These are the people that will be organising events for you. If you have any suggestions, please contact any of the comity members.

This is the first of the news letters distributed by post, I hope it is a pleasant surprise. It apears that I got it all right in the previous news letter as I have not received any complaints.

I have compiled what I believe to be a comprehensive list of South African breweries and their beers. There are 9 Breweries producing 42 beer. SAB has the lions share of the market with around 98% the other 2% is shared between the others and imported beers.

I enjoyed the research into the malt mill article and found some information in the oddest of places. I have not done any qualitative evaluation on my mill designs but they seem to have worked OK, and I have produced some acceptable beers from the malt they crushed. Thanks to Nikki my wife for her contribution in the form of the article about our visit to Farmers Brewery – an idyllic setting to savour excellent beer and break the Durban JHB haul.

Thanks to SAB Roslyn for the tour, unfortunately Arno had been transferred by the time the visit took place. What is it with the Worthog Brewers that each time we get to know a brewer SAB transfer him.

This insert was inspired by a column in a national newspaper claming that there are only 16 beers commercially produced in our great land. Off the top of my head I reached 21 and so decided to do a little research to find out how many beers are avalable to the man in the street. They may need a little looking for but the rewards are worth the effort. See how many you recognise and how many you have drunk.

Mitchels Brewery (4 Beers)

Knysna

Cape Town, and

Gauteng.

Founded in 1982 in Knysna brewing Foresters Bitter, expanded to Cape Town and Gauteng.

Beers are Bosuns Bitter, Foresters Draught, Raven Stout and 90 Shilling Scotch Ale.

Distribution: Available in all the major centres in SA.

Farmers Brewery (6 Beers)

Hattingspruit

Founded in 1992 in Hattingspruit and produce lager beers in accordance with the Reinheids Gebod.

Farmers Draught, Farmers light, Octoberfest, Pilsner, Schwartzbier and Bockbier. Seasonal and special beers are also brewed.

Draymans Brewery (9 Beers)

Gauteng

Founded in 1997 in Pretoria this fledgling brewery is going from strength to strength.

Beers: Goblins Bitter, Jolly Monk Porter, Altstadt Weisbier, Draymans Draught, Draymans Gingerbeer and Cool Runnings Bro.

Speciality beers: Purple Daze, Firkin Bitter and Millennium Prize Old Ale.

Distribution: only available from selected outlets in Pretoria.

Rawdens (4 Beers)

Founded in 19?? Near Nottingham road. This brewery and guest house has become a prime attraction of the Midlands Meander.

Beers: Whistling Weasel Porter, Toad Stout

Distribution: Available from select distributors.

Old Cape Ale Brewery (3 Beers)

Founded at the end of 1998 in Ottery just out side Cape Town the brewery has captured market share in the outlying areas.

Beers: Cream ale, Nut brown and a porter.

Birkenhead Brewery (1Beers)

This hi-Tec brewery was also established towards the end of 1998 in Hermanus. Currently only a lager in Produced which is distributed through NMK Schults.

This a state of the art German brewery built during 1988.

Beers: Edel Lager, Bavaria Lite, Kaltenburg and Point 5O.

Distribution is through the Gauteng Region.

Need no introduction as the largest producer of beer in SA and the 4^th largest brewer in the world.

Beers: Castle Lager, Lion Lager, Castle Milk Stout, Castle Lite, Carling Black Label, Hansa Pilsener, Ohlsson’s Lager and Dakota Ice.

Distribution: National and some brands international

That gives a total of 40 beers that are brewed in South Africa. Not really worth comparing to some cites and towns in the USA, but it is a start. The above list is not totally comprehensive but to my mind is the only list that is currently available. If there are any breweries and beers that have not yet been included in the list please let me know also give us your impression of their drinkability. Any body for a bit of pub crawling?

A full bodied English Bitter with all the esters to produce a ripe fruity taste and enough hops to linger as a pleasant dry, hoppy aftertaste. The flagship beer of Draymans Brewery.

Arrogantly Irish! Brewed to be silky smooth, rich and creamy with a smoky twang! A "genius of a beer.

Only authentic Bavarian style hefe weissbier on draught in South Africa, and only available in 2 pubs: Munchner House and Her Gunthers. Bursting with flavour of ripe bananas and spicy clove.

Noble hopped exclusively with Saaz hops and brewed to the style of the golden ale of Cologne the "Kolschbier". Crisp, clean and refreshing the "anytime beer!"

