Western Cape Brew Route – January 2012
It is time for an update of the Western Cape Brew Route or Western Cape Beer Route. I posted the first route in December 2011 but since then I “found” some new breweries. I have added Valley Brewery, Barrique Brewery and Luyt Brewery.
There are some breweries that does not have an established place yet like Gallows Hill Brewing Company, Royal Mzansi, The Real Beer Company (Retreat) and Rock—Kestrel Breweries (Stellenbosch)
Please let me know if there are any breweries missing!
The idea of a brew tour is to visit breweries and get information directly from the brewers. Mainly for people interesting in brewing. A shorter beer tour is for people that would like to visit one or two breweries and then visit a restaurant or two to taste more beer.
Cape Town (City Bowl)
A good start is in the city by visiting Paulaner Bräuhaus at the V&A Waterfront and Boston Breweries in Paarden Eiland. Bostons have no brewery tours at the moment but do not hesitate to ask them anyway. I´ll let you know when I have more information about them. Jack Black is a contract brewery and is currently brewed at Bostons. Bierwerk is also a contract brewery but they currently brew at Camelthorn in Windhoek, Namibia. There is a new brewery coming up on Albert Road in Woodstock (close to the Old Biscuit Mill) but I do not know who is going to brew there except from Christian Skovdal Andersen (Bierwerk).
Beer Tour: Visit Den Anker and Mitchells at the V&A Waterfront or &Union on Bree street
Newlands
Then I would suggest you take Main Road down to SAB Millers Newlands Brewery. You can do a brewery tour in the new brewery but the old Heritage Park is well worth a visit in itself. The old Malthouse and the Brewery tower is a must if you are interesting in brewing and not just drinking beer.
Beer Tour: One of the best craft beer pubs in Cape Town (Banana Jam Café) is very close to the brewery in Newlands.
Kommetjie
After visiting Newlands you could go down to Kommetjie and visit Valley Brewery or just ….
Somerset West
… take the N2 down to Somerset West and visit Triggerfish Brewing and the new brewery Devil´s Peak Brewing Company. Triggerfish is one of the best micro breweries in South Africa at the moment and offers free tasting. This is a must if you are doing a brew tour. Devil´s Peak is just starting up but should be in full production early 2012. They are also looking for new premises so I have to update this Brew Route when they relocate.
After Somerset West you could continue the N2 east and turn the R43/44 down to Honingklip Farm. There you will find the new brewery Honingklip Brewing. They are not ready at the moment but will be during 2012.
Stanford
Keep on the R43 to Birkenhead Estate in Stanford. Birkenhead is also a Wine estate but do not let that bother you. You walk right into the brewery when entering the main building.
Napier
From Stanford you take the R320 and turn south on the R316 down to Napier brewery.
After Napier you could head down to Bredasdorp and take the R319 back to the N2. Now you have to make a choice. If you are up for a long drive drive east to Knysna to visit Mitchells Brewery. If possible, try to visit George hops farm and Eden Microbrewery (at Misty Meadows Farm) on the way.
Montagu
The other option is to turn north on R60 and later the R62 up to Montagu. There you will find The Mystic Tin Karoo brewery.
Robertson
Take the R62 back and then the R60 north to Langeberg near Robertson and visit Saggy Stone Brewery.
Frenschoek
Drive up to Worchester, take the N1 towards Cape Town and then the R310 and R45 down to Frenschoek. Visit Dieu Donné Brewery on the Wine estate/Restaurant with the same name.
Stellenbosch
Take the R45 north and turn left (West) into Helshoogte road down to Stellenbosch. Then drive towards Cape Town along the R310 and stop at the Barrique Brewery. During 2012 Luyt Brewery is going to establish a brewery/taste room close by in Stellenbosch. If it is Saturday please take some time to visit the Stellenbosch slowmarket at Oude Libertas.
