Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win
No Result
View All Result
Food24
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win
No Result
View All Result
Food24
No Result
View All Result

Is one brewery trying to monopolise SA craft beer?

Food24
Lucy Corne by Lucy Corne
August 17, 2018
in Food News
0
Is one brewery trying to monopolise SA craft beer?
0
SHARES
1k
VIEWS
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsapp

Last week, in what started as a quiet deal and ended being shouted from the social media rooftops, Devil’s Peak – or in fact Signal Hill Products, the parent company to the Cape Town brewery –  struck a deal with The Tap Room, buying some 700 installed draught taps around South Africa. The Tap Room was South Africa’s largest beer distributor, representing a wide range of macro and microbreweries including Darling, Drifter, Mad Giant, Poison City, Brauhaus am Damm, Sabie Brewery, Nottingham Road as well as Heineken and its various brands and partners, including Soweto Gold, Stellenbrau and Jack Black.

The beer community reacted instantly and passionately, kicking off with a Facebook post from Carl Nienaber from Drifter. He wrote that “the landscape of the South African craft beer scene changed radically for the worse when the country’s largest craft beer distributor sold all their draught dispensing equipment to the country’s largest ‘craft’ brewing group”, going on to suggests that Signal Hill is seeking “market domination.

Responses to the post included comments like “it’s a sad day for the consumer”, “can only be a bad thing” and a conversation among small brewers determined to educate consumers on “genuine craft vs macro craft”. Beerhouse founder Randolf Jorberg wrote his take on the Beerhouse blog.

It’s taken me a few days to speak to enough of the relevant parties and to find time to put all of this into what I hope will be a cohesive, if rather long, post. Here goes:

What are the facts?

After courting several offers, including one from a major international brewing company, Dyllan and Lliam Roach of the Tap Room decided to sell their current assets in the trade to Signal Hill Products. This includes 200 installed units housing some 700 taps/lines.

Whose beers were on those lines before they were sold?

The Tap Room had a wide range of clients, including macro, micro and even a few nanobreweries. However, according to Devil’s Peak director Russell Boltman, fewer than half of the lines were being used to dispense beer. The majority were being used to dispense other products such as Brannas, prosecco and pre-mixed G&Ts. “There are only seven craft breweries that have more than five lines in total,” Russell said.


Why is it such a big deal?

People are worried that Signal Hill will remove competitors’ beers and replace them with their own products, which include beers from Devil’s Peak, Little Wolf, Alpha, St Francis, Mitchell’s and Fokof Lager, as well as international brands brewed locally – Mikkeller, Amundsen and Fierce plus Guinness, which is distributed by Signal Hill.

So are they going to remove competitors’ beer from the taps?

Well, this is the question. Carl Nienaber certainly thinks so, writing on Facebook: “Over the next few weeks, we are likely to see dozens, if not hundreds of taps that had been pouring beers from small independent breweries being replaced with products from the basket of one company – the biggest, least independent craft brewery in South Africa.”

Read the rest of my comment on my blog and see Devil’s Peak’s statement. 

What craft beer(s) on tap would YOU like to see available in your local restaurant or bar? Comment below or email us!

Lucy Corne is a Cape Town-based, certified beer judge and is the author of SA’s first dedicated beer book, African Brew. She has worked as a travel writer for more than a decade, with work published in magazines, newspapers, guidebooks and anthologies around the world. Beer plays a large part in her travels, and breweries often appear above museums on a trip itinerary. She also blogs about the South African beer scene under the moniker ‘The Brewmistress’.

Tags: beerCraft BeerDrinks


Related Posts

teas for digestion
Drinks

5 teas that are great for digestion

May 20, 2022
We compared different cooking methods for lamb chops and found the best ways to cook them
Cooking Guides and Tips

We compared different cooking methods for lamb chops and found the best ways to cook them

May 19, 2022
rusks
Featured

We tasted store-bought buttermilk rusks and found the best one – just in time for winter

May 18, 2022
Next Post
3 Quick and easy sweet potato recipes you’ll love

3 Quick and easy sweet potato recipes you'll love

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Food24 Team Loves

mielie rice

Whatever happened to mielie rice?

March 18, 2022
Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines goes global

Khayelitsha’s Finest Wines goes global

March 17, 2022
banana-peel-uses

3 fruit peels you’ll love for their waste-reducing appeal

March 10, 2022
sushi

Eat Out has announced its panel of judges for the first time ever

March 7, 2022
8 ingredients South Africans will be eating more of this year

8 ingredients South Africans will be eating more of this year

March 1, 2022

Recent favourites

  • rusks

    We tasted store-bought buttermilk rusks and found the best one – just in time for winter

    1 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • This is officially the best beer in Africa

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 5 horrifying cooking mistakes to avoid in the kitchen

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • 5 mistakes you may be making when buying olive oil

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • WATCH: Chef Jan Hendrik van der Westhuizen shares his go-to braai salad

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0

Newsletter

Get weekly access to our best recipes, tips and tricks

Sign Up
Footer

Quick links

  • Home
  • News
  • Videos
  • Win

Collections

  • New Recipes
  • Festive
  • Baking
  • Dessert Recipes
  • Braai Recipes
  • Lunchbox
  • South African Recipes
  • Pasta Recipes

Other links

  • Advertise with Food24
  • Editorial Policy
  • How to Pitch
  • Contact us

Not in the mood to cook?

Visit eatout.co.za to find the perfect restaurant near you.

eatout.co.za

© 2020 Food24.com. All rights reserved.

  • About us
  • Terms of Use
  • Privacy Policy
  • New Media
IAB
No Result
View All Result
  • Recipes
    • New recipes
    • Recipe round-ups
    • Easy weekday meals
    • Cooking with lamb
    • Delicious pork recipes
    • Braai recipes
    • Chicken recipes
    • Vegetarian recipes
    • Baking
    • Low carb recipes
    • Gluten-free recipes
    • Dairy-free recipes
    • Pasta recipes
    • South African recipes
  • News
    • Food news
  • Videos
  • Drinks
    • Non-alcoholic drinks
    • Wine
    • Beer
    • Cocktails
    • Coffee
  • Newsletters
  • More
    • Cooking guides and tips
    • Baking tips and tricks
    • Eat for good
    • Win

© 2019 Food24.com. All rights reserved.

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Fill the forms below to register

Subscribe to Newsletter

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
Close
Food24
Recipe Disclaimer

All recipe content is the responsibility of the party from whom such content originated. You agree that you use the content on Food24 at your own risk. Please read our editorial policy.
Close
Food24
Get the latest recipes delivered to your inbox weekly
Promotional Newsletter

Be the first to receive information about competitions and special offers from Food24 and it's partners.

You have successfully been subscribed!
Something went wrong. Please try again.
Make sure you have completed all required fields.
I don't want to see this again