Passionate craft brewers from the Centre for Applied Food Security and Biotechnology (CAFSaB) in the Faculty of Health and Environmental Sciences made their debut at the prestigious SAB Intervarsity-Brewing Challenge and won accolades for CUT. 

The team, which runs a small operation, CUT Phehla Brewery under the leadership of Dr Hanita Swanepoel, won the Best Spirit award for the team with the most energy and innovative ideas, and 3^rd place for their Trappist Speciality Monk’s Ale (brewed by Hanita Swanepoel). This challenge is the biggest internal event organised by SAB with 15 of the top South African tertiary institutions’ brewing teams set against each other. Brews were evaluated by some of the beer industry’s most prominent independent and accredited South African and international tasters. 

A year ago, something was brewing in the dungeons of the Old Dirk Coetzee Building where Dr Swanepoel, a post-doctoral research fellow at CUT, took up a new hobby of brewing. Her dream came true when she assembled a versatile team of microbiologists, food scientists, engineers, marketers, and graphic designers to open a brewery. This year, the team was on its quest to enter into the national challenge. They wanted their beer to be in the competition because it tasted good enough to share. “Once you’ve tried our craft beer, you will no longer want to drink from any other brewery”, Dr Swanepoel said. The brewery derives its name from Phehla which is one of the Mzansi’s urban legend stories. It is known and popularly believed among communities that a Phehla beer is brewed by a woman to ensure that her husband or partner will not have ‘a wandering eye’. “Beer is an alcoholic beverage but should be savoured and enjoyed responsibly;  and my vision is to be able to create a responsible and creative beer culture amongst our students,” she concluded.

 “Once you’ve tried our craft beer, you will no longer want to drink from any other brewery.” Proudly CUT ales

Images 

Dr Nicolaas Luwes, Electrical Engineering; Jaco Faber, Electrical Engineering; Teboho Ntsinyi, Electrical Engineering; Dr Olga De Smidt, Yeast Genetics; Dr Hanita Swanepoel Product Developer & Brewer; Edrick van der Merwe, Microbiologist and Brewer; and Jaco Faul, Marketing & Management.