And then you could drive back to Cape Town …. or you just head up to …
Darling
… Darling and the new taproom at Darling Brew. They still brew at Bostons Breweries so there are not any brewery to visit yet.
Beer blogger meeting – blog corner at the CTFoB
Beer blogger meetings
I think it is a good idea for people, that are interested in and/or is writing about beer, to meet. I do believe that beer bloggers and writers in Cape Town should have an annual meeting (or more often). It could be at the same time as the Cape Town Festival of Beer in order to get some more people to come.
At the moment I know about 3-4 people that blog about beer and brewing in South Africa.
Blog corner
Another idea is to promote a “blog corner” at the Cape Town Festival of Beer. A corner where bloggers and writers could meet brewers and get the chance to talk to them in a relaxed environment. A nice sofa, a table and internet connections (if people do not have there own or if we would like to broadcast some beer radio/TV) is all that is needed.
Such a corner would be a good idea for the festival as well because it would help people write about the festival and give it publicity. I also like the idea to talk more, taste more and “drink” less. They had such a corner at the Stockholm Beer & Whisky Festival and it was a success.
Belgoträffen – a small piece of Belgium in Sweden
It it possible to find Belgian beers in South Africa . You could probably buy a few different brands at your local bottle store. You could also try Den Anker at the Waterfront which also has Belgian beers on there menu. If you want to have the style but local produced you could wait for the new Honingklip Brewery because they are going to brew a Dubbel and a Tripel. Keep your eyes open to see when Honingklip opens up for the public.
I am in Sweden so I had the possibility to visit the annual Belgian Beer festival (Belgoträffen) in the old university city of Uppsala (just north of Stockholm) . Homebrewers from all over the country gather to compete and taste around 40 different beers (Belgian style).
The festival is organized by the local homebrewer association (Uppsala Hembryggarförening) and around 350 visitors enjoy this friendly event every year.
I was pleased to see (and taste) some really nice Saison, Dubbel, Tripel, Geuze, Oud Bruin and Fruitbeers. I will come back to one specific Oud Bruin that has its origin 206 years ago. Not everyday you have the chance to taste a beer that old.
A varm winter beer
Have you ever tried drinking a varm beer? Some of you might say yes!, thinking of a beer that has been in the sun to long. Varm beer is often not a good experience but this is. In the Nordic countries we drink a lot of varm, spicy wine (called glögg). A simple recipe of glögg can be found at the end of this post. It reminds you of glüh-wine but it is so much better. This glögg drinking could be the reason why I like Liefmans Glühkriek. A wonderful fruity and spicy beer that is served varm (70 C). If you have the chance, try it! Liefmans Glühkriek is also very nice served cold.
You could also try to drink the spicy beers in South Africa varm on order to reveal some new flavours and aromas. Why not a warm Renosterbos, Hazard Ten, Van Hunks Pumpkin Ale or Darling Christmas edition Slow? It might just be a nice surprise on a cold winter day.
Glögg recipe (easy to make):
Heat up a bottle of red wine. Ad 2 cinnamon sticks, 8 cloves, 12 cardamom seeds and 5 tsp sugar. Let it almost simmer for a couple of minutes until the sugar is resolved. Serve in small mugs with some almonds and raisins.
If you want it to be a little stronger you could ad 1.5 dl of Vodka before serving.
In Sweden there are hundreds of different recipes of glögg and you do not have to use wine as a base. Use beer instead.
Homebru.net and 
Suip! proudly present the Best Beer on the Table 2011 Award.
The Southern African beer world doesn’t have many awards. Most praise handed to South African beers or breweries is, well, meaningless. It’s awarded by hack food writers in ill-considered feature pieces or given out at bogus competitions to which only multinational breweries are invited. (Has anybody even heard of those events at which Carling Black Label conveniently wins “gold medals” every few years?)
Real beer needs real awards. This is where the Best Beer on the Table Award comes in.
