A while ago, I visited the Route 96 brewery. They are situated in the middle of nowhere really, but they offer a unique pub with amazing bar foods and snacks.
What was also interesting was how they sold their bottled beer: they poured it from the keg straight into the bottle and then they capped it. This is the first time I have seen this, as beer in my mind is usually bottle-conditioned, especially at smaller breweries — like this one.
Nevertheless, I could not miss the opportunity to buy a couple of these "freshly bottled" beers. Among them were the Summer Blond; the Zamalek Lager; the Stout; and the Africa Pilsner.
Even though my hopes were high, not all beers are earth-shattering and worth a return visit — some of them stay there only as memories you made with friends and family. But this does not mean you cannot reflect on these beers!
In this #beersaturday post, I want to reflect on these beers, and their existence in this world of ours, oversaturated with neat borders and categories which almost always takes away from the rich experience of life in all its strangeness.
So, please join me as I drink these beers from the Route 96 brewery!
Zamalek Lager
Zamalek is a name we call a locally brewed beer (Black label). Friends usually ask for a Zamalek if they want that specific beer. Interestingly, it seems like this name came from a local football match between a football club with the same name coming from Egypt, who played against a local club.
It is also my favourite beer from the local brewery (South African Brewery (SAB) owned by AB InBev).
It is thus quite funny that this small brewery in the middle of nowhere adopted this name, and it was quite funny to me at that stage! I seriously wanted the beer just for the name, but in the end, this was the best beer out of the four.
The beer poured into this really dark lager, and quite strong as well with 5.3% ABV. At least, for a lager.
It, however, did not taste anything like the SAB beer, Carling Black Label. I drank it chilled, and it was refreshing like a lager should be.
Was it something out of the ordinary?
Not that much. And it is always interesting to go from IPAs, IIPAs, DIPAs, and really heavy beers to something crisp, light, and refreshing. It tasted like "beer", which is funny when you think about it.
Beer tasting like beer.
But it was a good and refreshing beer. As I will ponder below as well, we are so fixed in our categories — an IPA should taste like this or that, if not, then it is not a good IPA. But this takes away from the radical strangeness of life, the borderless experience of it all, and the experimentation offered without radical rigid thinking.
If I critique this beer as not good enough, against what threshold am I judging it? All of the previous lagers I drank? Some abstract theoretical rule of Lagers should taste like this or that? Or do I allow this beer to stand on its own, and I merely drink it for what it is?
This is no easy task, but I think a critically important one.
This beer, after all this talk, still tasted like a damn good beer.
Summer Blond
The Summer Blond, if I can fall back onto my own radical closed-minded approach, did not taste like blond or ale in any sense of the word...
I am not sure what went wrong with this beer, but it was not that good really. It might just be me, and I am not sure why, but this beer was such a disappointment. I might be too harsh, and it might be exaggerated by my expectations of what blond should taste like, or even just an ale. But this beer did not meet any of those expectations. I also had this beer on tap at the brewery. But even though I say this, it might more reflect on my own being and rigidness and not the beer itself.
Boasting a 4.5% ABV, it tastes like a light and fresh beer. It reminds me more of a lager, or a light beer. An ale for those who do not like ales, or something along those lines. But again, this might just be my own predisposition to liking heavy beers.
Africa Pilsner
The Africa Pilsner was very similar to the Zamalek lager, albeit a light version of that beer. I could also taste more of the hops, I guess. This was also one of those beers that just tasted like beer, nothing special, but also nothing to complain about.
Even though it tasted like beer with nothing special to write home about, that does not mean it was not a good beer.
It reminded me of a beer that I would enjoy with a BBQ or a Braai (what we call it in South Africa). It also tasted like more, as I would say after one or two of them. The 5% ABV might knock me out after two or four of these beers, but it was really refreshing and a nice beer.
In fact, it tasted like a craft beer.
And this is an interesting thing that I am beginning to pick up from more and more craft breweries: the more money they make, and the more advanced they get, the more they begin to taste too "clean", too sharp, too refined...
There is nothing wrong with craft breweries brewing beer with their extremely expensive equipment, but there is something that gets lost with the ever-refinement of one's expertise: uniqueness.
