OnTap Magazine

woke up. We loaded the 25-litre stainless steel fermenter into the bakkie, and off we set, jamming to our road trip playlist – a variety of rock and heavy metal. The KZN Midlands went by in a blur, and before we knew it we were flying past magnificent cosmos flowers in the Free State. We decided this was the perfect place to do our first dry-hop addition, even though it was only 9am. We’d initially planned to dry-hop closer to midday, but this was a beer that needed to happen when the mood took us. Opening the fermenter lid, we could see the fermentation was at high krausen; the point of most active fermentation, forming a thick frothy layer on the surface. We were worried the addition of the dry-hops would cause massive foaming, but we were lucky – probably saved by the constant movement of the drive. Our usual padkos is chip rolls, but we were slightly more organised this time. Before you say it, no, we did not make egg-zaams – we both have a residing PTSD from childhood trips when our respective parents opened the ice-cream tub of sulphur in the car with closed windows – an aroma that’s kind of like the end of a lager fermentation actually. Thankfully, our snacks smelled a whole lot better – bacon and cheese griller hot-dogs with Nando’s Perinaise. The N5 was a slow drive, the potholes were tyre shredders, and we did not want to end our trip before it started. However once we hit the N1, the trip sped up and soon we were out of the Free State, briefly in the Northern Cape, then taking the N9 down into the Eastern Cape before finally reaching our overnight stop in Middelburg after 11 hours on the road. We were greeted by the cutest springbokkie and lamb. They were both very impressed by our brew so far, and oversaw the next dry hop addition. We fell into bed, too exhausted to even have a beer. BEER ON ARRIVAL The next morning, expecting 12 hours on the road, we had another early start. We were grateful we did, as the N1 was a very stressful, white-knuckle drive. At one point Bloodhound Gang’s Hooray for Boobies album was the only thing that eased the stress. We really needed a beer. We still had to find a cool spot to do our second-to-last dry hop addition though. At lunch time, we found a pretty picnic spot surrounded by mountains just off the N1 near Touws. The krausen had dropped, and there was just a green layer of hops floating on the surface. We were relieved that fermentation seemed to be nearing completion. Back on the road, the signs for Greyton finally started to appear, and the excitement for the weekend overshadowed the stress of the road. On arriving in the beautiful little Overberg town, we spotted the familiar and happy faces of our beery brewing friends. The weekend had begun. We hastily dumped our bags, Unconventional assistant brewers oversee the second dry-hop. When you realise this foolish idea actually worked. Brewers filling the kegs at the actual beer fest is not a normal sight. It was beer time. 34 | Winter 2022 | ontapmag.co.za