The Western Cape is famous all over
the world for its magnificent
winelands and the delicious beverages
it produces. Make no mistake –
we will be telling you a lot about that
in the coming weeks, but sometimes
we forget that we have the home of
another of our favourite drinks on
our doorstep as well – beer.
According to that font of all
knowledge, Wikipedia, “beer is the
world’s most widely consumed and
probably the oldest of alcoholic beverages;
it is the third most popular
drink overall, after water and tea”.
It has been brewed pretty much
the same way for thousands of years
and if you’re keen to find out how
that’s done – historically and modernly
– then a trip to the Newlands
Brewery for a tour is
on your to-do list.
SAB, or South
African Breweries, is
the name you’ll probably
associate with
most beers in this
country – it does
brew most of them
after all and is the
second-largest brewery
company in the
world. And the Cape
Town brewery is just
one of seven the company
has around the
country.
Either way, it’s in Newlands
and has been since
Pieter Visagie was granted the
first brewery licence on the Liesbeek
River back in 1658.
The location was perfect for brewing
beer as the water part of it is
important. Five springs well up limitlessly
on the southern side of Table
Mountain and to this day two of
them have been used in the brewing
of SAB beers.
If you want to know if your bottle
of golden brew contains the pure
water of our mountain, look out for
a “J” on the label.
Later there was also the railway
line, which was a huge advantage for
the brewery. When you take the tour,
which is in two parts and concludes
with two beers of your choice in the
pub – SAB takes responsible drinking
seriously and, except for the heritage
part, the tour is not recommended
for under-18s – you will learn
the brewery dates back to the mid-
1800s when Jacob Letterstedt built
the Marienhald Brewery, named
after (and there’s no easy way to say
this, judging from her portrait) his
not-so-lovely wife.
When he died, fellow Swede
Anders Ohlsson (some of you will be
old enough to remember his namesake
beer) bought it.
Then that fellow Charles Glass
from Johannesburg came down here
and opened the Castle Brewery in
Woodstock. After many years of competition,
Ohlsson’s and Castle breweries
merged in 1956 and Voila! SAB
was born.
The heritage portion of the tour
is fascinating. It begins in the
old Malt House, which is a
national monument.
I was lucky enough
to have brewer Denis
da Silva take me
around here and
what this man does
not know about
beer isn’t worth
knowing. He has a
deep passion for
his subject, too,
and it was important
for him to
explain clearly the
malting process.
“You look confused.
Here, let me explain it
again,” he said as I took
copious notes, which have since
been misplaced. Nothing at all to do
with drinking beer.
The Malt House as it stands is a
museum with visual displays documenting
the history of beer-making
in the Western Cape, and the malting
process, which is where the magic
begins.
Attached to this is the Oast House
– “like toast without the T”, said Da
Silva – where the malted barley
would be dried over hot coals, an
important part of the brewing
process because here certain flavours
could be imparted which would
affect the end product.
Up to this point, it’s the same way
whisky is made, but then you go over
to the Mariendahl Brewery for the
lowdown on what happens next.
It’s a tower brewery where everything
was cleverly done with gravity
feeds.
In this building there are also
wonderful old photographs and other
memorabilia, the pub and the shop
selling beery souvenirs.
But wait, before you get there, you
will also get to see the modern brewery.
At this point I was handed over
to official tour guide Lauren Iliffe,
who has more statistics in her head
than seems humanly possible. She
boggled my mind, so I asked her to
mail through some of them, which
you can see alongside.
While the brewing process
remains virtually unchanged, production
certainly has not. It’s all
sparkling clean and stainless steel
and each part fills your nostrils with
the heady aroma of the malted barley,
then the yeasty beer.
Incidentally, it takes about six to
eight weeks from malting – which is
now done in Caledon – to bottle, and
ideally it should be drunk within
three months. Personally, I don’t see a
problem with meeting that deadline.
The enormous automated bottling
system is pretty darn cool – and
noisy, even with only one production
line running. Very exciting.
Tours take place Mondays to Fridays
at 11am and 2pm, and last about
90 minutes (not including your social
time in the pub).
Booking is essential, with a minimum
of 10 people and a maximum of
25. It costs just R20, which goes to
charity. Call 021 658 7511.