And in some sense, this beer reminded me of this.
This beer tasted unrefined, wild, hoppy, and like something I could brew. It tasted like craft beer, like something that someone brewed. And not an extremely expensive brewing company.
There is a place for everything and everyone. There is a place for a well-refined IPA that tastes like the myriad others out on the market, only with subtle changes. But there is, and should also be, a place for experiments, crazy concoctions and beers that actually challenge the borders and not merely conform to them.
Even though this might not have been the goal of the brewery with this beer (I am almost 100% sure that this was not their intention), this beer reminded me of the unique character of beers that go beyond the borders that try to define them.
Stout
And then we arrived at the stout, which tasted exactly like I thought it would, which reminded me of my own brewing at home. It made me a bit nostalgic, almost like I wanted to brew again...
Again, there was nothing out of this world with this beer. And this does not mean that this is inherently bad. It tasted like my own stouts that I brewed at home. And this is a good thing, or at least in my opinion. It validates my own brewing attempts at least.
This is a very light stout, with only a 4% ABV. The result is that it does not have a well full-bodied taste. In my closed-minded approach, a stout needs a bit more alcohol to help with the full-bodied taste. But this beer was chocolatey and toasty! I liked it very much. Again, it reminded me of a beer that would also go well with a BBQ or braai.
It's all about enjoying the moment...
In the end, it is about embracing the moment, the experience. I visited the brewery with my girlfriend, and we had a fantastic time. The people at the bar were super friendly, and we talked way too much with them (to the detriment of other customers). We ate too many plates of chips, and we made memories that will last for a very long time.
And is this not what these experiences should be all about? Beer drinking is just as much about the memories we make with loved ones.
All of the opinions are thus my own, subjective, drunk, and biased as can be thoughts. The beers were good, and they reminded me of my own craft brewing experiences. I really enjoyed them in their simplicity, as this is something you do not often see any longer with beers becoming more uniform by the day.
I hope that you have a cold beer in the fridge waiting to be poured and drunk. Enjoy!
Inside the Philosopher's Beer Fridge
| Clarens Brewery | Brews (All Brews Reviewed in this post): |
|---|---|
| 🍺 IPA | |
| 🍺 Hazelnut Brown Ale: Clarens Goes Nuts | |
| 🍺 Stout | |
| 🍺 Tondon Pilsner | |
| 🍺 Village Lager | |
| 🍺 Weiss | |
| 🍺 English Ale | |
| 🍺 Blonde | |
| 🍺 Mulled Apple Cider | |
| 🍺 Red Ale |
| Darling Brew | Brews: |
|---|---|
| 🍺 Warlord Imperial IPA | |
| 🍺 Arrow Head Russian Imperial Stout | |
| 🍺 Long Claw Modern Saison |
| Devil's Peak Beer Company | Brews: |
|---|---|
| 🍺 Jucy Lucy Hazy IPA | |
| 🍺 King's Blockhouse IPA |
| Drakensberg Brewery | Brews (All Brews Reviewed in this post): |
|---|---|
| 🍺 Cathedral Peak Pilsner | |
| 🍺 Champagne Castle Blonde Ale | |
| 🍺 Giant's Castle Stout | |
| 🍺 Amphitheater Red Ale |
| Mad Giant | Brews: |
|---|---|
| 🍺 Capital DIPA (in Collaboration with Capital Craft) | |
| 🍺 Killer Hop Pale Ale |
| Saggy Stone Brewing Co | Brews: |
|---|---|
| 🍺 Bear Jam - Session IPA |
| That Brewing Co. | Brews (All Brews Reviewed in this post): |
|---|---|
| 🍺 That Blond Ale | |
| 🍺 That Subtropical Ale (Delicious Monster) | |
| 🍺 That American Pale Ale (APA) | |
| 🍺 'el Juicy IPA | |
| 🍺 VESS KISS IPA |
All the writings and opinions in this post are my own and do not reflect on the quality or taste of the beer. They are after all drunk subjective beer thoughts. The photographs are also my own, taken with Nikon D300.