It’s time to grab a growler, grrr…

BEER on tap is nothing new – in a pub. But fresh beer on tap, in a bottle store, for takeaway, is a concept that a trio of entrepreneurs are discovering is a popular new expansion of the craft beer market.

Brothers Siviwe and Wanda Ngubentombi are in what they call the infrastructure solutions game – finding a gap where something is missing and coming up with an innovation to fill it.

Siviwe introduced makeshift grain mills to Nigeria when the West African country needed to turn its agricultural sector around to feed the heavy populated country, after its’ government realised it had focussed too much on oil.

Wanda is in the process of doing much the same in the subsistence and emerging agricultural sector with mobile abattoirs.

Now the sons of the late vice-chancellor of Mthatha’s Walter Sisulu University have teamed up with Hillcrest craft brewer Don Stewart to fill a gap for the beer sector. Small operations may find bottling and labelling a strain on their budgets. Instead they can decant craft beer into growlers.

What’s a growler, you ask? Call it the beer equivalent of a wine demijohn, a glass or ceramic jug people traditionally fill up with fresh or draft beer as a take-away.

The trio’s venture involves filling standard glass growlers at their growler station in the Tops Spar bottle store in Hillcrest with a range of craft beers from all over the country, including local brews from Durban and surrounds.

The range changes from week to week. This week it has been Devil’s Peak Block House IPA, Poison City Punk Rocker Ale, Jack Black Premium Lager and Firey Ginger Beer, all from Cape Town. Then there is Robsons Cherry Beer and That Brewery’s That APA, both local. An IPA is an Indian Pale Ale and APA is American Pale Ale – beer styles, determined by the types of hops that are used.

There are between 150 and 170 craft beer breweries in South Africa.

First, you must buy a standard growler. Once it’s empty you can swop it for a full one, much like changing a household gas bottle. Except, of course, you have a choice of a different craft beer to take home each time.

“It gives the consumer access to fresh craft beer to take home. Before they would have to get it in a pub. It makes craft beer more affordable because the breweries no longer need to bottle and label, which is expensive,” said Wanda.

From August 19 to the end of that month, they moved 502 litres of beer, so it’s popular.

Wanda said the growler station seal seals the bottle after decanting to keep it fresh.

“When you break the seal it’s like a two-litre cold drink and it will go flat. Craft beer has no preservatives. We suggest that people drink it immediately,” said Wanda with a smile.

And how did this beer jug get to be called the growler?

A label attached to the container explains: “In the 1800s, fresh beer was carried from the local pub to home by a small galvanised pail. The term ‘growler’ is rumoured to have come about when the beer sloshed around in the pail. It created a rumbling sound as the carbon dioxide escaped through the lid.”