OnTap Magazine

I f there’s a better setting to drink a beer than on a beach at sunset, then I don’t know about it. Sadly we didn’t have time for ocean-side sundowners on our whirlwind trip along South Africa’s Sunshine Coast. But we did sample plenty of beers. e Sunshine Coast is a loosely de ned region stretching from somewhere around Je reys Bay to somewhere around East London: several hundred kilometres of sunny skies, glorious beaches, cheery holiday accommodation and a growing number of craft breweries, each with its own taproom. We kicked o in Je reys Bay, home to great waves, a slew of surf-themed backpacker hostels and two microbreweries. Until a couple of years ago, craft beer hadn’t really arrived in J-Bay. en, in 2016, three brewers came up with the same idea at the same time. One ran into problems with the licencing process, and Brewery on the Beach ceased operations before selling a single pint. But you can’t keep a good industry down. It was time for a beer in J-Bay and Brewhaha and Je reys Bay Craft Brewery opened within six months of each other. SURF, BEER, RED TAPE We met up with Bruce Tavenor at JBCB’s stylish little taproom. With beers named after surf legends or local waves and retired boards hanging on the walls, it comes as no surprise that Bruce has spent half of his life on the water, although more as a wave skier than a surfer. He’s also no newbie to the beer world, having worked as a brewing process engineer for SAB for the best part of a decade. e road to craft beer has not been a smooth one though and thanks to some run-ins with red tape, Bruce hadn’t brewed in almost two years when we visited. Luckily, things are looking up and after a lot of red-tape wrangling and some serious brewery improvements – including a ltration system, bottle ller, new brite tanks and a hop gun – Bruce plans to re up the kettle again in September, just in time for the surf town’s summer season. In J-Bay, one brewery was destroyed by red tape and another seriously hindered by it, but the third brewery, Brewhaha, managed to steer clear of small-town bureaucracy. e convivial taproom sits about 500 metres from JBCB and we arrive to nd it bustling even on a Wednesday lunchtime out of season. If Brewhaha founder Marius Deetlefs was a hashtag, he would be #beerlove. e human embodiment of all that is fun and friendly about craft beer, he welcomes us with taster trays of his core range, each beer paired with a simple snack designed to enhance its avours. Favourites for our crew – a group of brewers and beer lovers in the middle of a fairly epic road trip – were the subtle Moonlit Beach American wheat and the well-hopped Stormy Seas IPA. AMERICAN INSPIRATION e Brewhaha story isn’t quite the same when not told with Marius’s excited tone and inimitable accent, but it’s still a great tale lled with plenty of passion. “My love for craft really started in the States,” he says. “I was blown away by all the di erent styles of beer available and I remember thinking how we have been robbed of good beer all our lives in South Africa.” Marius lived in Los Angeles for a number of years, falling in love rst with his wife, Jodi, and later with the hobby of homebrewing. “I’d already told Jodi that when we moved back to South Africa I was going to open a microbrewery,” he recalls. “ en one day I heard the word brouhaha and once someone explained what it meant, I thought – what a name for a brewery.” Initially, Marius took local advice and registered the brewery as J-Bay Brewing Company to give the brewery a sense of place. But the brewery was always destined for a di erent name. “A restaurant called J-Bay Bru Co. opened on the same road shortly before we started,” says Marius. “One day, when my hops were delivered to them rather than me, I went home and said ‘that’s it – we’re changing the name to Brewhaha like it was always meant to be!’” After a feast that tested the strength of the table legs and a thorough tasting of the agships and special releases, we were grateful to have a designated driver so we could snooze somewhat on the short journey to Port Elizabeth. LOCAL CHARACTERS e “Friendly City” is home to three breweries: Richmond Hill, Bridge Street and Dockside. We popped into the city’s oldest running brewery, Bridge Street, but despite the fact that the massive brewpub was pumping even on a mid-week evening, without its legendary founding brewer it somehow lacked some soul. Lex Mitchell, the brewer behind SA’s rst microbrewery, Mitchell’s, launched Bridge Street in 2012. He is still involved on a consulting level but ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2019 | 29