Darling Brew Craft Beer
A great find in the village of Darling!
South Africa's first carbon-neutral brewery.
A unplanned stop in Darling, took us to the Darling Brewery.
What an eye opener!
With 16 Craft Beers on tap and more only in bottles, this a a Craft Beer lovers dream
The brewery is visible from the dining/pub area and is a hive of activity
Spotlessly clean it operates week-days although the brew is most probably still brewing quietly over week-ends!
 |
| Darling Brewery |
The pub area is large upstairs plus there is garden seating and a play area for the kids.
The furniture, bar counter, jungle gym and artwork is all made by local artisans as the focus is on keeping it local.
The menu offers something for most tastes - we chose to share a cheese platter.
All food on the platter was from businesses in Darling with the excpetion of the Sourdough bread that comes from a bakery in Yzerfontein. All delicious!
The beers have interesting names....
Blood Serpent (Pilsner)
Bone Crusher (Pilsner) and Pixie Dust ( Weiss) both Wheat Beers
Warlord (IPA)
Gypsy Mask (Red Ale) and Rogue Pony (Pale Ale) both Ales and inspired by the Roan Antelope and the Plains Zebra
Slow Beer and Sungazer -both Lagers
My favourite - Slow Beer - however, the tastings were great - there would have been more favourites had we stayed longer!
See the info below from the owners themselves, an amazing story.
We wish them all the success in forging ahead
For Accommodation Cape Town, South Africa
www.bradclin.com
Please share - if you did not enjoy this post .....Shhh - but please still share!
Thanks!
"ican Adventure – October 2007
In October 2007 we left home on a trip
into Africa, with the idea to see as much wildlife as possible, our
return date undecided.
Unexpectedly 3 days into our trip we
stumbled onto an idea that we thought we could bring back to Darling. We
met Andre of Sneeuberg Brewery and were inspired by the concept of a
microbrewery. Leaving South Africa we found ourselves talking about
something we knew little about, beer.
Besides wildlife we now had another
goal; exploring the different beers of each country we visited. We were
expecting to be exposed to varied and interesting beer and branding but
what we had not expected was the increase in the size of beer bottles.
Having started with 340ml in Botswana, 630ml in Zimbabwe, 550ml in
Mozambique, 500ml in Kenya and 750ml in Rwanda our beer drinking
appetites had gradually grown the further north we travelled and the
hotter it got.
Turning south into Zambia the dinky
340ml bottle reappeared, one bottle feeling like half of another and
leaving us still wanting. The realisation of our beer in a big bottle
was decided.
A Thing Called Beer
Returning home was daunting as all our
thoughts and ideas had to be turned into a reality, a thing called beer.
Our excitement had been shadowing the realisation of what lay ahead. We
were prepared for hard work but the challenges of red tape, we didn’t
see coming.
Our
investment began to take shape in the form of a small turnkey brewery.
After months of brewing, no hint of our liquor licence and faced with
the challenges of a manual system we realised that with our current
setup we would never reach our dreams for Darling Brew.
We were on the verge of throwing in the
towel when we by chance met Chris Barnard, a chief brewer, who agreed to
contract brew for us. Chris’ knowledge and passion for brewing beer has
afforded Darling Brew the privilege of becoming part of the current
craft beer movement.
The Exciting Part of Branding our Beer
When we got to the exciting part of
branding our beer, we wanted to create a contemporary look. We scoured
through the flora and fauna of the area, as well as the geographical
features. We kept on coming back to the tortoise and on doing some
research we learnt of the geometric tortoise which was not only
endangered but it was endemic to the Western Cape too.
From there we started playing with words
and ‘slow’ struck a chord with us. We knew we didn’t want to use
premium beer, handmade or craft beer; we wanted something more
meaningful than that. One night after far too much red wine ‘slow beer’
was mentioned and scrawled down amongst our many ideas.
Waking up to our notes we realised that
‘slow beer’ was it. ‘Slow Beer’ is not only the name of our first beer,
it is our philosophy, encompassing all of our beers, highlighting their
slow fermentation process and why people should choose it over mass
produced beer. It has also got the minds wondering ‘what is slow beer?’