Supplied exclusively to Cool Runnings Pubs. Brewed only with freshly crushed gingerroot – no artificial ginger flavour added. A very unique strong ginger flavour and "burn" that is very "morish!"

Contract brewed for the Cool Runnings Franchise to fit their Jamaican/Caribbean coco-palm tree image. "Dis is da draft wid da coconut mon!", and goes down very well with African Reggae.

Speciality Beers Coming Soon:

Not yet Launched – this will be the first fruitbeer in South Africa. Blackcurrant fruit puree will be added to the secondary fermentation to provide a stunningly dry but distinctive fruity taste. Look out for this beer in early spring 1999!

Brought back by overwhelming public request this will be a contract brew only for the firkin Brewpub – Centurion. This real ale will be brewed to suit a wide audience and will thus not be "Firkin Bitter"!

See the previous issue of the Worthog Boar Vol. 1 No 3.

We all know that beer has been the mainstay of civilisation since time immemorial, but is only recently that scientific studies of fermentation have been undertaken one of the first is presented below:

"Beer yeast" when dispersed in water , breaks down into an infinite number of small spheres. If these spheres are transferred to an aqueous solution of sugar they develop into small animals. They are endowed with a sort of suction trunk with which they gulp up the sugar from the solution. Digestion is immediately and clearly recognisable because of the discharge of excrement’s. These animals evacuate ethyl alcohol from their bowels and carbon dioxide from their urinary organs. Thus one can observe how a specifically lighter fluid is exuded from the anus and rises vertically where as stream of carbon dioxide is ejected at very short intervals from their enormously large genitals.

FARMERS BREWERY, HATTINGSPRUIT

BY NIKKI COWARD

Every year, thousands of Vaallies head off like lemmings down to the coast. Generally not to throw themselves off a cliff, but to take in the sea and the sun down on the Kwazulu Natal coast.

The N3 is the route of choice, where you can put pedal to the metal and get there in six hours flat. However, South Africans are beginning to learn that its not just the destination that makes the holiday, but the stops along the way.

On a recent break down to the coast we planned our trip with one stop en route. And what better place to stop and take a break than at a brewery.

The Farmers Brewery at Hattingspruit is situated just ten kilometers this side of Dundee on the Newcastle road. We arrived there on a chilly, blustery Sunday on June. Although it was cold and bleak, the site of the brewery is still picturesque beside a small dam just outside the town (if one could go as far as calling it that.) It is clearly sign-posted and there’s a good road with plenty of parking outside the building.

The atmosphere of the brewpub cum restaurant is typically modern Austrian. Which is not surprising since the whole effort is owned a run by the Austrian Martin Family. The Farmers Brewery sells only beer made on the site and one wonders how they can break even without selling some of the more popular SAB brews.

However, it seems that owning a brewery and quaffing his very own brew has always been the dream of owner Otto Martin since he left a war-ravaged Sudatenland years ago. Otto has been living in the area for years and still runs an engineering company, Dabmer.

In 1990 this dream became an earnest project. His son, Josef and daughter-in-law Hayley, spent their honeymoon investigating brewing possibilities in Austria. Eventually, the company SALM was chosen to supply the equipment for a brewery and it was imported from Vienna and installed in 1992.

On the 3^rd of July 1993, the brewery-restaurant was opened.

We sat down and enjoyed some Farmers draught and Oktoberfest. Both were delicious and we accompanied this with some lunch off the typically Austrian menu. The restaurant was not full, but the owners put this down to the first bite of winter and people reluctant to leave their homes.

Frau Martin rescued a skinny and neglected Shetland pony, which has been spoilt and fattened up, and on Sunday’s manages a little waddle around the lawn next to the pub with small children on board.

In addition to the pub and restaurant there are also conference and private party facilities and this is where the Brewery makes some additional cash. It is apparently quite popular with local companies who like to hold "do’s" there. It would not be an inconvenient drive for Gauteng companies to do the same.

You can also overnight in Hattingspruit. The Martin Family has renovated and equipped the Old School House as a guest house. The building has been converted into a number of units consisting of two bedrooms, a bathroom, lounge and kitchen. The latter was locked during our visit because we were only staying overnight and breakfast is served in the main dining room on a massive oregon pine table. And

what a breakfast – everything from cereal, yogurt, bacon, eggs, etc. Alas no beer. (Not that we asked mind you.)

This is served by the delightful Gabby, who is married to a local farmer and appears to have her finger on the pulse of Hattingspruit. She also helps to run the restaurant and pub.

