OnTap Magazine

This year marks the 3rd International Women’s Collaboration Brew Day held in KwaZulu-Natal. With a challenge to simply unite and celebrate, Londy Mbanjwa and Megan Gemmell of Clockwork Brewhouse answered the call to join me for a brew day at Balgowan Brewery. Armed with the idea of brewing a well-conditioned strong ale, a list of available ingredients (which was admittedly sparse – year end and all!) and a mug of liquid inspiration we dived into a little online literature. Within a few keyboard strokes we had the start of the recipe for 100 litres of Belgian Tripel. Fast forward to the brew day. While Londy and Megan made the journey from Durban with our newly printed t-shirts, I started making candi sugar to boost the alcohol content – a typical trait of the style. After pushing the limits on the mash tun, we slowly raised the temperature before mashing out and sparging. A long boil had us rehashing stories about first brew days as we dropped in some noble hops to drive a mild bitterness. Once chilled, the batch was divided to draw attention to the particular differences that the choice of yeast can impart on finished beer. The classic Belgian yeast Fermentis S-33 and the Oslo isolate of Kveik both performed spectacularly during fermentation, seamlessly clearing up all available sugars extracted during the brew. Now we wait for the finished product! The inland team met at Black Horse Brewery, hosted by head brewer Nuschka Scheepers. In attendance were Imke Pape from Brauhaus Afrika, Elbie Louw from Binary Brew Worx, Obakeng Malope from Maalkop Beer, Dr Olga de Smidt fromCUT CAFSaB , Charissa Botha from Black Horse Brewery and myself, representing both BASA and TolokaziBeer We initially planned to brew a marshmallow stout but decided against it last minute. (Well, we all had to convince Elbie against the idea). In the end we went for an oatmeal stout which we decided to call Ninkasi’s Stout to celebrate the ancient Mesopotamian goddess of beer. The brew was led by Nuschka with the rest of us helping here and there in-between the chitchatting and beers. Since this was Obakeng’s first IWCBD, we asked her to give her thoughts on the event. “For me brew day was something very interesting and inspiring,” she said. “I got to see women from all over the world working together for a common purpose.” Obakeng also felt that the brew day is something that should happenmore often. She ended off by saying: “It was a fun day and a lot was learned, after the stressful pandemic it was nice to meet and destress, laugh and drink with the other ladies.” As the inland team we would like to thank the Black Horse Brewery management for once again opening their doors for our brew days, and to thank BASA for making sure we were well fed and for the beautiful t-shirts. As per this year’s IWCBD theme, it was a real “Celebration”. We will meet again in August to celebrate National Women’s Day and enjoy our Ninkasi’s Stout – we hope you can join us. A long boil had us rehashing stories about first brew days KWAZULU NATAL GAUTENG/NORTH WEST Cindy Slater Apiwe Nxusani-Mawela THE BEERS KWAZULU-NATAL No. 3 – Belgian Tripel (8% ABV) Availability: Pre-orders open in July for bottles. On Tap at Balgowan Brewery while stock lasts. GAUTENG Ninkasi’s Stout (6.3% ABV) Availability: About 150 litres will go on tap at Black Horse and Binary Brew Worx in August. WESTERN CAPE Mavambo Cocoa Stout (5.2% ABV) Availability: On tap at Darling Brewery and Darling’s Woodstock taproom on 9 August – get there quick as it’s seriously limited edition… Megan, Cindy and Londy add hops to the KZN brew Theres always time for a selfie Nuschka Botha tends to the Gauteng brew Nuschka maps out the brew day at Black Horse ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2022 | 29