WHERE’S IT AT?

THE EVOLUTION OF SA CRAFT

BEER – OR ANY ALCOHOL FOR THAT MATTER – CAN BE ENJOYED AT HOME. BUT SOLITAIRE NEEDN’T BE THE ONLY GAME IN TOWN, AS LUCY CORNE WRITES. THE PLEASURE FACTOR GETS RAMPED UP WHEN SUPPED IN CONVIVIAL SURROUNDINGS WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY – AND OFTEN LIVE MUSIC AND GOOD FOOD.

A little piece of heaven – blue skies, sunshine, beautiful Free State scenery and hospitality and a surfeit of tasty lagers, ales and more!

Five or six years ago, it seemed that barely a weekend went by when there wasn’t a beer festival somewhere in South Africa. On certain Saturdays, there were two or even three events in a single city, leaving you with difficult decisions on where to spend your rands.

Some were all-out events, with impressive beer line-ups, big-name acts on the stage, sought-after tickets and dedicated kids’ areas. Others were what are best described as bandwagonjumpers. It seemed like anyone with a few square metres of space thought they could host a beer festival. Many of them had little more to offer, drinks-wise, than your local craft beer bar. Some failed to ever go ahead, others quietly disappeared after their debut, quickly realising that beer festivals are not exactly a get-richquick scheme.

But the good ones, well, they proved that there is money to be made, as long as there is passion and knowledge and a deep commitment to plenty of hard work. And a handful of festivals have truly flourished. In December, the Cape Town Festival of Beer celebrated its 10th anniversary, growing from a predominantly (and proudly!) SAB event in 2010 to a much-loved, three-day homage to local and imported craft brews. The Clarens Craft Beer Festival likewise turns 10 in February. It has become the country’s top destination fest, where beer lovers from every province arrive for a weekend of one-off festival ales in the scenically beautiful Eastern Free State. The destination model has been adopted by organisers of the Fools & Fans Beer Festival (April) in pretty little Greyton. The one-day event turns into a three-day party as revellers plan a weekend around the chilled and cheery festival. One thing that these successful festivals all have in common though – other than surviving several years in the business – is the drive and passion of their organisers, who spend much of the year planning the next beery party.

The beer industry itself has followed a similar pattern to that of the beer fest calendar. Back in 2012, there were barely 50 microbreweries found across the country. By the end of 2015 there were more than 130. But for every passionate

The Clarens Craft Beer Festival ... has become the country’s top destination fest, where beer lovers from every province arrive for a weekend of one-off festival ales in the scenically beautiful Eastern Free State.

Two of Gauteng’s best-loved events take wildly different approaches. The grass-roots Purely Pretoria (May) celebrates small and local with bands, food trucks and breweries all from the capital region. A month later, Capital Craft (midJune) opts for a “big is beautiful” approach. The Pretoria National Botanical Garden is the spectacular venue for this colossal fest featuring 40 brewers, 200 beers, three live music stages and around 10 000 revellers. homebrewer who decided to turn their hobby into a profession, there was a bandwagon-jumper waiting in the wings, thinking they could tap into the new trend with a couple of recipes found on the internet and a makeshift brewery tucked away in some corner of their farm, restaurant or wine estate.

But brewing good beer is not easy; brewing consistently good beer is tougher still. And producing enough great,

consistent beer and actually selling it all, well – that is the trickiest part of all.

The chancers soon saw that their sub-par ales did not cut it. Drinkers voted with their wallets and the industry started to see a notable number of closures. More breweries opened than closed, but the first boom was definitely over and by 2018, growth in the number of breweries in SA had slowed to less than 5% per year.

The bubble had burst, people said. The market was saturated. But craft beer in 2018 accounted for an estimated 1% of the total beer market – hardly saturation point. Could it be then that there was simply a shift in focus? The beer drinker was becoming more educated, more savvy in what made a good beer. Craft was no longer some fly-by-night fad – it

was a bona fide, permanent addition to the South African beer market and drinkers were no longer fooled by any old garage brew just because it said craft on the label.

Perhaps the bubble hadn’t burst at all. Perhaps the market was actually maturing and instead of focussing on quantity (more breweries means a better industry!), the focus shifted to something undeniably more important – better quality beer.

There is more to being a successful microbrewery than making great beer though. The really tricky bit is selling it and finding the right model to actually make the whole thing profitable. There are two main options open to brewers wanting to make a go of their business in South Africa, and they can be boiled down to a simple mantra: go big or go brewpub.

With their origins rooted firmly in the craft movement, these three brewers have successfully diversified into a national presence as well as fixed premises offering hospitality to keen hop fanciers.

Every craft brewer needs a place to showcase their wares, whether it’s a makeshift bar in the corner of the brewery, a snazzy taproom at a different site or on the smallest, cosiest level, a brewpub.

Beer is a volume product. Unlike wine or spirits, the profit margin on a single bottle is low, so the brewer needs to sell a lot of it to make money. Some breweries have successfully taken this route: in the last three years, Darling Brew, Jack Black and Devil’s Peak have all considerably expanded their capacity, investing in larger, better equipment and increasing their distribution around the country. Other, smaller breweries such as Drifter (Cape Town), Mad Giant (Johannesburg) and Cape Town veteran Boston Breweries have likewise opted to expand and to distribute packed beer around South Africa and even beyond our borders. But there is one thing these breweries all have as well as a distribution network – a tasting space for consumers to visit.

Craft beer is almost as much about the story as it is about the liquid. The whole Slow Food movement leans heavily on a consumer’s desire to meet the producer, to feel a relationship with the end product, to see where and how it was made. Every craft brewer needs a place to showcase their wares, whether it’s a makeshift bar in the corner of the brewery, a snazzy taproom at a different site or on the smallest, cosiest level, a brewpub.

A brewpub combines the actual brewery and the tasting room, offering beer and food and the chance to see where the brewing magic happens. Assuming the brewer masters the restaurant side of the business as well, it can be a winning model, with all of the middle men – distributors, bars, liquor store owners – and their respective cuts of the profits taken out of the equation.

Perhaps one of the most successful brewpubs in South Africa is Aegir Project in Noordhoek, Cape Town. The premise is fairly simple: choose a location with some foot traffic, brew great beer, add some simple food and a welcoming environment. The result – a perpetually busy pub filled with content faces. When it comes to South African brewpubs, the biggest problem is location. Brewers need to be in a light industrial area in order to get the appropriate licence and industrial areas aren’t always ones that people want to bring their families to for a Saturday afternoon excursion.

But brewers are good at adapting or to “maak ’n plan”, and many have proved that if you brew it, the customers will come. Durban’s That Brewing Company helped revive a region of the city that people weren’t exactly flocking to; there are now three microbreweries in gentrified Jo’burg and in Cape Town, Jack Black has become the unlikely local hero with their brewery and tap in a Diep River industrial park. We currently sit with about 220 breweries and contract brands – those that brew at someone else’s premises. Between them, they’re brewing lagers and pilsners, barrel-aged stouts and wild-fermented Belgianstyle ales. They are following international trends and they are creating local brews that embrace our South African culinary and botanical heritage.

One thing is for sure– South Africa’s craft beer scene is not going away and as long as there is great beer, there will be local festivals to showcase and celebrate it.

Creativity in naming new brews is not the issue... as these labels demonstrate. Consistency is key.