OnTap Magazine

had the most amazing selection of beers…English beers, four to five dif- ferent IPAs, German lagers, Belgian beer…I just fell in love with beer and knew that’s what I wanted to do.” He almost hesitantly elaborates that those beers he felt drawn to weren’t neces- sarily “craft,” saying, “That’s why I don't really like the distinction ‘craft beer,’ I think it's just beer. But anyway…I don’t want to create a Twitter war…” Warren chuckles as he trails off. All these years later, that beer-enthu- siasm remains: “Every morning I drive to work, and I get to see the mountain, and then I get to work in this beauti- ful old building,” Warren says, before adding that it is still their intention to “elevate the historical significance” of the brewery. The beers they make reflect this intention: one of their four standard beers is Jacob’s Pale Ale, named after Jacob Letterstedt and even (loosely) based on one of the founder’s handwritten recipes. They also have a Tribute Lager which is a tip-of-the-hat to Anders Ohlsson and his impact on South Africa’s brewing industry. Their Passionate Blond uses South African hops – Southern Pas- sion specifically. And their Mountain Weiss is an ode, of course, to Table Mountain. Much like the beers made during both Letterstedt and Ohlsson’s time, the Newlands Spring beer reach is limited geographically, the latter fo- cusing on the Cape region as far inland as George. And like his forebears, Warren makes every effort to use local ingre- dients in his recipes, especially when it comes to hops. He expresses a strong love for South African hops while ac- knowledging the uniqueness of the industry given that the climate here isn’t perfectly suited to hop growing. The malt Newlands Spring uses is also predominantly SAB malt, and then of course, they use 100% spring water: “This is another link to Table Moun- tain; we call it the ‘original source.’” He goes on to add: “This gets us back to why people started making beer here: better quality water makes better qual- ity beer.” He explains that they do very little in terms of treatment to the water they brew with beyond basic filtration, saying, “For me, it’s an ingredient. It’s almost like terroir.” 10,000 MILE COLLABORATION After attending a global hop summit in George, an “ingredient specialist” named Markus Stinson from Elysian Brewing Company in Seattle, Washing- ton, US was inspired by what he saw. He reached out to Warren, who had only recently joined Newlands Spring, asking if he wanted to collaborate on a wet hop beer. Warren agreed and the two developed a recipe together, one that celebrated hops grown specifi- cally in the two places (which happen to be about 10,000 miles apart). On that very first collaboration, they drove out to George to collect the hops, and immediately returned to the bre- whouse where, as required by a “wet hop beer,” the freshly picked Southern Passion and African Queen hops were added to the brew. The American hops were then used during fermentation and for dry hopping. This joint venture has become some- thing of an annual thing, with a desire to highlight a different South African hop each time. It is also, however, to Warren about learning: “One of the big takeaways for me from the collab- oration was learning from Markus…He drives around on a Harley-Davidson, looking for the best hops, smelling them, looking for the best quality…. He’s as American as you can get,” he laughs, “But he knows his stuff; it’s his passion.” Warren adds that he's devel- oped a deeper understanding of the use of amplifier hops – the variations you may overlook, but that when com- bined with others, can result in an in- credible totality of flavour. The 2024 “10,000 Miles Fresh Hop Ale” has only been available at select locations on draught, although they are hoping to brew a second batch this year which they may bottle. A BEER FOR EVERY OCCASION In addition to their flagship four beers, the team at Newlands Spring also brew experimental beers when their production schedule allows it. These are beers developed by Warren, and inspired by his day-to-day life. Last year, they made a kettle sour – which they served at the Capital Craft festival – that came about after Warren helped himself to a few bites of his wife’s fruit and yogurt ladled cereal one morning. Warren wanted the apricot and rasp- berry flavours to come through in the beer, without using flavourants, instead relying on a unique combination of malts and yeast, which was something he was able to accomplish. They’ve also put out an Irish Red Ale, a Dunkel Weiss, a Porter and a Mu- nich Dunkel. These beers can only be consumed on site at the end of their brewery tours (with each tour, visitors get two “free” beers on tap at the bar). The intention here is twofold: they get Newlands Spring Brewery, old and new. Old brewery grist case Beer straight from the fermenter ontapmag.co.za | Spring 2024 | 29