OnTap Magazine

By now it won't surprise you that when Dave decided to retire, the natural next owner would be a loyal ex-customer of the shop. Enter George Newman, a passionate homebrewer who started working at NFP as their main recipe formulator and Dave's sidekick since 2016. But this year, George will be taking the reins. With this change of ownership, NFP will also move to a sparkling new location in Fourways, Johannesburg. The online part of the business is likely to grow, especially since the impact COVID has had on the homebrewing marketplace. Given that Dave reports receiving, on average, about a 100 emails per day during the lockdown period, NFP won't want for customers. I personally look forward to visiting NFP's new digs soon. Who knows, maybe a jar of good old Formulation 3: ESB, will find its way into my shopping cart. Quite by accident, of course. NFP 2.0 Once you start talking to fellow homebrewers about NFP, it's amazing how many of them cite it as the place it all started for them, too. This is hardly surprising: NFP is the oldest homebrew supply shop in South Africa. In fact, the original owner, an entrepreneurial expat by the name of Mr Grant, signed the first tenant's lease of the then-newly built building in Emmarentia in 1952. NFP has been the shop's only tenant for the past 70 years. Just to give you a bit of perspective, in 1952, Winston Churchill was serving his second term as prime minister of England and Elvis was about to get very famous, very fast the following year. Why "National Food Products"? Well, back in 1952 it wasn't entirely clear whether homebrewing was legal in South Africa. So Mr Grant's solution was to (rightly) claim that all the ingredients in the store were, in fact, food products. What people did with these "food products" after leaving the premises wasn't his business. What started as a clever work-around became a very thriving business indeed. After running NFP for 30 years, Mr Grant unexpectedly passed away and in what was to become somewhat of a tradition, the shop passed hands to friends and old customers, Liz and Chris Barrow in 1982. In fact, this transition almost nipped the NFP legend in the bud: Liz signed the lease on the shop with a nail-biting seven days to spare! With the Barrows at the helm, the shop quickly expanded its offerings, and introduced South African homebrewers to the first locally made beer kit. NFP eventually produced three such liquid extract kits: a light lager, a pilsner, and the third (and in my and many others' opinion the best), an Extra Special Bitter. Although hops were tough to come by back then, Chris Barrow's frequent travels as an engineer helped supplement locally grown hops with (at-the-time) exotic varieties like Fuggles, Hallertauer, and Spalt. All the while the customer base grew, including more than a fair share of wine and cheese enthusiasts. In fact, the shop still sells Liz's esteemed cheese recipe book, featuring 14 different cheeses for aspiring fromagers to try. But change is a constant, and in 2013, Liz started talking to one of NFPs regular customers, Dave Wood, about selling the shop. In 2014 the deal was done and after 32 years of running NFP, Liz and Chris hung up their shopkeepers’ aprons for a well-deserved retirement. Dave Wood is an avid homebrewer and told me recently that his favourite part of running NFP has been talking to the homebrewers who come into the shop and forming lasting friendships with fellow beer obsessives. According to Dave, more than a few customers enter the shop in a state of surprise and awe, muttering something along the lines of, "I can't believe this shop's still here!" Under Dave's custodianship, NFP has expanded its offering to accommodate brewers who favour all-grain methods, and he has made a point of stocking as wide a range of brewing ingredients as possible. But the older traditions of NFP live on in the three kit formulations that are still sold to this day. And despite homebrewers accounting for 80% of the business, NFP continues to serve a loyal customer base of winemakers (most exotic fruit used so far: pomegranate) and cheese magicians. SOMETHING OF A TRADITION In 1952 it wasn't entirely clear whether homebrewing was legal A well-stocked homebrew store = Happy homebrewers! ontapmag.co.za | Winter 2022 | 57