The winners this year will win a small trophy and a lot of recognition from our readers. They will also receive our own stamp of approval that they are welcome to use whenever or wherever they want. Although this might seem like only a fun small bit of recognition at the moment, in a couple of years we hope this award can be significant, to brewers and the drinking public alike. As craft beer continues its exponentially upward rise in this country, we hope to expand this award to include Brewers’ Choice and Drinkers’ Choice awards, as well as our critical choice (which we hope to expand with other beer writers coming on board), as a reflection of the camaraderie that (mostly) exists within the craft beer communities of South Africa and Namibia.
The jury this year consists of Nick Mulgrew (Suip!) and and Joakim Löfkvist (Homebru.net). Our nominations are, in no particular order:
1. Bierwerk – Aardwolf
2. Devil’s Peak Brewing – King’s Blockhouse IPA
3. Darling Brewery – Bone Crusher
4. Bierwerk – Renosterbos
5. Triggerfish Brewing – Bonito Bombshell Blonde
6. Triggerfish Brewing – Hammerhead IPA
A lot could be said about all these beers, but we keep our reasons short. Some are delicious, some are plain innovative, and some are helping to bridge the ever-widening chasm between craft beer and popular beer.
This year it wasn’t an easy choice, but after a lot of thought, three stood out above all else.
Second runner-up: Devil’s Peak King’s Blockhouse IPA
First runner-up: Triggerfish Hammerhead IPA
The Best Beer on the Table 2011: Bierwerk Aardwolf
Last year was a tremendous year for innovation – coming from within South Africa’s brewing ranks and also with international help – in the burgeoning craft community of the Western Cape, and our three winners reflect that fact.
The American-influenced stylings of Somerset West’s Devil’s Peak Brewing has brought forth four brilliant beers, with the Blockhouse IPA garnering the most superlatives, including an award from the Cape Town Festival of Beer, as well as our second runner-up award.
Eric Van Heerden leads Triggerfish’s homegrown experimentation. Joakim calls him one of South Africa’s best microbrewers, and he’s probably right. The Hammerhead IPA hits all the right visual and olfactory notes, as well as being a knock-out on the palate. It’s full-on but, crucially, it is never overpowering. Its balance is impeccable, and for that it wins first runner-up.
Two IPAs, though? Although that might seem excessive, it should go without saying that the IPA isn’t South Africa’s strongest draw card. You could probably count the amount of good pale ales in South Africa on one hand – and that’s not an exaggeration. That’s what makes the success of Devil’s Peak and Triggerfish’s brews that much more startling.
Our winner, however, is not a pale ale. It is something more dark and slightly more mysterious, in both conception and execution. Bierwerk’s Aardwolf is a five-malt, espresso-stained masterpiece from Christian Skovdal Andersen. It’s not only what much of the international beer community considers to be the best craft beer in South Africa (it’s SA’s top-rated beer on Ratebeer.com), but also what we consider it to be as well. It’s irresistibly morish and deep, rewarding the slow drinker with its veins of vanilla, its lingering and deliciously bitter coffee finish, and its almost kaleidoscopic spectrum of roast and malt notes. Locally, it takes not only the coffee stout, a favourite of seemingly every newcomer to the craft world, but also the stout to new heights.
Special Innovation Award: Bierwerk Renosterbos
Bierwerk’s Renosterbos is some kind of mad scientist alchemy. A barleywine brewed from SAB pale malt and Southern Promise hops, along with liberal amounts of golden syrup and yeast from both Rochefort and Da Chouffe breweries in Belgium, Renosterbos was aged in Brettanomyce-infected red wine barrels, supplied by an unnamed Western Cape winery, for seven months.
The results were spectacular: a knock-you-down-after-one-glass sort of brilliance that hasn’t been seen in any other quarter of this country all year. Andersen is returning to South Africa soon. Let’s hope 2012 brings more of that same brilliance, both from him and other brewers, newcomers and old hands alike. We can’t wait to see what’s in store.
Homebru 