It’s been a while since I last did a Friday Beers post, and the more observant among you might have noticed that this isn’t one either. But there’s a good reason for that. While Friday is always a good day to drink beer, at Woodstock Brewery, Thursday is an even better day. Why I hear you ask? Well, my inquisitive reader (maybe even readers – who knows!!?) I shall tell you.

Thursday at Woodstock Brewery is small batch release day. It might not happen every single Thursday, but more often than not, the brew crew release 50-100 litres or so of whatever head brewer Tinus Lottering has thought up. The beer goes on tap on Thursday (and is usually sold out before the weekend), with a very limited number of cans available to take home.

Craft beer is all about variety and I often say that if a craft brewer hasn’t released a new beer in the past six months, then they’re doing it wrong. Woodstock, therefore, are clearly doing it right. So far this year they’ve released 23 new beers, including a chocolate orange milk stout, 8.1% imperial lager, kveik nitro IPA and a super low-ABV black IPA. This week it’s a double launch, with two beer-wine hybrids being released – Wahira, a wood-aged imperial red ale and Jim Jones, a golden ale, both fermented with wine yeast.

Woodstock’s naming strategy is all about sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll. Some of them I get (mostly when they’re named for Guns n’ Roses songs). Many of them I do not, not least because Tinus’s musical knowledge is rather more expansive than mine (pretty sure I have him beat on 80s song lyrics though). He actually spends a lot of time coming up with the names, so if you get them and you love them, drop Woodstock a note to let them know. I am going to try and actually get some work done today and not spend all afternoon working out whether the golden ale is a reference to the suicide cult founder or the American rapper (yes, I’ve been on Wikipedia already)…

Woodstock excels at keeping fans informed on their social media channels, so follow them  on Facebook, Instagram and even the platform I quite like to call Xitter these days, to find out what’s happening each week in the small batch department. But weird, once-off beers aren’t the only reason to frequent Woodstock Brewery. They’re particularly known for their live music offering, with bands playing most Fridays and Saturdays. Indeed, Tinus is a musician as well as a brewer and will be playing drums with Mötley Brüe at Rock ‘n’ Hops  Fest on 10 September. More on Mötley Brüe here…

Woodstock’s upstairs beerhall has a great menu of beer bites – I particularly recommend the maple-glazed bacon – and of course the regular line-up of beers on tap, including the always good Happy Pils and my beloved Mr Brownstone.

Hope to see you there later for a beer-wine hybrid, or perhaps next Sunday for a few pints of pilsner with a side of rock.

Woodstock Brewery is open Mon-Fri 12pm until 11pm, Saturday from 10am and Sunday 12pm-6pm. You’ll find them at 252 Albert Road in Woodstock, Cape Town.