Beer
If you do not have patience,
you cannot make beer
– African proverb
Beer has a lot of nicknames; a cold one, brewskie, cerveza, Homer Juice, rocket-sauce, silly seltzer, brew dog, giggle water and liquid courage to name a few.
What’s it called where you are?
I was never big on beer. For a few brief, ‘ladette’ years, it formed part of my staple party diet, a beer combo paired with an obsession with football. But I could never drink a lot of the amber nectar.
When we lived in Liverpool, we discovered Cains Brewery. It was established by Robert Cain, in 1858, and he commissioned the current premises about 30 years later. The site has seen many changes since that time but the Cains brand has survived. We hosted our ‘HAG’ at the Cains brewery in 2007, a hen+stag. We booked a tour of the brewery premises for our group of family and friends and were told quite a bit of the brewery’s history.
One story appealed to all. After one change of management, the brewery employees were told that they couldn’t drink the beer while they were working. The workers ignored that and carried on enjoying their liquid bread. So the management thought that if they removed all the drinking cups, that this beer guzzling during working hours would stop. They were wrong. Instead, the workers simply removed their gum boots and drank out of these. We were told that the origins of the phrases ‘get wellied’ and ‘fill your boots’ comes from this.
Today in South Africa, it’s national beer day. Do you have a national beer day where you are?
We went to a small beer festival at our local pub. Three breweries were being showcased.
We had tried Swifty’s Impi pale ale before, with it’s iconic Zulu warrior label. The IPA is made from South African hops and the majority of the barley used in the production of Impi is locally grown and malted, a proudly South African product. It brings a whole new meaning to ‘having a swift one’. It is perfectly paired with a braai, or something spicy.
Shipwreck Brewery (Kommetjie) showcased their delicious White rabbit blonde beer. KP preferred the more intense ‘Dark side’, a stout.
Flat Rock Brewery was also there. Their beer is handmade, so it can be called ‘craft’ brew. Their beers are ‘Reinheitsgebot’, meaning only Hops, Water, Malted Barley and Yeast are used and naturally clarified. And artisanal beer takes time to perfect. They have three beers; Amber ale ‘Munich’, the Irish Red Ale and their German style pilsner.
The craft beer movement is developing and every year there seem to be more microbreweries opening. There are many craft beer festivals around the country. There are many people committed to making something original, patiently creating something special and working outside of mainstream, mass production.
More beer. More cheer. Good vibes.
What’s the best beer you have enjoyed on your travels? Post your answer on the blog. Or share a photo here.
Cheers!
©Maggie M /Mother City Time
Beer seems to be ubiquitous, everywhere you go you can find some type of it 🙂
In Luxembourg there are a couple of breweries, some big, others small: Mousel, Bofferdéng, Diekirch, Gambrinus. Funny fact: our village is called Bofferdange, I have no idea how and if it is related to the beer Bofferding.
The most interesting beer I’ve ever had was from an East-African restaurant in my small university town Leiden in the Netherlands. They served Coconut and Banana flavoured beer, in a coconut shell. Absolutely loved it.
Beer is everywhere as you say. It’s often a good choice for travellers too, safe (sealed) and you know what you’re going to get (lager). That coconut beer sounds interesting…Would love to know the name! Cheers Isabelle. Keep enjoying Mother City Time.