GQEBERHA beer drinkers can now proudly say that the best beer in Africa is made right here in our own backyard – as a matter of speaking.
Richmond Hill Brewing Co recently won a gold medal at the prestigious African Beer Cup beating 231 other beers for the title of Best Beer in Africa.
041 chatted to Niall Cook, the founder of Richmond Hill Brewing Co to find out how a school project propelled him into becoming the owner of an award-winning microbrewery.
“I had always wanted to make beer professionally ever since a school project where we had to make something with yeast,” he says adding that the idea of bringing beer to school was quite enticing for a 16-year-old.
Cook went on to study molecular biology at NMU before interning at craft breweries in both Ireland and Germany, both countries renowned for their beer knowledge.
On returning home Cook met up with his current business partner Matt Repton who was looking for someone to brew beer for his restaurant Beer Yard. They started up RHBC together in 2015 making giant strides in the craft beer brewing community.
Cook credits his partnership with Repton for his success in Gqeberha, a city which was very new to craft beer culture when they started eight years ago.
“I wanted to make beer and the craft beer market was starting to emerge in PE at the time. Matt’s reputation precedes him in the restaurant industry and was easy enough to put my trust there. I could just put my nose down and focus on making beer and growing the brand together”
Cook, who has a true passion for his work says that their goal had always been to grow organically and nurture their product and brand.
“Grow too quickly and quality and service could slip which we definitely didn’t want. Having said all that, we are happy with our growth to date. We have moved from a 50L brewery to a 600L in a short space of time, and have been fortunate enough to need increased capacity this led to the purchase of more fermenting tanks as well as growing our taproom each year. The taproom now boasts an additional venue hire area (Chickys Yard) and new food options with our burger shed.”
The prestigious African Beer Cup awards are held annually in Cape Town and this year the panel of judges included 52 beer experts from 16 countries to analyse and evaluate 232 beers from 20 African countries.
“(The winning beer) It’s a blend of two different beers -namely a heavy stout and our Irish Red ale- added to 2016 Shiraz barrels with raspberries and peach. It sat in the barrel for 18 months taking on the character of the wood and a bit of the residual wine notes. It was also further acidified by the natural microflora of the barrel. It’s a beer that really has many aspects coming together to generate a complex flavour that is very unique to this particular beer.”
This is certainly not their first award-winning drink.
We have been very fortunate to receive a number of awards over the years from The Africa Beer Cup, The South Africa National Beer Trophy as well as a few beer label competitions. Some of the award-winning beers we have produced include Car Park John, Two Rand Man, Twin Fin, Lemon Yellow Sun, November Child, Fever Dream, Unanimous, Ink In My Drink, This Side Up, Coastal Cult, and Bring it Back.”
Although Cook and his team were extremely proud of their latest dark ale, which they can proudly introduce as The Best Beer in Africa they weren’t overly confident when entering.
“Our barrel ageing programme is very new as we have only produced a few variations from our barrels to date. The beer was sent through to the competition more as a way to get a touch of feedback on how the project is going,” says Cook lightheartedly adding that “Thankfully it seems to be faring pretty well”
Cook had made headlines during the Covid epidemic when instead of focusing on their own loss due to the alcohol ban RHBC became both creative and philanthropic.
“There were many months where we could not trade due to the alcohol bans. We had to become very creative in finding ways to keep the doors open. This resulted in the volunteer-based soup kitchen whereby we were boiling up soup instead of beer for those that needed it most. We also dabble in making mozzarella as an alternative income source. Thankfully it all was enough to keep the doors open and make it over the mountain.”
Cook believes that their success is largely due to teamwork.
“Without the team, we would never be where we are today. They are the ones that have come together to live and breathe RHBC as well as drive the overall vision.”
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