OnTap Magazine

From The Editor W here did the last ten years go? is decade that no one quite knew what to call (the tens? e teens?) is over and we nd ourselves moving into the 20s. Who knows what the next decade will bring – a return of ragtime music, Charleston dancing and apper girls? at would actually be pretty cool – certainly preferable to a return of something from the 1920s that changed the face and fate of beer – Prohibition. Funnily enough, a sort of self-imposed prohibition is now in place, with an increasing number of people opting to drink low- or no-alc beer. Malin Norman delves into the trend on page 30. is past decade has been huge for South African craft beer. Although we had microbreweries before 2010, it is only in this decade that a beer culture has developed. e change we have seen over the past ten years is really quite remarkable. We’ve gone from fewer than 20 breweries to more than 200. We’ve gone from a choice of a couple of dozen lagers and the occasional blonde ale to a beer menu that includes key lime pie sour, mango lassi gose, salted caramel imperial mild and a Flanders red ale/ shiraz hybrid with grapes crushed by the feet of the brewers involved. One of the driving forces of the industry has always been the festivals, which give brewers a chance to reach a wider audience and give drinkers the opportunity to taste a wide range of beers without having to travel the country. Well sort of – when it comes to the Clarens Craft Beer Festival, which celebrates its 10th birthday as we enter the new decade, pretty much everyone has to travel the country. Find out why people make the journey on page 24 – and maybe even join as a group of us drive from Cape Town to Clarens, stopping o at breweries along the route. When a new year dawns, people start to make checklists and resolutions and goals. Whether your goal is to travel to an iconic beer destination, to brew your very rst batch of ale or to actually cut back on the drinking and opt for lighter beers and non-alc alternatives, we’ve got you covered in this issue. Have a great new year lled with great new beer. A new decade dawns Cheers! Lucy Corne EDITOR @LucyCorne ontapmag.co.za | Summer 2019 | 1