Microbrewery on the increase

According to McRae, Mitchell’s now produces almost 50 000 litres a month, or almost 600 000 litres a year, but he wants to increase that figure to as much as one million litres.McRae said that in the past five to six years there had been a noticeable change in the market for microbrewery beer as more South Africans became aware that there were alternatives to SAB.

This is still a pittance compared with SAB’s 3.1-billion litres a year in production capacity, but it is significant enough to make Mitchell’s one of the largest microbreweries in the country.

Mitchell’s now has a lot more competition, such as De Garve Brewery, established about four years ago in Vanderbijlpark by Van den Bon, who is the brewer while his wife, Goedele, runs the commercial side of things.

The De Garve Brewery was among the 27 micro and craft brewers that recently took part in the Clarens Craft Beer Festival, selling beers such as the Jolly Nun Belgian-style ale and Golden Blonde American-style ale.

In total more than 90 different beers and ciders were on sale at the festival, offering the inquisitive beer connoisseur a smorgasbord of new taste sensations.

Van den Bon brews 1 000 to 1 500 litres of beer a month, which he uses to supply as draft and bottled beer to a number of pubs in Vanderbijlpark, Parys in the Free State and Johannesburg. Sixty percent of his beer is bottled and the rest is sold as draft.

A De Garve pint retails between R24 and R28 and the bottled beers cost between R13 and R15 a bottle.

Van den Bon said there was definitely a big increase in demand for microbrewery beer, but it still remained a niche market.

LLOYD GEDYE

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http://mg.co.za/article/2012-03-09-moving-from-bland-to-blonde/