Cape Town - There is no disputing the spectacularly fast increase of the popularity of craft beer in this country.
It was like we all just woke up one day, realised what we had been missing, and set about making up for lost time.
There are dozens of breweries and even more brews, and for every bar you find with a few craft beers on tap, there are more that specialise in the beverage. Devil’s Peak Brewery’s name says it all: it’s a brewery and it’s at the foot of Devil’s Peak in Salt River. In addition to being a working brewery you can sit at the bar, or a table, and watch the big copper kettles steaming away, the air filled with a pungent whiff of malt, because it’s also a taproom.
Time flies when there’s beer, and that’s what happened when I went there to meet head brewer JC Steyn. I was fascinated to learn about his experiments and explorations, which include barrel-aging beer, bottle fermenting (a process much like Champagne), and even a gorgeous Vin de Saison hybrid which blends chenin blanc grape juice into the boil stage of the Belgian beer. We sampled the latest vintage which is not even labelled yet; it’s deliciously refreshing, with the wine adding an element of acidity. This will be available only at the Taproom in the next couple of weeks.
We talked for ages – well, Steyn talked and I listened – and I could tell you all sorts of technical stuff about the process of brewing beer and things like brettanomyces, but I think that’s for the serious geeks. You can book a tour of the brewery to learn more.
The Devil’s Peak’s range includes the Founders series and the Explorers series. Its “gateway” beer into a market which has been entrenched in macro breweries and lagers for so long was the First Light golden ale.
“Then we went to the other end of the spectrum and brought out an IPA (Indian Pale Ale) which is super hoppy, quite bitter, not a dark beer – a light beer,” says Steyn. “Then we also came out with the Silver Tree saison. It’s “season” in French, a beer from the French region of Belgium and traditionally made for consumption during the harvest season. The Woodhead amber ale completed the initial range of three American-style beers and one Belgian.”
The names of the beers are significant in that they all refer to locations on Devil’s Peak itself – the blockhouse, the dam, the trees. They all go very well with food; it’s often easier and less complicated to match food with beer than with wine. Chef Roxanne Pretorius’s menu is fabulous – chicken and waffles, corn dogs, burgers, pulled pork sarmies, and pigs’ tails when they’re available.
The best way to get an overall taste of the beer and the food, as well as to discover how well they go together, is to order the pairing board. This has grilled hake with the First Light, a corn dog bite (I could easily eat a bucket of them and they are served as a “nibble” as well) with American pale ale, corn bread with English ale, the Woodhead amber ale which cuts through the yummy fattiness of the pulled pork, and lastly the fruity Blockhouse IPA with gorgonzola and sticky figs, which was a suitably grand finale.
* Open from 11am till 4pm on Mondays, and 11am till 10pm (bar 11pm) Tuesdays to Saturday, Devil’s Peak Brewery and Taproom is in Cecil Road, Salt River (just off Durham Avenue). Telephone 021 200 5818 or go to www.devilspeakbrewing.co.za for more information. Tours of the brewery can be arranged by appointment.
On Tuesdays from 4.30 till 6.30pm you can get a cheese burger and a 340ml First Light golden ale for R55, and there is live music from 5 till 7pm.
Weekend Argus