Brewing in South Africa

[Bugeater]

Welcome! Now the BN Army has invaded every continent but Antarctica. Glad to here you are brewing over there. Keep us informed about your brewing and, in particular, about your ingredients. I have had a number of brews from Africa (mostly from Tanzania) and the ingredient they all had in common was sorghum. Malted sorghum is almost impossible to find here, but there is quite a bit of interest in it due to people with gluten intolerance (celiac disease). Wonder if you have brewed with it.

Again, welcome to the asylum.

Wayne

[Wise]

Thanks for the welcome, I haven't brewed with sorghum yet but it is definitely on my list of beers to brew, strangely most of my beers have been American eg APA as most of the homebrewing literature seems to come from there.
Sorghum beer is a traditional Zulu drink only brewed by women, http://www.zulu-culture-history.com/zul ... l_beer.htm , I will post something as soon as I have brewed a sorghum beer.

[brewinhard]

My LHBS owner just got in 50 gallons of Sorghum LME. We quickly brewed up 10 gallons with it just to see what is was like. Will post some results after tasting the finished product.

[ChristianSA]

I read that you guys in Saffa Land have some unique hops varieties, are they worth trying?

I started a brewing project here in Cape Town last year and the first ten pallets are going to hit the shelves of USA and Europe around November.

There will be six beers to begin with (fresh-hop bitter, hoppy saison, a sour blonde, Coffee Stout, Strong Porter and barrel aged quadrupel). Most of the beers will be based on South African hops and it should give you an impression of what they are good for. We are currently using Southern Promise, Southern Dawn and a new, yet unnamed hop code named US4/78.

Our website is here: http://bierwerk.com. Not much info available before the actual launch, but sign up with your email address to keep yourself informed.

Christian Skovdal Andersen

[Wise]

Hi Christian
When you do launch please let us know where we can get your beers I would like to try them.
Now that you have finished advertising, would you mind please telling us a bit about the different hop varietals and their characteristics.
Thanks

[ChristianSA]

Hi Christian
When you do launch please let us know where we can get your beers I would like to try them.
Now that you have finished advertising, would you mind please telling us a bit about the different hop varietals and their characteristics.
Thanks

I'm never finished advertising

All the hops are bred and grown by SAB-Miller who is very helpful towards home brewers and microbreweries. They have 11 hop farms and two processing plants around George on the Western Cape. They have an extensive breeding program and they are experimenting a lot since the climate is not suited to growing hops (too few hours of daylight).

Southern Promise is the most popular variety these days. It is coming in around 12% AA used solely as a bittering hop. I have used it as an aroma hop and it does not really give much even if used in large quantities.

Southern Dawn is more fruity and has some qualities similar to New Zealand varieties, although less aromatic. It is also used primarily for bittering and comes in around 11-12% AA. S.D. is mixed with other hops and are not pelletized separately.

US4/78 is developed as a aroma hop and has some of the same qualities as noble hops being more earthy and spicy. It is around 6-7% AA and is pelletized. It seem to work great with Belgian ales.

If I can get acceptance from my importer, I can throw a few packs of hops on the pallets with beer, if there is a home brew shop that would like to carry them.

-Christian