OnTap Magazine

ON THE HOP Award-winning beers on tap at Brewhaha Collab brew in progress at Richmond Hill Preparing a tray of sunshine Bruce pours some pints at Jeffreys Bay Craft Brewery Happiness is... when we dropped by, sta weren’t too clued up on the beers. We nished our tasting trays and walked over to Richmond Hill Brewing Co. Niall Cook, Richmond Hill’s founder and brewer, has played an integral role in launching beer culture in Port Elizabeth. From beginnings as a nanobrewer on a 50-litre system in the suburbs, Niall now brews 1000 litres at a time of his agship R2 Man and Car Park John, both named for local characters. We’re lucky enough to meet Car Park John when we visit. A legendary surfer known for hanging out in a beachfront car park to check out whether the waves are worth the e ort, John Scheeper is cheery and down-to-earth, emitting the kind of enthusiasm for beer that anyone would have if they were lucky enough to have a agship brew named after them. Although it’s nowhere near the beach, Richmond Hill somehow exempli es Sunshine Coast living, its gravel oor and tent-like roof evoking images of a beach bar, despite being in a semi-industrial area not far from the port. Richmond Hill is undoubtedly at the forefront of the beer scene in PE – the rst to put beer in cans, the rst to branch out into collab brews around the country and the rst to embrace styles that are making waves on a global stage, such as the New England IPA. It might be ubiquitous in New York and borderline commonplace in Cape Town, but convincing locals in Port Elizabeth that their IPA is meant to be somewhat sweet and signi cantly hazy is not an endeavour for the y-by-night craft brewer. We sleep o our pints of the extremely moreish Car Park John and the following morning head into the Eastern Cape hinterland – a beautiful stretch of road but de nitely a desert for the craft beer lover. When I think back, I’m not sure we saw the beach the whole time we were on the Sunshine Coast, other than from the window of the minibus as we sped along the N2. But we saw some great little taprooms and met some one-of-a-kind brewers who emitted a certain sort of sunshine all by themselves. We didn’t get chance to visit all of the Sunshine Coast’s breweries – here are a couple that we missed. Dockside has a taproom at their brewery in North End, where they serve an eye-widening array of one-offs. Further along the coast than we travelled, Table 58 is the region’s newest brewery and now the only one in East London. There are five core beers in the range, pizzas, burgers and sausage on the menu and plenty of special events on the deck. FURTHER SIPPING 30 | Winter 2019 | ontapmag.co.za