Ale Tale: Bottoms up to Devils Peak's mnandi beer

20 April 2016 - 02:20 By Mash Malone

Make no mistake, brewing beer is one thing, but putting that beer in a bottle and stocking pubs and bottle stores around the country is a whole different ballgame. Devils Peak Brewery in Cape Town has done just that.Let me reiterate: brewing beer on site and selling it on site is child's play compared with bottling and distributing. It takes big cojones to pull it off and, so far, I haven't tasted a bottled beer from Devils Peak Brewery that went bad.Many things can go wrong in the bottling process, causing the beer to expire or become contaminated.If a beer goes off and a customer drinks it, it's hard to win that customer back.Beer drinkers, if you do get a vrot beer for some reason, just take it back and get the barman or bottle-store owner to replace it, easy peasy.No need for a drum roll, but my personal favourite at Devils Peak is their blockhouse India pale ale. It's straight out of the top drawer, unlike their one beer that comes in a champagne bottle called Vin Diesel or something.I went for a pub lunch at their snazzy Taproom in Salt River, Cape Town, and I thought I was being set up. I actually asked the waiter if someone had put some Fifth Avenue Cold Duck mixed with grapefruit in my beer glass.I sent it back and I did pay, I promise. It almost ruined the pulled pork sandwich I had ordered. Well, okay, I lie - nothing would have spoilt that sandwich. That sandwich. It was too much of mnandi.Back to these buggers and their beers at Devils Peak.They have amber ale, golden ale, pale ale, American pale ale, India pale ale, you name it. All I can say to you Stormers fans is that you are a bunch of lucky swines to have a set-up like this in your neck of the woods...

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