Ale anchored in the past: How a new craft beer bottles the traditions of Belgium
Chris Barnard‚ who started Boston Breweries in Cape Town in 2000‚ remembers with a grimace how he battled for eight years to make a success of a passion that started when he was concocting homebrew in his garage. “At times we were centimetres from shutting down‚” he said. “Then markets came along. People started wanting to buy their meat from butchers instead of supermarkets‚ their bread from the people who’d baked it.”Craft beer rode the wave‚ quietly finding its niche amid the noise of multimillion-rand lager marketing by the likes of South African Breweries‚ and outfits like Boston haven’t looked back.Barnard’s business grew eight times bigger in four years‚ he is building a sorely needed extension to his brewery in Paarden Eiland‚ and 120000 litres of his 11 brands — mostly in kegs — leave his loading bay monthly.His latest shade of amber nectar‚ emerging from one tank 2000 litres at a time‚ made its debut on Tuesday at the V&A Waterfront’s Den Anker‚ and it has a poignant connection to the restaurant’s ancestry.Belgian-brewed Anker Golden Bier has been served at Den Anker since 1996‚ when late founder Denis Bouckaert developed the recipe. Now‚ locally brewed Anker Brew — made from Trappist yeast and brewed to Bouckaert’s original recipe — has been launched in bottles.Belgian actor Gaetan Schmid joined the festivities at Den Anker‚ speaking about the three pubs Bouckaert owned in Ghent‚ Belgium‚ before he set up the Heineken brewery in Congo.“In 1996‚ Denis had a midlife crisis and decided to brew his own beer‚ one that he liked and that he could drink a lot of‚” said Schmid.“It’s an easy-drinking beer‚ a link between the past and the present.”Bouckaert’s widow‚ Lies‚ who still owns Den Anker‚ was there for Tuesday’s launch‚ but the driving force behind Anker Brew is Rejeanne Vlietman‚ who started working at the restaurant as a student and now runs it‚ as well as serving as a director of distribution outfit The Belgian Beer Co.Said Vlietman: “The brew is what Bouckaert used to call a truly Protestant expression of Trappist ale.”It went down well on Tuesday‚ as an accompaniment to the 10m croque monsieur served for guests and as an ingredient in the dessert of waffles and ice cream.R27 for 440ml. See ankerbrew.co.za- TMG Digital..
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