OnTap Magazine

ASSOCIATION HOMEBREWERS THE CASE FOR A CRAIG CLAASSEN HOMEBRU I n April 2022, the first-ever South African national homebrew interclub took place in Greyton as part of the Fools and Fans festival. This was founded in the spirit of greater cooperation between homebrew clubs in South Africa, and to provide a showcase for the talented brewers, many of whom could easily filter into craft breweries in the next few years as apprentice brewers. In fact, walking around the 2023 festival, it was pleasing to see that some homebrewers have turned professional, either by opening breweries of their own, or by joining breweries that have matured to the point of hiring support brewers. The idea behind bringing this homebrew component to Fools and Fans had been to develop a competition for the clubs around a base style. All the scoring would be done by using the BJCP scoring system to try and ensure objectivity and blind-tasting at the festival. The winner would have the bragging rights, but there were also some really generous prizes to help cover the costs associated with clubs’ expenses when brewing club brews. In an ideal world, with the parallel homebrew festival, the homebrew clubs would form a friendship over their beers, rather than rivalries from 42 | Winter 2023 | ontapmag.co.za