Cape Town = Craft Town

I recently visited my girlfriend who is on an internship in Cape Town, South Africa. Whilst there, I couldn't resist doing a little bit of beer discovering, well at least as much as my girlfriend would allow anyway.

The following is my experience with the craft beer scene in Cape Town (CPT), in the few days that I was there.

Cape Town = Craft Town!

1. The Scene

I really had no idea on what to expect, in terms of beer, in CPT.

My first experience with CPT Craft beer, Firebird IPA !

However, I was soon to be pleasantly surprised. What became apparent very quickly was that each bar and restaurant we visited had, at least, a choice between a number of different brews.

Off course this included a selection of different lagers both local and international (always good to have a choice), with the apparent flagship lager "Castle" being available pretty much everywhere.

Enjoying a Castle Lager

But apart from having a selection of different lagers, most restaurants and bars provided a selection of local craft beer, which is awesome. Furthermore, most beer is served in pint or large glasses, including craft beer. This in combination with relatively low prices compared to what im used to in Europe, this gives you plenty of 'bang for your buck'.

Enjoying a Passionate Blond, with some seafood 

But craft beer in pint glasses, isn't that way too much? No, not really. If Russian imperial stouts or barley wines were commonplace, and those were served in pint glasses, I would wholeheartedly agree. But, based on my experience, the majority of local brews are represented by low ABV, fresh styles such as IPA's, Blonde's, Golden Ales, Pale Ales and a few Stouts/Milk Stouts here and there.

Beer Bar at Old Biscuit Mill Food Market

Craft beer also has a presence at events apparently. When visiting the Old Biscuit Mill food market, there were two craft beer bars (one pictured above), and a bottle shop selling chilled wines and craft beer.

Enjoying a Butcher Block Pale Ale to go from the bottle shop

In terms of availability craft beer is everywhere in Cape Town, most bars and restaurants have a selection of both lagers and craft on their menu's, although the menu's were not very extensive, they usually did provide a nice choice of locally crafted brews. Moreover, I also encountered a pub which had their own brew (but as often is the case, I expect it was brewed by someone else).

Drinking Tiger's Milk at Tiger's Milk

What I didn't encounter was imported craft beer on any of the menus, but since I was there to try local, that was fine by me.

2. The Breweries

Cape Town has a number of different breweries, some of which are open for visits!

In the few days visiting my girlfriend in CPT, I visited 2 breweries, or one and a half, i'm not really sure...

The first brewery I visited was Devils Peak Brewing Company, aptly named after Devil's Peak mountain which is close by.

Devils Peak Brewing Co

Starting as a brewery in 2012, and when demand outstripped supply, moving to the location featured above, Devils Peak is now a full fledged brewery and pub, or brewpub.

Brewery and Bar

And since this was a one time visit, it was tasting paddle time!

Tasting 7 Devil's Peak brews, with a view of Devil's Peak!

Originally, the tasting paddles include 5 DP brews, but as our kind waiter pointed out, i was also able to get 7 tasting glasses including their new experimental brews. As the only real option was to order all 7, I did just that, and i wasn't disappointed.

Like I had encountered so far, the tasting paddle included popular CPT styles such as lager, IPA, Golden Ale and Pale Ale. These tasted fine, but it was DP's more experimental brews which really stood out for me.

The first was the Whiskey Tango Foxtrot (WTF) stout, my first bourbon barrel aged local brew in CPT. The second being the grapefruit express, a grapefruit IPA and the best IPA I had in my few days in Cape Town. The last, and probably my favourite beer of the whole trip, was the Vin de Saison. A farmhouse ale which was infused with South African Chenin Blanc, giving a nice dry, sourish, acidic, fruity flavour!

Mitchells Brewery Tasting Paddle 

That night we stumbled upon an ale house which had five taps dedicated to one brewery, Mitchells. When I asked the waitress for a what she would recommend, she told me to get a tasting paddle of 'our own beers', so not being one to pass up such excellent advice I decided to order said tasting paddle. This tasting paddle was very traditional, including styles such as bitter, pale, lager, imperial lager and honey ale.

I later discovered this was in fact not the brewery, although there was plenty of space in the back for it to be one, but a brewery pub outlet. But, still nice to try a whole selection of local brews.

3. The Stores

As craft beer was so widely available in terms of bars, restaurants and breweries, it came as no surprise that a number of bottle shops and specialty stores also followed this trend.

Bottle Shop

Bottle shops sold a wide variety of different brews, mostly local, and some import from the larger craft brewers (or macro owned brands) such as Brewdog or Duvel. But, one of the biggest surprises in terms of craft beer came when I expected it least: at the local SPAR supermarket, around the corner from where I was staying.

Surprise!

As we finished doing some groceries, I noticed that the supermarket had a seemingly small bottle shop attached to it. What I found inside blew me away, the above picture doesn't do it justice as it only shows about half the brews available.

The shop, apart from selling a wide variety of local brews, sold internationally acclaimed craft brews such as Brewdog Tokyo Black and a wide variety of import beer for very good prices. Moreover, it was very surprising to see quite a number of Dutch breweries (me being Dutch), such as de Molen and Hertog Jan, represented.

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As the purpose of my trip was really not about beer, it was really nice to see so much of the craft beer scene in Cape Town in such little time. I'm sure I missed out on some great breweries, pubs, shops or other beer related things, leaving plenty of more things to be discovered in this great city. If you havent already, I highly recommend checking out craft beer in CPT if you're there!

Cheers!