OnTap Magazine

JACK JOURNAL I had the honour to host some of my fellow women in the industry – Patricia Pillay from BASA , Hester Bergh from Beerworks , Anja van Zyl and Janine Wessels from Nova Beer Project and On Tap’s editor Lucy Corne – at Darling Brew for this year’s IWCBD .The idea was to brew a beer well suited to ageing to be released during women’s month in August, so we went for a cocoa infused stout, whose recipe came courtesy of my fellow brewster Angelique Kieser who joined Darling few months back. It was a perfect sunny day and everyone decided to indulge themselves in a beer of their choice upon arrival as I made my last minute adjustments to the brewing system used. We spent our day between being inside the brewery and outside where we enjoyed our food and drinks. We had to leave beers outside when it was time to check on the brew as it was production day and no alcohol can be consumed on the brewery floor. We played on the jungle gym, took loads of pictures, shared magazines and beers and dished out somemerch from the DB shop. At some point during the brew, loadshedding hit and as we were using a Grainfather and its associated app we lost our phone connection to the system and had to rush back inside to sort things out. It added a few extra minutes of boil which made our final volume much less – and this was already a very small batch brew! Time went so fast and before we know it, it was time for everyone to drive back… after most of the cleaning up after was done of course… WESTERN CAPE Joyce Denson For IWCBD we made a sorghum- based pale ale with a mixture of hops recently recommended by Yakima Chief after a discussion with them on sorghum flavour profiles. It came out wonderfully, and is now a crowd favourite. The beer will soon be on tap in Kigali and other locations in Rwanda regularly. We brewed with Josephine, who worked with Kweza, as well as her mother, aunt, and neighbour, and another young Rwandan, Amanda, who has a background in biochemistry and food science and was keen on learning about the brewing process. We joined in the brew because it's a day to highlight women in beer. Since traditionally women brew beer in Rwanda, it is a day to celebrate that with other women. A highlight of the day was doing an East/ West/ South women in beer Zoom call with Peace at Bature Brewery in Nigeria, and brewers across South Africa. We also had a video call with women at two breweries in Switzerland who were doing their IWCBD brew, with proceeds of that beer going to support Kweza. Overall, we made an amazing new beer, and got to bond with women on two continents – it was a great day! ZOOMING IN FROM RWANDA Jessi Flynn BASA CEO Patricia Pillay mashes in on her first ever brew The Western Cape women mash in (L-R Anja van Zyl of Nova Beer Project, Darling Brew's Joyce Denson and Hester Bergh of Beerworks) The most important part of any collab - adding hops! 30 | Winter 2022 | ontapmag.co.za