Richards Bay brewery hops on the bandwagon
James Reeves and Mike Govender started brewing beer as a hobby three years ago
A RICHARDS BAY brewery has jumped on the bandwagon to meet the demand for finely crafted ’boutique’ beer
Club House Breweries recently launched their brewery at Indaba Lodge in Richards Bay.
The brewery was designed and built using revamped dairy equipment for the hot liquor tank, mash tun and kettle.
What started off as a hobby for James Reeves and Mike Govender some three years ago, has turned into a full-blown beer brewery using ingredients from around the world – malts from South Africa and Europe, hops from South Africa and North America and yeast from Europe.
‘It started as a sideline project in my garage, but we then decided to take it to the next level and moved into bigger premises in Dollar Drive,’ James told the ZO.
‘Our recipe development is carried out on a smaller brewery system capable of 40 to 75 litre batches.
‘The smaller brewery is a copy of the main brewery process, which ensures repeatable results.
‘Keg packaging is done using a two-head automatic keg cleaning machine and a single-head filling machine.
‘We use a semi-automatic bottle filler which can fill four bottles at a time.
‘Our brewers are self-taught, with six years experience behind them,’ James added.
Club House Breweries currently has three uniquely Zululand products on offer – Golden Ale named Nomkhubulwana after the Zulu goddess of fertility and creator of beer, the Dea Latus Lager, named after the Celtic goddess of water and beer, and Red IPA, described as the strongest and most flavourful beer in their range.
