Beer Time: The art of craft

16 March 2016 - 02:08 By Eugene Yiga

German Felix Magdziarz, brewer at Darling Brew, chats to Eugene Yiga about beerWhat's the first step in making craft beer?If you want to make a beer and you only used pale-based malt, you'd get a pale lager every time. But if you want to make something a bit more interesting, you need a range that gives you different flavours and aromas.Where do you get your malt?We buy the base malt from Caledon - 75% of the malt comes from South Africa - and import speciality malts from Germany or Belgium. Every craft brewery, no matter the size, is doing the same: buying the base malt in South Africa and importing the speciality malts. It's a lack of availability that forces people to import.You have over a dozen different beers. Why so many?We've expanded the range quite a bit since we started the new brewery. You'll have products that only sell a little but you still have them because you want to be different to a big brewery. If you consider yourself a craft brewery, you need to have a broad range and a lot of choice for the consumer to try.What do you love most about your work?It's a nice way to be creative. You can make a lot of different things in different flavours and styles. It's different than painting a picture because it's more temporary. But people enjoy it as well. What makes me happiest is if I sit in a bar, somebody orders one of my beers, and turns around to say to his friends, "It's really good." That's the best moment.The new Darling Brewery Tasteroom, at 48 Caledon Street in Darling, offers food and beer pairing menus on select occasions. Call 021-286-1099 or email tasteroom@darlingbrew.co.za...

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