OnTap Magazine

ontapmag.co.za | Autumn 2026 | 29 W hen you look back at the history of the American “craft beer revolution” of the 1970s, you will notice that craft breweries were mostly born out of hobbyists, who eventually took the leap to opening commercial breweries. Over the last few years, talking with brewers from Palestine toDenver, a similar trendemerges. Even though many of these craft brewers came out of engineering, microbiology, or even MBAs and law degrees, they all found their way into the craft beer space after dabbling with beer at “home” and as the saying goes, “one thing leads to another.” I mean, speaking personally, I don’t think anyone ever gets tired of seeing the airlock bubble on a newly brewed batch; a sign that if all else fails, at least the fermentation has begun. To that point: the homebrew scene here in South Africa fills me with a sense of hope for the future of the craft beer industry. That hope, to some extent, stems from the reality that homebrewers not only drink craft beer, but they socially advocate for more varieties of beer styles to be brewed. A variety of beer styles is exactly what a craft brewery is set up to do. Walking the fine line of advocating for craft beer in driving development of South African beer tourismwith the CBASA, I hear people in regulatory circles describe beer in terms of brands of lagers. In other words, beer to them is lager, differentiated only by preferred brand. We know this is mostly due to a group of big companies that have advocated very successfully for beer as a category by building its reputation around the consistently clear and crisp lager, perfectly suited to our warmer climate. As is often the case with a thumping success, this grows a contradictory market, one faithful and steady, which gives rise to a consumer in pursuit of something novel. If the history of the “craft beer revolution” has taught us anything, it is that this leads to the expansion of homebrewing, and in turn, to the opening of craft breweries. WHO ARE THE HOMEBREWERS? Homebrewers come from many walks of life and the type of people who generally join homebrew clubs either want to learn to make beer at home, or they are already making beer at home and want to improve it. It’s motivated by similar reasons to developing a love of cooking or baking, and often, homebrewing overlaps with those communities. A lot of the public homebrewing activities are organized around homebrew clubs. This is true for many parts of the world, and in South Africa, we have a rapidly growing homebrew scene because of it. The late 90s saw the first homebrew clubs in South Africa, founded around mailing lists and the odd group meeting. There was a slow but steady drift along this route, and the original clubs churned out quite a few brewers into the commercial craft space. The reason was simple: the new craft breweries benefited from the formal and informal feedback during club meetings, giving them the opportunity to test and develop recipes that would later become commercial. And this fundamental role remains true today: clubs are forums for soft feedback from other hobbyists and the occasional commercial brewer. There is, of course, also a small section that partakes in beer appreciation only, joining for the educational elements of beer tasting, but initially stopping short of brewing at home. But even this latter group continues to be a supporter of craft breweries. Many new brewers will MacGyver their first systems together. Coolerboxes with copper manifolds and a lack of temperature control at fermentation are some of the common first-time brewing issues. From here, the clubs play a pivotal role in guiding brewers to improve their processes, and occasionally, their systems and choice of ingredients. The very act of this critical thinking (as well as some critical feedback) develops a deeper awareness of the art behind brewing and breeds a keen appreciation for craft beer. So, where one might think homebrewers brew instead of buying beer, in fact, they brew to create, all the while continuing to be Cape Brewing Company provides a tour to members and guests of the Helderberg Homebrew Club