OnTap Magazine

OT: When you started Mitchell’s back in 1983, what was your vision? LM: I remember in those first years, having recently visited the UK and Germany, I was fired up with the belief that South Africa’s beer scene could become like those countries’. I imagined the establishment of small breweries in many towns in SA. I had the vision of beer routes throughout the country and avid beer drinkers undertaking pilgrimages to sample them – each town offering something uniquely special to its geography or history, even if it was just in a name. I saw these breweries as small, independent entities, fiercely promoting real beer as opposed to the offerings of the megabrewery products which had for years dulled the palates of fellow beer drinkers in SA. I wanted to see brewers who were an intimate part of the tapestry of their towns, who engendered pride in the citizens of the town because they could boast about having their own brewery, their own beers. OT: Do you think you ever imagined how much the beer industry would change around the world, and just how big craft beer would become? LM: Did I foresee exactly how big craft beer was going to be here and abroad? Possibly not. Certainly not that some of the “micro” breweries which have been established would appear to be pushing to catch up with the established megabreweries! My vision of craft beer (or real beer as I always referred to it then) was of a cottage industry – green and local without the need for massive infrastructure and transport requirements. To some extent therefore, I think I did see the growth possibilities – after all, I had seen what happened in the UK when craft breweries exploded from 7 to nearly 200 in a few short years. But in SA, from 1983 when I realised my dream, it just took so long! It was lonely for a long time and then when I was starting to think I needed a break (15 years with two weekend breaks!), things started to happen. OT: What have been your proudest/happiest moments over the past 40 years of your brewing career? LM: I think my proudest and happiest moment in my brewing career was opening my brewery in Knysna on 6 March, 1983. It was the culmination of years of planning and much angst. We planned our opening in a restaurant in Knysna and sold tickets for R10 per head with free beer and snacks. We sold 200 tickets and believe at least 300 people pitched! We gave away 400 litres of beer and ran out of snacks but everyone had a great time. Of course it was very late in the evening when I finally started relaxing and realised that it was a success. OT: Are there any beer trends that have puzzled you? LM: What has puzzled me most is the size of some of the Since we’re exploring beer history in this issue, there was one person we just had to chat to; a man who has been involved in South Africa’s microbrewing industry since the very, very start. We asked Lex Mitchell to tell us more about spending more than three decades in beer. 6 | Spring 2020 | ontapmag.co.za