The closing months of summer required John Keeling to pay South Africa a visit and with it, directing a brew day, delivering a lecture, experiencing life among many of the country’s animals and, of course, sampling lots of great beer. 

I am just writing this upon my return from South Africa. I can hear you groaning already and its only the first sentence. How does he keep travelling, isn’t he a pensioner? And how much is Tim paying him to write this drivel?

Well I can’t answer those because Tim, your fantastic editor, told me not to. However, I can tell you about the wonderful time I had at Beer Boot Camp in Joburg and made lots of new friends.

This story began over a pint on a cold winter’s day at The Rake where I met up with Pete Brown, the beer writer (does anybody reading this not know that Pete is a beer writer?).

He introduced me to Wendy and Jules Pienaar who manage Just Brewing in Joburg. They then explained over a beer or two the ideas and philosophy behind Beer Boot Camp. They had me hooked as soon as they said philosophy which, of course, appeals to my pretentious side. 

Beer Boot Camp was a week culminating in a weekend conference and family day where craft brewers and home brewers would mingle, exchange ideas and make friends. What a great concept, a network of brewers who then, in theory, could help each other with problems and promote friendship rather than commercial rivalry.

I had a number of things to do and my reward, apart from the sheer delight of taking part, was that Wendy would arrange a trip to a game reserve after the event. More about that later, oh and just to stop you wondering, Symone volunteered to come with me.

I also arranged a week in Cape Town afterwards to meet up with my old friend Bradly Moore who imports Fullers beers to South Africa. He had kindly arranged for bottles of Vintage 2016 to be tasted during the week.

My principle job was to help run a brew day, which was to make barley wine, something I had a little knowledge of. This was attended by a number of home brewers who were on hand to help and I had great enjoyment directing my newfound workforce.

Secondly, I was to deliver a lecture at the conference on cask beer production. You can imagine the weeks of research and prep I had to go through for that one. Lastly, I was to help with a home brew club competition which involved me tasting twenty beers and attend the family day to drink some more beer. So, a lot of hard work for me as you can imagine.

“I was to deliver a lecture at the conference on cask beer production. You can imagine the weeks of research and prep I had to go through for that one.”

It was not all work. Wendy had managed to arrange some wonderful trips out too. To name a few, Heritage Gold Mine, a migrant storytelling evening which described the many cultures and races that founded Joburg, and then a visit to Mad Giant Brewery.

The most memorable was a visit to the lions, the big cats, of a game reserve just outside of Joburg. We saw several prides of lions with their cubs. We were going to feed the lions, but we had no volunteers in our group! We also saw cheetahs, leopards, wild dogs and hyenas. 

Following the Boot Camp came the game reserve. It really is difficult to describe what an experience it is to wake up each day in the African Bush and listening to the sound of wild animals. The animals are not the big game type but the non-eating human types! The first morning we had Nyala (like a deer/buck) outside our window just grazing with their babies in tow. 

We had hippos bathing in the water hole, numerous birds, primates and Giraffe. At sundown it really was a wildlife bonanza. Between our small group, we had drunk the bar dry, but fortunately we had stocked up with beer & wine in advance, so those sundown evenings became very mellow as the early evenings turned into night-time with the sounds of the wild beasts in the background. 

Our group consisted of three Americans, Michael Ferguson, Jennifer Talley and Fal Allen, all who bought their expertise to the conference. Pete Brown and myself represented Great Britain manfully and I think we held our own. My Prince Charles joke in particular went down very well with Jules and Wendy at least.

Then on to Cape Town where we hoped to do some sight-seeing, well who wouldn’t want to go up Table Mountain as well as doing some beery things and foremost amongst them was to brew a beer at Frasers Folly brewery. Our friend Brad had arranged this and what a great trip it turned out to be. Frasers Folly is based at the most southern tip of South Africa, a two hour drive out of Cape Town and is in Bredasdorp, in the Nuwejaars Wetlands, an area of extreme beauty & wildlife and is protecting its biodiversity. 

Brewer Fraser Crighton is very talented and like his beers full of character. We brewed a light golden ale using all African hops and I am really looking forward to eventually tasting the beer. I might have to pay him another visit in the near future.

Finally, back to Cape Town and a tour of Newlands Brewery. I was not disappointed. Newlands was built in 1820 so there were many similarities between them and Fullers. Both give excellent tours and are steeped in history. Newlands Brewers have the stunning view of Table Mountain from the brewhouse. If any reader plans on visiting Cape Town, I would really recommend taking a tour there. 

Newlands became famous for brewing Lion Beer, so my trip started with me looking at lions and fittingly finished with me drinking a beer brewed by Lions.

Until next time.