OnTap Magazine

ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2021 | 1 From The Editor I ’ve been bowled over again and again by the determination, the sheer chutzpah of those in South Africa’s alcohol industry over the past year. I’ve watched people reinvent their businesses – often multiple times. I’ve seen brewers on the receiving end of repeated and devastating blows to their livelihood somehow manage to dust themselves o and get back in the game. Perhaps most miraculously of all, there have even been some new ventures launched over the past 12 months: taprooms, clever add-on initiatives – even a couple of new breweries have managed to open, and remain open, since this whole pandemic thing began. So in this issue we are celebrating the heroes: the brewers doing their bit for our planet (page 26), the brewers ghting for social justice (page 14), those attempting to introduce craft to a new market (page 22) and those that are simply brewing world-class, award-winning beers (page 16). We’re also paying tribute to one of the wine industry’s hero farms, Simonsig, whose ground-breaking Méthode Cap Classique bubbly turns 50 this year. Every issue we ask our social media audience a question and post their answers in our Mash Out section (page 72). is time around we wanted to know who their beer heroes are. When we asked who it was that inspired them to get into beer, I was expecting a list of international brewers in reply – like those listed in our Brewer’s Dozen column on page 52. But every single person who responded chose a local beer hero to worship. It gives me proud goose bumps. Somehow our little industry is dodging the blows and managing to keep evolving and improving. We have a host of home-grown heroes doing amazing things for their customers, their communities and for the greater good of the industry. And I for one think that’s worth raising a glass of South Africa’s original MCC to. Home-grown heroes Cheers! Lucy Corne EDITOR @LucyCorne