Boston beer tasting at Langebaan Country Estate

I have driven many kilometers to get to Boston’s beers before.  This time I walked all the way to the local golf course where once again I realised THESE ARE NOT MY PEOPLE.  Not only did very few try the free beer on offer, but even fewer bought it.  Thus proving that their lack of taste in clothes extend to beer as well.  It was also someone’s birthday party.  Couple a birthday to a golf day and boring speeches are inevitable.  This turned into somewhat of a conflict. 

The beer tasting turned into a Kalmer Karma (now closed for renovations) reunion.  So the younger part of the usual gang of idiots ⁽¹⁾  gathered for the beer.  Brought together by the Barefoot Bartender, who ironically, does not like beer.  As we worked our way through the beer on offer the speeches droned on in the background.  On several occasions some of the golfers tried to silence the good mood.  Mostly, it has to be said, the greyer members.  Nothing wrong with surviving until your hearing goes, but in that case either stand closer or ask the guy with the %##$%#$ mike  to turn the volume up.

Had a taste of the newest Boston baby.  The Honey Blonde Ale.  A wheat beer made with more neutral yeast than a Weiss and with added fynbos honey.  Very drinkable beer, not overly flavoured.  Not one that will get the hop heads excited, but I can well understand why it is turning out to be Boston’s fastest growing new product.   This makes for a great introduction to craft beer.  No point in going on again about the excellent range of other beers. 

In an excellent piece of writing Pete Brown, eminent British beer writer, wrote “With great beer comes great responsibility”.  Sadly, this responsibility doesn’t rest easily on the bar staff at the Country Estate.  One of whom took to tipping himself.  I would have given him the R10 anyhow, but it is my job to tip him, not his.  Bad service can spoil good beer.  Boston being so good I might give the staff one more chance.  Or one can hope that the local Pick n Pay will start stocking it if one nags enough. 

When the golfers left, the beer tasted even better.  The evening ended on a high when the Barefoot Bartender brought us Oktoberfest and Cape of Good Hops from CBC.

(1)    On the masthead of MAD Magazine the contributing artists were referred to as The Usual Gang of Idiots.  So it is a term of respect.

Meet the brewers Woodstock

The road to Damascus is often the road less travelled by⁽¹⁾ Sometimes it is a tortuous route, sometimes meandering, seldom straightforward.  I do not know which is the one taken by Andre Viljoen, but going from banking to owner of a brewery and restaurant seems a less than obvious path.  We met about 4 years ago at a SouthYeaster’s meeting where he expressed great enthusiasm for the brewery he was starting in Woodstock ⁽²⁾  He would have been the first of the new generation of brewers in that part of town.  Despite various obstacles he finally succeeded in being the (at least) 4th brewery located there. Devil’s Peak, Gallows Hill, Garagista and now Woodstock Brewery.  Also coming is Woodstock cooperative brewery,  Riot Factory might be before them.

We remet (is that a word?)  at the excellent Meet the Brewers event on 22 September 2014 and I am glad to report Andre hasn’t lost his enthusiasm for the beer world.  Woodstock’s location makes it a good location for a small manufacturing business. Distance to Cape Town central, access to main transport arteries and I guess the zoning helps.⁽³⁾Woodstock evokes images of Sex Drugs and Rock and Roll from the 1968 music festival.  Images of parking problems, dodgy part of town in connotation with Cape Town also appears.   Therefore the naming convention of the beers sort of leans to Sex, Drugs and Boerie Rolls.

Beerhouse resident chef Roy McAskill returned from Scotland (where he was just a spectator in the voting) just in time for the Woodstock tasting.  First off was the Bing's Bru .⁽⁴⁾  pale ale pared with a McAskil regular, 12 months old Klein Rivier Gruyere this time in a Welsh rarebit guise with green fig.  A combination that worked for me.   

Another McAskill regular is the smoked mackerel pate.  This time pairing with the Belgian amber ale.  I expected more from Belgian Amber ale, but then Mr Viljoen steered me in the direction of De Konick.  Known in it’s homeland as ‘n Bolleke.  My disappointment with this beer was a result of the words Belgian Ale and Amber Ale.  It evoked memories of strong, flavoured beer, but the regular De Koninck is neither.  This Amber Ale is a well made beer, nothing wrong with it.  It is a bit bland compared to the others, but that makes it a great crossover.⁽⁵⁾   beer.

 

At 7.2% an IPA can be daunting, here paired with a Mango curry pie, it sort of worked.  Called Californicator it links to a West Coast IPA and Woodstockian activities (the festival).  The aroma hops is local, a design decision based on cost and provenance.  It is dry hopped with IBU score of about 65.  For my distinctly non hophead palate it tasted very good.  Plans are to lower the alcohol a smidgen. 

“We must have a session beer”.  Session being industry speak for beer you can drink a lot of before losing gross motor skills (fine motor skill being long gone). That was Andre’s take on the unfiltered Happy Pils.  Paired with berries and what I call custard (Chef McAskill , more specifically  calls it Sabyon Glaze. Go look it up, I had to) made with the beer, it made for a good dessert.  This is a very good pilsner.  So confident was Mr Viljoen he brought tasters of Pilsner Urquell and CBC Pilsner for us to compare.  Stylistically very different beers and I liked all of them.  The Woodstock and CBC at a better price point.

Once again well worth the 240km round trip.  Give the guys at Woodstock brewery a shout and visit the brewery, drink their beers.  Tell them I sent you.  Not that it would make a difference, these guys love to share their work.

(1)    Pompous sentence right out of the blocks.

(2)    A part of Cape Town I still consider to be dodgy

(3)    Beer is considered to be a manufactured product, thus needs industrial zoning.  Wine is somehow agricultural.  Hello regulators “Get a @#@#$$%#@$$% life.  And brain while you’re at it”

(4)    Named for Cape radio and surf legend Deon Bing

(5)    Crossover from standard mass market lagers that is.