“You all know the rules here. If there are any photographs, hide the bloody Castle labels.” Richard Chennells, the brewer of Zulu Blonde beer, lifts a cooler box packed with enemy brands out of the red Jeep that carried us up the erosion runnels of Eshowe’s Signal Hill.
We arrive at sundowner time to survey Zulu land and talk about Zulu Blonde but, seeing that Chennells’s brew does not yet exist in bottled form, the ruddy-cheeked brewmaster finds himself in a predicament, or at least that would be so if his approach to business was over-determined, which it isn’t.
The landscape before us seems a peaceful one of beehive huts, patches of cane and gently smoking home fires — a place where many locals have pinned their hopes on tourism.
“Just behind that hill a man is building the biggest beehive hut you’ve ever seen in the hopes that the tourists will come flooding his way.
There are hundreds of these things around the place, all of which received tons of state money without being sustainable on any level. It’s absurd,” says Chennells.
This fourth-generation Zululander is in the process of building a beehive hut of his own, or to be more precise, a beer brand, with the same objective of luring tourists to Eshowe in droves. What, I ask, makes his initiative any less absurd?
Passion, a killer brand and a major international beer award — this is Chennells’s short answer. The long answer is nicer.
“I returned to Eshowe from London in 20 03 and bought The George Hotel. My father, Graham, is a one-time mayor of Eshowe. Together we picked up his long-term dream of turning Eshowe into a major tourist attraction, using the blonde beer he had been brewing in the hotel’s backyard for years as the major drawcard.
To bring some consistency to Zulu Blonde, I went off to study at the American Brewers’ Guild,” Chennells says.
Not long after he returned a remarkable thing happened.
“Zulu Blonde was voted best beer at the Wetherspoons Real Ale Festival in 20 10. From doing batches of 150 litres a day in Eshowe I was suddenly in Burton-on-Trent, which is to beer drinkers what Graceland is to Elvis fans, brewing 50000 litres in a day.
“A bunch of people thought the Zulu Blonde brand would do well but the home run for me was the fact that it impressed the ‘box tickers’. These guys wear tweed coats and swivel around this bloody beer and basically the whole world hangs on their verdict. Thank God they loved what was in Zulu Blonde, because you must remember, a beer with a nice brand that tastes kak goes down the tubes quicker than a kak beer with an average brand.”
The George looks like any number of refurbished colonial establishments scattered around KwaZulu-Natal.
Yet the brewery, which is contained in a small room near the hotel swimming pool, looks fairly inactive.
Chennells ums and ahs about this, and it becomes clear that Zulu Blonde, having outgrown the capacity of the second-hand rig from whence it came, stands at something of a crossroads.
“When Zulu Blonde won that award it became Die Antwoord of beer. All these big players started phoning me up wanting to get involved. The trick now is deciding which course to take,” says Chennells.
The interested parties are mainly foreign — but SAB, Big Brother to the local scene, is emphatically not one of the suitors.
“I met the CEO [chief executive officer] of SAB in London after I won the award and asked him if he thought I was simply the flavour of the month. ‘Try flavour of the week,’ he said. Still, I left that office with more gees for taking Zulu Blonde forward than before,” he says.
The bullishness is not put on. Chennells is an authentic, confident man with a precise sense for what it is about South Africa that appeals to Westerners.
He won over his American lecturer with an impromptu Zulu dance, for example, and he pulled the first pint at the real ale festival wearing a makarapa and blowing a vuvuzela.
It’s a brand of ballsiness that could just achieve unprecedented success for a South African micro-brewed beer but it could also burn away the possibilities for operating at the micro-level again.
Chennells understands this, but it seems he has cast his die.
“By March 20 11, come hell or high water, Zulu Blonde is going to be in stores throughout Natal, other parts of South Africa and the world. It’s going to be bottled, with a long shelf life and it’s going to taste amazing. That’s the end of the story for now. But trust me, we’re just getting started.”
Little can be lekker
Gilroy:
Three ales and one lager make up the Gilroy range. Master brewer Steve Gilroy describes the process as a “mysterious journey, from grain to glass”. Gilroy can be found at Ngwenya Village in Muldersdrift.
www.gilroybeers.co.za
Mitchell’s Brewery:
With a footprint in the major provinces of the country, Mitchell’s Brewery was established in 1983 in Knysna by Lex Mitchell and is the country’s second-biggest brewery. www.mitchellsbrewery.com
Boston Breweries: Established in 2000 by Chris Barnard in Cape Town, Boston Breweries started off using a 100-litre brewing system. Now it produces 32000 litres a month.
www.bostonbreweries.co.za
Nottingham Road Brewing Company:
The Nottingham Road Brewing Company is on the three-star Rawdon’s Estate at the foot of the Drakensberg. There are four different types of Rawdon’s beer and each is named after an animal — from toads to pigs. www.kzn.org.za
Jack Black:
“Jack was a genius when it came to making beer, but the Constitution said he was a criminal for doing so.” It was the 19 20s in the United States when Jack Black ventured into brewing. Since then the legend has made its way to South Africa. The beer is brewed in a Western Cape microbrewery.
www.jackblackbeer.com
Shongweni Brewery:
In the Valley of a Thousand Hills in KwaZulu-Natal and owned by Sherene and Stuart Robson, Shongweni Brewery produces seven different kinds of beer.
www.shongwenibrewery.com
Drayman’s Brewery:
Moritz Kallmeyer, the founder of Drayman’s Brewery, was in the seventh grade when he was first exposed to brewing by a rural farmworker. Based in Pretoria, Drayman’s Brewery makes beers, whisky and mampoer.
www.draymans.com
Luyt Lager:
KwaZulu-Natal boasts another committed father and son brewing team — Louis Luyt and Louis Luyt Jr, who resurrected Luyt Lager in 20 09. www.luytlager.com — Vuvu Vena