lucy Goes South

Beer of the year

WINNER: Mohope Premium Lager

2nd: Afro Caribbean Space Llama

3rd: Devil’s Peak Juicy Lucy

Honourable mention: Jack Black Cape Pale Ale

Thanks again for following the blog, on the rare occasion I find time to write it these days. Oh, and in case you’re wondering, the places that have made the list all five years are Aegir Project, Banana Jam, Devil’s Peak and Kennel. Keep up the good work in 2022 folks!

Want to read more? Check out the 2020 winners here.