The brewery sits at the end of the town, leading towards local farms. It is a beautiful small town which you can walk through, having many small shops you can visit.
But I got stuck at the local brewery, Anvil Brewery or Anvil Ale House.
As soon as we drove past it, I knew we had to stop there. This was also partially inspired by my beer passport, which also had this brewery in its list.
So, we stopped for a pint or two, and a nice plate of bar food. But lo and behold, next to the brewery we also found the local coffee brewery! We could grab a couple of pints, and then drink the alcohol away with some strong coffee.
Please join me on this virtual BEERMaps tour of one of the many breweries we have here in South Africa!
The Brewery
The brewery is located in a beautiful old building (from the looks of it) with what I presume is lodging upstairs. The building is really beautiful and while having our beers, I felt like I was sitting in another world, one situated in Europe or some of those countries.
The blue doors, with the ivies growing over the building, took me far away from South Africa, and the rather cold crisp air helped cement this fact.
Outside, we found the "anvil"! But unfortunately, it was made from cement, so I wonder what the story behind the anvil was...
Sadly, we never got to ask because the people helping us were not that talkative. The brewer of the beer was also not present.
Alas, the story remains a mystery for now!
But the setting was perfect. We sat outside, even though a bit chilly, but there were beautiful big trees outside, and as I said, the building itself is really stunning.
The setting could not be better though, close to trout farms and beautiful landscapes.
Sadly, like so many of these places, the menu did not really reflect that this was part of the capital of trout fishing!
The Brews
They did not have a lot of beers on tap for us to taste, sadly. The setting was so beautiful, it was kind of a disappointment as she told us some of the more interesting beers were not available.
What was available was their IPA, the pale ale, the blond, and the stout.
And sadly, as I noted last week, not all beers are created equally. I love a beer, any beer, on tap, in glass, from tin, but sometimes there are really just not a lot of redeemable qualities of beers.
The blond did not taste like beer at all, as you can see from the photograph below in the tasting, it looks very flat and light in colour. I am not sure what they tried to do.
The other beers were very "boring" and predictable. It was nothing spectacular.
It was really one of the first times I did not even try to buy beer to take home. It was disappointing to say the least, because I really tried to enjoy the beers.
As I always say, this is just my subjective experience, and I am not saying in any form or shape that it is the brewery that is at fault. But maybe they just did not have a good batch, or something like that.
I will definitely visit them again when I go there again, maybe I as a person will also change and taste the beers from wholly new and different perspective.
Luckily, we had some nice bare food with the beers. The chips were perfectly cooked, with some nice spices that reminded me of every bar that serves chips! This might sound like a bad thing, but it is not. The specific spice pairs so well with beer that these ordinary beers almost tasted better!
The Roastery Next Door
It is not every day that you find a coffee roastery next door to the brewery!
But this is really good as you drink a strong cup of black coffee to get rid of the alcohol you just drank.
Funny enough, the roastery was a more enjoyable experience as the staff was much more friendly and also, the coffee was seriously good.
We grabbed some coffee, me the double espresso and my fiance the iced coffee (even though it was chilly outside!). And then we sat outside under the big trees contemplating the experience we just had.
As we explore more and more, and drink ever more complex beers, it is funny how our previous thresholds are always pushed forward. The same with the coffee. The bitter black coffee is no longer bitter, nor strong enough - we want it bolder, stronger, more bitter. The same with the beers, they are never hoppy enough, never fruity enough, never roasted/toasted enough.
What does this say about us? Or me in particular? It is strange, as it is always a jump towards the next one, maybe this next one will be better, and so on.
That is why I do not want to say that the brewery brewed bad beers, because it was not, it was just in relation to all the others I had throughout my beer journey, these beers were standard, boring, not pushing the boundaries that I started having...
Postscriptum, or Cheers to more Travels
The goal is to travel more and expand our horizons. And sometimes there will be experiences that do not push the boundaries, because the other places have already done that. And that does not mean that this particular experience was bad. By all means not.
So, here is to more travel, more beer, and more coffee!
For now, happy travels, and keep well.
All of the opinions voiced in this post are my subjective-drunk own, and they are not supposed to be read as either endorsement or opposition. The writings and musings are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.
BEERMAPS: The Philosopher's Brewery Visit List
📍Clarens Brewery
📍Drakensberg Brewery
📍Hops Hollow Sabie Brewery
📍Karoo Craft Breweries
📍Route 96 Brewery
📍Sabie Brewing Co.
📍Saggy Stone Brewing Co.