Today is a day all about beer. I never thought I’d say that, but Good Hope FM is the media partner for the Cape Town Beer Festival 2011, I was invited, so here I am. Here is a recap of the day’s activities, a show case of Cape Town beers for the upcoming Cape Town Festival of Beer 2011.
The afternoon started at Caveau with an address from a few beer loving, beer brewing gents and Cape Town representatives. The following men are responsible for educating us about beer and the beer festival. First, Matt Tucker, the event organiser.
If you’ve ever had a few pints at Paulaner at the V&A, Wolfgang is the master brewer, originally from Germany. He says The City of Cape Town has drank 3 million pints over the last 10 years and 4000 pints over the mini beer festival 3 week period. Not too shabby.
According to Mr Dominee, from Cape Town Tourism, beer drinking has been placed on the top 100 things to do in Cape Town, who knew?!
Stop 3 was the Tjing Tjing roof top bar, upstairs from Dear Me Food World. With their loft style half inside/outside bar, it’s a perfect place for a late afternoon toot.
Our 4th stop was the legendary Mamma Africa, a little slice of Africa in Long Street. Thing is, I’ve never eaten here! I was told it was very expensive and very touristy…hardly a place for locals. None the less, I’m here today to sample beer. I’m very happy to say that the beer is actually from Darling and includes the “Bonecrusher” which I tried at the Voorkamer Festival this year.
Today I learnt there are only 2 kinds of beer, ales and lagers. The difference is that one has bottom yeast, the other has top yeast.
Our second last stop was “Twankey” Bar. Is that a pun on swanky? It should be. An oyster and Guinness combination bar, usual but a great pairing. Fresh oysters and a pint of Guinness, something new and fun. Usually the oysters are from Luderitz in Namibia but today they were from Port Elizabeth, no problem as they were fresh and tasty!
Our final stop was HQ for our last top up of a Castle Milk Stout and a Camelthorn Namibian beer. We were spoilt with some HQ sirloin and chips as well as mushrooms. Dessert was a bite size square of chocolate brownie, a perfect mini meal after a day of beer sampling. Today was a beautiful, sunny day in the Mother City and perfect for a little beer stroll. If you feel like a day out and pint sometime in the near future, be sure to check out the Festival of Beer on November 25th of Hamilton Sports Club.
