Lucy Corne - African Brew: Exploring the Craft of South African Beer

Published in 2013 by Struik Lifestyle

an imprint of Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd

Company Reg. No 1966/003153/07

Wembley Square, 1st Floor, Solan Street, Gardens 8001

P O Box 1144, Cape Town 8000

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Copyright in published edition: Random House Struik (Pty) Ltd 2013

Copyright in text: Lucy Corne 2013

Copyright in photographs: Ryno Reyneke 2013

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publishers and copyright holders.

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Publisher: Linda de Villiers

Managing editor: Cecilia Barfield

Editor and indexer: Joy Clack (Bushbaby Editorial Services)

Designer: Beverley Dodd

Text by: Lucy Corne

Photography by: Ryno Reyneke

Illustration on by: Helen Vaughan

Stylist: Brita du Plessis

Proofreader: Janice Whitticom (Bushbaby Editorial Services)

Reproduction by Hirt & Carter Cape (Pty) Ltd

Printed and bound by 1010 Printing International Ltd, China

ISBN 978 1 43170 289 3

Huge thanks to SAB for their assistance with the book, particularly to Jessica Yellin, Denis da Silva, Kate Jones, Laurie Conway, Lauren Steytler, Reto Jaeger and Anton Erasmus.

Wed also like to thank the various chefs who provided recipes for the book out of a sheer love of beer and a desire to explore the world of food and beer pairing.

We would like to individually thank a few people who went above and beyond in accommodating us while researching to Denis and Debbie Corne, Ian Cook, Garth and Mirabelle Cambray, Andr de Beer, Chris Heaton, Jonathan and Michelle Nel, Richard and Bridget Pote, Patrick and Goedele van den Bon, Ditte Humphrey of Kowie River Guest House, Soka Mthembu of Zulu Experience and to ArgusCarHire.com for providing car hire for the main section of the trip.

Finally, we cannot begin to express our gratitude to all of the brewers and their families across South Africa, who showed unrivalled hospitality and offered help and support throughout the research and production of African Brew. We raise a glass to you all.

I was always a beer drinker. And when I say always, I almost mean it I can even remember, as a small child, asking my dad if I could have the froth from his post-dinner beer. The university years brought the usual drinking exploits and a particular habit that would make a true beer lover cringe that of adding a tot of lime cordial to my pint of lager. Ironically, although I was born and grew up in the UK not 50 km from the British brewing mecca of Burton-upon-Trent it took a Canadian to introduce me to the joys of sipping on a traditional English ale. Thanks to that Canadian now my husband (see how beer brings people together?) I was suddenly introduced to this amazingly varied world, where beer came in all manner of colours, strengths and flavours.

Beer took us around the world, the presence of a brewery be it large or small often dictating which towns would make it onto our travel agenda. We sipped on English bitter in Bangkok, bought a crate of cut-price Dashen lager in Gondar, Ethiopia, rediscovered rural England through its pints, and spent a fascinating afternoon in a North Korean brewpub when our guide needed a place to dump us for the afternoon without fearing we might wander off. It was also in Korea, South Korea this time, that I fell in love with the hop, thanks to a flourishing homebrewing community with a penchant for big, bold American beers. One sip of the flagship brew from the founder of the countrys homebrewing club and I was forever hooked the name of that beer? Death by Hops.

My beer-fuelled travels would eventually lead us, happily, back to South Africa in 2010, a country we had explored from tip to tip four years earlier, tasting every beer we could find along the way. On returning we could see that things had changed; that things were changing at a rapid and tremendously exciting rate. In a new city with just a sprinkling of friends, we sought out the place that we knew we would find a group of like-minded, open-minded and open-armed people our local homebrewing club. It was through the SouthYeasters that I met Ryno, a meeting that would lead to the book that you have in your hands, African Brew.

It was my father-in-law who first exposed me to the possibility of brewing. Colin Vaughan had been brewing kit beers for a while when he invited me to a homebrewing festival a few years ago. A whole new world was opened up to me as I was blown away by the diversity of flavours on offer and how helpful everybody was with information about brewing.

I quickly purchased a kit beer and, after one brew, I was hooked. I loved the challenge of creating a tasty beverage out of the simplest of ingredients. I spent hours on the internet researching all the different variants of brewing, educating myself on how to make even better brews. In no time I had made my own all-grain system and was brewing as many variations of beer as I could think of. For someone who has always had a passion for food, making liquid food was a natural progression.

It was my wife, Helen, who inspired the concept of this book. After listening to my endless talking about beer, making beer and having to taste (she still is my taster and I trust her taste buds before I do mine), one day she said it is time you married your passion and profession and published a book.

I met Lucy at a SouthYeasters Summer Festival where I proudly presented my homebrewed creations for the first time to all who would taste them. After reading a few articles Lucy had written, I knew I had found the right person to write my vision of what is happening in the brewing industry in South Africa today. Little did I know how large the revolution was becoming out there, with breweries opening all over the place at a constant rate by like-minded people as passionate about beer as I am.

It has been an incredible journey and I have been humbled by the dedication of each and every one of the brewers I met while researching and photographing African Brew.

With a shared vision and a few false starts, we set off to start research on the book in April 2012. You might laugh at the idea of research and yes, it did involve tasting a lot of beers, but there was much more to it than that. We went to find the stories behind those beers and were met by smiling brewers displaying a selflessness, humility and unpretentious hospitality that characterises the beer world. Our journey taught us more about brewing, tasting, pairing and packaging. It took us along new alcoholic lines, down the avenues of mead and sorghum beer. It took us to seven of the nine South African provinces (the Northern Cape and Limpopo dont yet have any craft breweries); it took us to dusty