Corne - Beer safari : a journey through the craft breweries of South Africa

CHEERS

This book has been a real labour of love (no really, travelling around the country tasting beer involved plenty of labour) and Id like to thank all of the brewers for their support. There were some who went way above and beyond, inviting me to stay in their homes, treating me to dinners out or braais with their families I hope I dont leave anyone out. Massive thanks to Travis and Caroline Boast, the entire Standeaven family, Theo and Sarie de Beer, Sean and Morn Barradas, Gert and Wilna Jacobs, Lance and Linky Kabot, Andy Turner and Natalie Danks, Brendan and Tracy Watcham, Jo Barton, Melanie and Tania Nieuwoudt and Peter Dean.

Ive gleaned a lot of help, knowledge and insight from the increasing army of beer aficionados in South Africa. Thanks to all of those who helped out with ideas, contacts and snippets of wisdom, especially Kevin Ryan, Jason Cederwall, Chris McLeod, Stuart Lamb, Jaco Hamilton-Atwell, Holger Meier, Dion van Huyssteen, Megan Gemmell, the members of the Wort Hogs and East Coast Brewers who helped out on Facebook and, of course, to all the boys in the SSBSS you know who you are!

Thanks also to the team at Toscana Enologica Mori for the support and to everyone at Penguin Random House, particularly Bev, Joy, Jessie and my latest beer convert, Linda.

Published in 2015 by Struik Lifestyle

(an imprint of Penguin Random House (Pty) Ltd)

Company Reg. No. 1953/000441/07

The Estuaries, 4 Oxbow Crescent, Century Avenue, Century City, 7441

P O Box 1144, Cape Town 8000, South Africa

Copyright in published edition: Penguin Random House (Pty) Ltd 2015

Copyright in text: Lucy Corne 2015

Copyright in illustrations: Penguin Random House (Pty) Ltd 2015

Copyright in photographs: Lucy Corne 2015, with the exception of the following: Andrew Brauteseth ().

ISBN 978 1 43230 486 7

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.

Publisher: Linda de Villiers

Managing editor: Cecilia Barfield

Editor and indexer: Joy Clack

Designer: Beverley Dodd

Design assistant: Randall Watson

Photographer: Lucy Corne

Product photographer: Matthys van Lill

Illustrator: Pinewood Studios Jessica Pearson

Proofreader: Laetitia Sullivan

This book is printed on FSC-certified paper. Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) is an independent, international, non-governmental organization. Its aim is to support environmentally sustainable, socially and economically responsible global forest management.

All contact details correct at time of going to print.

CONTENTS

ABOUT THE BOOK

When people bought African Brew, I kept hearing tales of how they planned trips using the book. They plotted beery weekends away, they booked family vacations that were conveniently close to some South African microbreweries and at least one person took a road trip from Cape Town to Durban, stopping at every brewery along the way. With this book I wanted to tap into that, to help people take a vacaletion. It was for me the perfect marriage, combining my two passions and indeed my two professions writing about beer and writing about travel.

The book is set out geographically and within each province the breweries are laid out to represent a provincial ale trail. Of course, you can tackle the breweries however you wish, but the idea is that if youre in a certain spot, or youre planning a visit to a particular place, you can easily dip into the book to find any other breweries in the vicinity.

This time around I opted not to include tasting notes for every beer. This was largely because there are just so many beers now that if every pint had a description there wouldnt be much room left for the stories, and these journeys from homebrewing or beer appreciation into microbrewing are just as important as the journey youll follow as you attempt to taste every beer featured here. You will find tasting notes, but just for a few select beers. Ive called them Big 5 Pints the ones that youll really want to tick off along your journey. Theyre the beers that are true to style or that are generally flawless. Theyre never disappointing, always drinkable and theyre worth seeking out. Fortunately, like unmissable animals in Africa, there are more than five of them, but I kind of liked the name.

The rest of the beers are listed in each brewerys beer menu, with just their ABV (alcohol by volume) percentage alongside. In some cases, where the beer has an unfathomable name, the style has been included in brackets. Rather than list the beers from light to dark or light-bodied to full-bodied, I opted to list each brewerys beers in order of my preference. If you agree with my choices, thats awesome. If you dont, even better, for beer is a very personal thing and I love a good discussion, especially when it involves beer

At the start of each brewery write-up, youll also find a selection of icons indicating what facilities you might find at the brewery heres what they mean:

accommodation

accommodation within walking distance

family-friendly

food

merchandise

off-sales

tastings

tours