After breakfast our car had thawed sufficiently to take us back to the Brewery where we found out more about the business.

The brewhouse dominates the main pub-restaurant area and consists of two copper domed wood lagged vessels. One is a combined mash tun/boiler and the other a lauter tun. The beers being typical German lagers brewed with malt imported from Germany require step mashing and thus heating of the mash. The lauter tun is fitted with rotating rakes.

After the boil the hot wort is pumped to the cellar below through a counter flow plate chiller into the fermentation tanks. The beer is then fermented and lagered for six weeks before being transferred to the dispensing tanks. There are four tanks which are pressurized by bladders to supply the beer directly from the cellar to the taps at the bar. At any time there are four beers on tap and up to eight available in bottles to take away.

Hayley Martin is adamant that they will not be selling any other brews at the Farmers Brewery. Even though this could make lots more money. Because, after all, this project was done for the love of beer.

Finding out more about beer and its components has been a feature of our last few holidays and it certainly has been worthwhile. So think about it next time you go haring off to the coast. The stop at Hattingspruit will be a pleasant break in your journey.

PO Box 175 Tel: 021-704-1224

OTTERY Fax: 021-73-8868

Cell: 082-939-0771

Dear Karen, the story of the origins of OLD CAPE ALE started way back in my computer days. Without going on an ego trip, briefly, I have been in computers for 25 years and with a degree in electronics, was involved in the development of computers as we now know them. This career I terminated about 10 years ago when I got gatvol of corporate politics and as I was marketing manager for AEG at the time, you can imagine the extent of said politics. While in the computer industry I travelled extensively overseas and found REAL BEERS which were to my liking. During one of these trips I was able to finagle 6 months leave which I used to sign on in a small teaching brewery in Ringwood in Hampshire and returned with a brewing competency certificate. In my spare time I built my first little brewery and made beers of the sort which I liked. That was when I started marketing the concept and to-date I have built and installed 12 breweries in and around South Africa. Further study enabled me to become a qualified brewer with a membership of the International Brewers Guild in London. The move back to Cape Town from Johannesburg was prompted by the current lack of quality of life in Gauteng and as my first love was brewing fine beers, I set up a brewing plant with a partner in Cape Town from where my family originated after they emigrating from Denmark.

The Old Cape Ale Brewing Company is situated in the Irish suburb of O’ttery and is currently producing two ale type beers: an English type bitter and a light lager type of beer known affectionately as CACA (California Cream Ale). The bitter is a fruity, full bodied beer with lots of flavour. A beer to ponder over and enjoy slowly. The caca on the other hand is a crisp, refreshing, easy drinking light ale/lager, suitable for the braai or at the rugby. Caca also has a bit more flavour than our average commercial mega-brew. (something which is not to difficult to achieve). Both beers are hand brewed by a beer craftsman. Hence, the term craft brewed beers. The beers are a local brew brewed by a Capetonian after an old recipe for the Cape Town area only. We do not filter or pasteurise or wipe its bottom or add any nasties for a quicker production. Our beers take from 21 to 60 days before they are ready, depending on type.

We can now start marketing our product and therefore would appreciate any exposure you could give us. I look forward to chatting further with you.

Regards

Terence Tegner.

I have been the chairman of the SA Mead Masters’ Association since its inception. As I spoke in my ramblings, we need to have space to breathe sometimes. At a SAMMA meeting, it was decided that SAMMA members would be looked after by SBA. It was decided at our last committee meeting where we discussed the matter in depth, that two meetings a year of SBA would be "Mead" inclined. The mead chaps would also get other news from the Warthog Brewers to whom we are also affiliated. Hopefully this newsletter will include in future, mead articles as well.

Winston, Mark The Biology of the Honey Bee

Hope you were able to enjoy all goings on, and have found the newsletter interesting. It would be great to get some interaction. So if you have any comment, argument, criticism, please mail me either at the address on letter head or email on arbour@netactive.co.za. In the meantime keep those bees going.

Eddy

There are a number of arguments in the brewing world as to when you can truly claim that you have brewed a beer. At the one extreme, it can be argued that by taking a commercial beer, recapping it, and putting on your own label, you have sufficiently altered the product so as to call it your own. At the other extreme are the brewers who feel that you have to grow your own ingredients.

To my mind, the fundamental turning point in a person’s brewing life is when they create their own wort, and ferment this. I believe that you can only truly call a beer your own when you know exactly what has gone into it. The simplest way of reaching this stage is to brew with malt extract.

