Beer, Stories & Our Beer Family

Durban Homebrewers Club welcomes The Brewmistress for an evening of great beer, fascinating stories and plenty of laughs.

There are few things quite like getting together with your beer family. Add a few good beers, plenty of laughter and a room full of people who genuinely love brewing, and you have the recipe for a memorable evening.

That was certainly the case on Thursday, 27 August, when the Durban Homebrewers Club gathered at Taps on Twenty 4 for our monthly meeting — and welcomed a very special guest, beer writer, educator and all-round beer enthusiast Lucy Corne, The Brewmistress.

The evening got off to the right start, with members choosing from an impressive selection of beers available at the bar. From a Dortmunder from Lions River Brewery, to Rob’s very own Weiss from the DHB tap, and a splash of El Juicy from That Brewery, there was something for every palate — and, naturally, nobody was left thirsty for long.

A massive thank you to Mike, Michelle and Carter for hosting us and consistently making Taps on Twenty 4 feel like home. Your hospitality, beer selection and general awesomeness are very much appreciated.

You are LEGENDS!

Durban Homebrewers – Brewing, Beer & What’s Coming Up

Once everyone had settled in with a beer in hand, we got down to the formalities, including announcements about the upcoming Oktoberfest at The Westville Warehouse.

The event will give our homebrewers an opportunity to showcase some of their latest creations alongside the four Intervarsity Brew™ beers brewed earlier this month — another exciting opportunity for our members to share their passion and, of course, let other beer lovers taste what they have been brewing.

And then it was time to hand the evening over to our guest.

Enter The Brewmistress

If you’ve spent any time around South African craft beer, chances are you’ve crossed paths with Lucy Corne.

Better known as The Brewmistress, Lucy is a beer writer, educator, judge and author, as well as an Advanced Cicerone®. With a career spent telling the stories behind the beer — and the people who make it — she has become one of the familiar voices of South African and African beer.

She is also the founder of South African National Beer Day, so if you’ve ever needed an official excuse to celebrate South African beer, you can basically thank Lucy.

But Lucy doesn’t just talk about beer. She goes looking for it.

Her Beer Safari has become a journey through breweries, brewers, beer cultures and downright fascinating stories that make Africa’s beer landscape so much more interesting than simply asking, “What’s on tap?”

Lucy shared photographs and stories from her travels with the club, giving us a glimpse into some of the breweries she has encountered across Africa. Her current Beer Safari project is expanding the journey into an all-Africa edition, with the new book planned for late 2027.

And, naturally, it didn’t take long before several members were mentally adding destinations to their bucket lists.

Elephants, Beer & the Okavango

One of the evening’s most unexpected stories came from Botswana’s Okavango Brewing Company.

Because apparently elephants and beer aren’t two words that normally belong in the same sentence — but perhaps they should.

The brewery has developed a fascinating relationship between beer, local agriculture and elephant conservation. By buying surplus millet from elephant-aware farmers at above-market prices and brewing it into beer, the brewery helps create an economic incentive for farmers to protect elephant corridors and support coexistence.

It’s a brilliant example of how a brewery can become part of a much bigger story — one involving agriculture, conservation, communities and, yes, elephants.

And if that wasn’t enough to make Botswana worth a visit, Lucy also took us on a journey to another lesser-known beer destination: Waterkloof Brewery in Philippolis. Unassuming from the outside, perhaps, but apparently packing plenty of flavour where it matters most.

Another brewery for the bucket list? Absolutely.

Beer From a Hat: American Wheat

Durban Homebrewers Club meetings would not be complete without a little homebrew — and this month brought another instalment of our new Beers From a Hat series.

The featured beer was an American Wheat Beer brewed by Anelda Fouché.

American Wheat is an easy-drinking, refreshing wheat beer with a clean fermentation character. Expect a pale yellow-to-golden appearance, a soft bready or grainy wheat character, moderate-to-high carbonation and a light-to-medium body. Unlike a traditional German Weissbier, the American version keeps the yeast character much cleaner, avoiding the familiar banana and clove notes, while allowing a gentle hop character — often citrusy, floral, spicy or fruity — to make an appearance.

In other words: wheat character without the Weizen drama — crisp, refreshing and very easy to enjoy.

The recipes from our Beers From a Hat series will soon be available in the DHB Beer Library, so members can recreate some of the beers we’ve been enjoying together. And there is already another beer waiting in the wings — next up is a Rice Lager brewed by Megan Gemmell, so make sure you don’t miss the next meeting!

Things Are About to Get Short & Shoddy

Just when you thought brewing couldn’t get any more relaxed, DHB is taking things a step further.

Our next Challenge Series is called Short & Shoddy. And yes, the name is exactly as glorious as it sounds.

The basic idea is simple: brew a beer in the shortest, simplest and least fussy way possible — and see if you can still make something good. Short mash? Sure. Short boil? Why not. Cut a few corners? That’s rather the point.

It’s less about throwing brewing technique completely out the window and more about questioning which parts of our carefully followed brewing rituals actually matter.

For the September challenge, any beer style goes. Your mission is simply to brew it Short & Shoddy. Bring three bottles of your brew to the September meeting, let your fellow brewers taste and rate it — and that’s it. No complicated judging. No overthinking. Simple.

Another Night in the Books

Eventually, as all good beer evenings must, the night wound down over good food, empty glasses and the kind of conversations that make you realise you’ve been standing around talking about beer for considerably longer than planned.

But that’s what makes these evenings special. The beer brings us together. The stories keep us there. And the people make it a beer family.

A huge thank you to everyone who attended and helped make this our biggest turnout of the year so far. To the brewers, beer drinkers, judges, hosts, storytellers and everyone who simply came along for the ride:

Cheers to you.

Until next time, keep brewing, keep sharing and — most importantly — keep the glasses full.

DHB, signing off. 🍻