48
Issue 09
WINTER 2020
B R E W M A ST E R
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Zulu Blonde is an evocative name. Did it come to you in a flash after 25 pints? Of course. What a silly question. No, seriously, the words “Zulu” and “Blonde” are two powerful and well-known words in the English language. “Zulu” is used in the phonetic alphabet and is worldrenowned in history books. “Blonde” is also powerful. It is associated with beauty, sex and silly jokes. Together they are a cocktail of confusion and intrigue. Blond is a style of beer like Lager and Pale Ale. We’re from Zululand. It makes perfect sense. Your family is synonymous with Eshowe, a picturesque town in the heart of Zululand largely unknown beyond a few locals and Greg Ardé (who idled his way through a few years of high school there). Give the Philistines who haven’t visited there a potted family history. It’s a place of rolling hills, hot sunsets and hadedas flying overhead, which is what our beer logo denotes. My grandfather Frank came here 100 years ago. We have been farming and running businesses and upliftment projects since. Guy Chennells helped build over 3 000 classrooms. Graham was mayor, brewmaster, sailor, paratrooper and Zulu linguist. I worked on the stock exchange and banking in the UK and then I visited breweries around the world before getting a brewing diploma in the USA. Your brewery was established on site at The George Hotel in Eshowe in 1997, alas, 10 years after I left town. But now I see it in my local drankwinkel. Well done!
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invited back to the UK to brew another 120 000 pints at Everards Brewery in Leicester for the World Cup kick-off in 2010. We did the Rugby World Cup in the UK in 2015 and went back again in 2017. It can’t be half bad, or maybe the Poms were just thirsty. We are launching Zulu Blonde IPA in over 500 outlets in France this September which I am very excited about. You are a master brewer. Does that mean you can organise a piss up in a brewery? What’s the trick in it? To brewing, I mean. If you can’t organise a piss up in a brewery, stay away from brewing! Its a lot of graft. But it is my passion. The hard part is consistency. It has been a dream for over 18 years to have my beer on the shelf. Finally, it is here despite all this chaos and it feels great! Do you get more handsome/beautiful/ lucky when you drink Zulu Blonde? I get loose after a few pints. If I add a Dirty Dam Water (Zululand rum), I find I’m really clever, but hopefully never to the point that I try and change someone’s beer preference. I just want you to taste a Zulu Blonde before you die. If you like it, you’ll have another. If not, no hard feelings.
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Beer & blondes ain’t no JOKE Hotelier, tour guide and brewmaster, Richard Chennells is the man behind Zulu Blonde, a beer that has notched up a string of awards. Greg Ardé spoke to the entrepreneur
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Thanks, pal! We have just launched Zulu Blonde in KZN, including at Tops, Checkers and Pick n Pay. Nationally you can buy it online www.zulublonde. com and it should get to you pretty quickly. We also have our beers at quite a few pubs and restaurants, but we have to wait for the lockdown to finish before anyone can get a pint of the good stuff there.
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You took Zulu Blonde abroad. Cheeky. Nice one. How did that go? We punched up. I brewed at Marston’s Brewery in Burton-uponTrent in the UK and supplied 800 pubs at the JD Wetherspoons International Real Ale Festival. Zulu Blonde was voted number one out of 50 ales and sold out in the first week of the three-week festival. I was
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ABOVE: HOTELIER, TOUR GUIDE AND BREWMASTER, RICHARD CHENNELLS.
