OnTap Magazine

34 | Autumn 2026 | ontapmag.co.za a Striped Horse Stout, a quiet celebration of a journey finally fulfilled. SAVOURING CORE MEMORIES Tessa and Tyrone will celebrate 14 years of marriage this year. They’ve both bounced around among various companies since completing their studies; for Tessa, from the food industry to branded tissue products, then back to Reckitt in 2022. Tyrone eventually landed a position at Dyechem Industrial, where he continues to work today. But truthfully, Tyrone always dreamed he’d end up at SAB, or perhaps he and Tessa would start a business of their own. "We were really interested in beer brewing, but we didn't have the capital," Tyrone explains. A large portion of their earnings during those years went into fine-tuning their diets, supplements, doctor's visits, and the IVF process. Regardless, beer is still a significant part of their life. This includes a lot of tasting and trying different beers, often sitting down to analyze a new beer together, whether at home or on the road. In 2015, they attended Oktoberfest in Munich, visiting many of the city's historic beer houses — a trip that remains a core memory. Beer garden mugs smuggled back joined their growing collection. These days, closer to home, they enjoy attending festivals like the Oktoberfest at the German School in Pretoria and events hosted by the Wort Hog Brewers or the German Club’s Edenvale Deutscher Verein. When on holiday, they still scope out the local scene, like the Drakensberg Brewery after a long, tiring hike. Their future hopes include returning to Oktoberfest in Munich, visiting the famous Beer Spas (Pivní Lázně) in the Czech Republic, tracking down "white whales" like the legendary Westvleteren 12 in Belgium, and perhaps even participating in an Intervarsitybrew™ event again, even if only to enjoy the tasting side of things. DISCOVERING A PASSION Looking back, it really was that coffee stout that served as a gateway beer for Tessa, having up until that point only ever tried commercial lagers. “I didn’t know I could love beer that much!” she says, lighting up. It made her want to try different beer styles, but her love for a stout has never waned. Whenever they are out, Tyrone knows that the first beer he must order for his wife is a stout — or something close. And of course, that stout, and that competition weekend, were more than gateways to a lifelong love of beer. They were the start of another lifelong love. Tessa and Tyrone still have that hippo figurine, even though they’ve had to glue it back together once or twice since the arrival of their daughter. That hippo, along with those beer mugs and glasses so carefully collected over the years, serve as a reminder of how their story began with a newly discovered passion for beer, and a lasting passion for one another. At Oktoberfest 2015 in Germany The original hippo, front and center