In this article, I will run you through brewing a basic extract bitter. The method can be extended to other styles.

It is important to note that there are commercial brewers in the USA who choose not to mash, but to make use of the quality malt extracts available there. Whilst there are many good reasons for moving to full mash brewing, if time precludes this, you can still brew a malt extract beer to be proud of.

The following is a list of the equipment that you will need. I have subdivided it into those items that I consider to be crucial, and those that are fairly useful. There is a third list of brewing gadgets that are fun to have, but once you are hooked, you will come up with that list quickly enough on your own.

1. A pot with capacity of at least 8 litres
2. A fermentation bucket with airlock and tap
3. A household kettle
4. A stove
5. A hydrometer
6. A thermometer (range -10 to 100°C is the best, but 5 to 30°C is crucial)
7. A large spoon
8. Returnable beer bottles
9. A crown capper and crown caps.
10. A sieve

1. Measuring spoons
2. A gram scale
3. A second fermentation vessel.

1. 3 kg Pale Malt Extract
2. 500g crushed crystal malt
3. 20 ml hop extract
4. 2 teaspoons gypsum (plaster of Paris)
5. 1 packet dried ale yeast

1. Prepare 25l of water by boiling for 30 minutes and then allowing to cool.
2. Heat 2l of water to 70°C and add the crushed crystal malt. Allow to stand for at least 30 minutes.
3. Stand the malt extract containers in warm water to soften the extract.
4. Bring 4l of water to the boil. Add 2 teaspoons gypsum.
5. Add pale malt extract to the boiling water, stirring continually until dissolved. (Watch the pot carefully as boil overs can happen quite easily.)
6. Strain the crystal malt grains, and add the liquid to the main pot. Bring back to the boil.
7. Add the hop extract and boil for 5 minutes.
8. Put pot into a sink of cold water (ice helps), and allow to cool.
9. Sterilise fermentation bucket.
10. Add contents of pot to fermentation bucket, and fill with prepared water to make 22 litres.
11. Add yeast to 100ml water at 35°C and allow to stand for 15 minutes.
12. Once wort temperature drops below 20°C, add yeast.
13. Fit lid to bucket and put steriliser in airlock.
14. Place bucket in a position where temperature will not fluctuate. Optimum temperature is between 10°C and 20°C.
15. Do not touch bucket until there are no air bubbles passing through the airlock. This should take between 3 and 14 days.
16. Bottle beer using 2ml of sugar per 375ml of beer being bottled.
17. Allow at least 2 weeks before drinking.

The method above will make you a beer that you can call your own and be proud of.

Antony Hayes

7 July 1999

Best WortHog Homebrew Beer 1999

Any glass bottles between 375 and 750 ml, brown or green glass, and be free of raised-glass or inked brand-name lettering and paper labels. Bottles with Grolsch-type swing tops are not allowed. Bottles not meeting these requirements will be disqualified.

In total about 3 Liters of beer.

Wort Hog Members R5 per entry.

Non Members R10 per entry.

(a) For each entry, fill out an entry form (last part of this brochure) in its entirety. For complete instructions on filling out the entry form, see Part II. Judges do not see your entry form. For more than one entry, please make copies of the entry form.

(b) Entry fees must be paid before judging.

There will be 4 categories namely:

Light Colour Beers: Ales, Lagers etc.

Dark Colour Beers: Stout, Porters etc.

Speciality Beers: Wheat, Belgium etc.

Strong Beers / Wine: Mead, Barley Wine.

It is important that you specify which category you are entering.

1. You may not submit more than two entries per category.

(b) Your homebrew must not have been brewed at any place that brews beverages for any commercial purpose, whether for commercial research, production or any other purpose, including brew-on-premise establishments.

2. You must give the names of all brewers who helped in the brewing.

Please print clearly or type. In Item 1 fill in the name of the brewer who is responsible for receiving results.

In Item 2 fill in the full names of all other brewers who participated in brewing the entry.

Non-members can join at the meeting, cost R50.

You must submit a recipe. Upon entering this Competition, entrants agree to allow (at

no cost) publication of their recipe by the Wort Hog Brewers. Entrant will receive all due credit.

At the discretion of the judges and competition organisers, entries will be disqualified for eligibility or entry requirement infractions. These entries may still be judged, but will be ineligible for awards.

1. Results

All entrants will receive a score sheet with judges’ comments for his/her entries.

(W) (________) _______________________

Non-members pay R10 per entry:__________ no. of entries x R10 = R____________ total

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