Western Cape Breweries and Brew Pubs Part 2

My second visit to a brewery was really enjoyable, that being the Birkenhead Brewery near Hermanus (and not to far from Cape Agulhas which is the most Southerly point of the African Continent and also where the Indian and Atlantic Oceans meet. The Birkenhead Brewery is named after a ship which sank nearby. Both the ship after which the brewery is named and the brewery itself are interesting, however these details can be found on the brochure (which is included below - click on the image to get a full size view) or on the brewery's website (see the link above).

Anyway enough of the history lessons and on to the tour and the tasting. At the entrance to the restaurant and shop stand the mash tun and kettle behind glass doors. They are both lovely shiny copper and brass and the kettle has a capacity of about 2000 litres. From the kettle the wort is pumped to the primary fermenters where the temperature is controlled by means of glycol. From the fermenters the beer is then pumped into maturation tanks and finally to storage tanks prior to bottling or kegging. The beer is all filtered and pasteurised (the only exception being the honey blond wheat beer, which is a live unfiltered and unpateurised beer.

The price fot tasting was R10 for 6 100 ml tasters and as I was driving 6 500ml glasses seemed out of the question. The six beers together with my comments were :-

Premium Lager - Very pleasant but a bit sweet for my palate.

Lite Lager - More bitter and hoppy than the premium lager, more to my taste.

Old English Bitter - Very Pleasant !

Honey Blonde - See my comments on previous post from Paulaner on wheat beer !!!

Red Reloaded Lager - Not an energy drink, not a beer uugh.

Chocalate Malt Stout - Very Pleasant and we had the right weather for it (cold and windy !)

All in all a most enjoyable and interesting detour from our planned route. Well worth a visit.