Banana Jam Café
Early this year I said, that if someone does not set up a restaurant with a lot of South African craft beers on tap soon, I will. Now I do not need to do that because Banana Jam Café did just that some months ago. A small Caribbean style restaurant in the southern suburb have about 10 craft beer on tap all the time. Every now and then they have more as well. They also have there own beer (brewed at Bostons) and some experiment batches brewed at the restaurant.
If you do not have much time to go around and visit all the breweries I would recommend that you visit Banana Jam Café for a full (or almost) range of beer. I would recommend it even if you have time to visit all the breweries. Keep your eyes open for the release of there own Mango Ale (brewed by Ryno Reyneke)
Den Anker – a small piece of Belgium in South Africa
In the middle of the V&A Waterfront you could find a piece of Belgium. Not really but you could find a nice Belgian restaurant. They import a few Belgian beers like Chimay Bleu, Westmalle Dubbel and Tripel, Duvel and Delirium Tremens and they also have there own brand Anker Bier.
I just heard that they are going to start brewing here in South Africa as well. They have a cooperation with Jordan Winery and are looking for brewing equipment and will start brewing soon. I am looking forward to it. Good Luck Den Anker!
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Camelthorn Brewing Company
Camelthorn is at present Namibias one and only microbrewery. They do act and sell a lot in Western Cape though so you do not have to travel to Windhoek to get the beers. Rumor says that they are going bottle some of there beers in Stellenbosch (340 ml longneck bottles) so they will certainly be available in Cape Town in the future as well.
They will start to export all there beers to Sweden soon so if you are in Scandinavia you could find them there as well.
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Devil´s Peak Brewing Company
Devil´s Peak is one of the new breweries in Western Cape. They are situated in Somerset West (for now) and they will start to deliver in early 2012. They attended the Cape Town Festival of Beer 2011 and I have only heard good things about them. The beers they had at CTFoB 2011 was really nice.
I first heard about them in late October 2010 when they posted “Naming our brewery” on the Ratebeer forum. After that it I did not see anything until the festival.
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Western Cape Brew Route December 2011
Let me introduce the Western Cape Brew Route. There are so many Wine Routes in Western Cape. Therefore I would like to introduce a Brew Route or Beer Route. New breweries start all the time so this route must be updated frequently.
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.
The City
Start 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.There are two more breweries in the city (Gallows Hill Brewing Company and Royal Mzansi) but they are not established in one place yet. I´ll let you know when they are ready. 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 in Woodstock (close to the Old Biscuit Mill) but I do not know at the moment who is going to brew there.
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.
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.
Next year (2012) 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 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.
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.
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