Guinness would like you to meet The Sapeurs – The Society of Elegant Persons of the Congo.

Here’s a more intimate behind-the-scenes look at the persons behind the movement:

Somebody should show this to the Minister of Health.
In a recent experiment conducted by Heineken – it was proven that people drink less if they are having a good time at a club. If the DJ isn’t up to scratch or the music just isn’t getting the crowd onto the dance floor – then people hit the bar…HARD!

So instead of banning alcohol advertising Minister, perhaps a better strategy would be to employ tax-payers money to radically improve the quality of DJs at all nightclubs. In fact, as a public service – all live acts at venues across South Africa should be given more money and encouraged to improve in a unified effort to reduce the amount of drinking people do.

Entertainment here is key. It’s no wonder people drink so much at the cricket.

In Taiwan you can buy a bottle of whisky at 10pm on a Sunday night from the local 7-11. You can do that because so few people in Taiwan do. For whatever reason, drinking alcohol isn’t such a popular thing over there, which also poses in interesting challenge to companies that market beer when formulating a strategy to increase beer consumption in the country.

The latest idea…Hello Kitty beer.

Hello Kitty beer is a mixture of beer and fruit juice and can probably be best labelled as gateway beer. At 2.5% vol it’s is most certainly not meant for the band members of AC/DC but rather for non-beer drinkers who want to try something a little more adventurous than a can of Coke.

Hello Kitty beer costs just NT$32 – which the last time we checked was about R10 a can.

We’ll be back in Taiwan next year March and will report back as to how Hello Kitty beer tastes. Might need to take an &Union Beast of the Deep to wash it down with.

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About thirty minutes north of Cape Town you’ll find the town of Paarl, which is where you’ll also find the Cape Brewing Company.

Situated on the ever expanding Spice Route estate – right next to Fairview Wine Estate – the R20 million brewery is open to visitors and welcomes tasting of it’s fine products.

We headed out there to take in the sights and tastes of the beer, food and to take a few pics of the place.

If you enjoy wine tasting trips to Paarl and the surrounding areas of the Boland, make sure you also check out the CBC Brewery too. We fear that it’s going to get mighty busy there come summer time.

There is a small charge for tasting and you can sample the four CBC beers [a lager, pilsner, Krystal Weiss and Amber Weiss] as well as three Jack Black Beers that they now brew too. They’re open daily – as well as Sundays.

Check out our reviews of some of the beer.

Beer Review: Cape Brewing Company – Pilsner

Beer Review: Jack Black Butcher Block Pale Ale

I’ve been accused in the past of having an unnatural adoration of Brewers & Union.

Yes their beer is delicious, but there is a ton of great inspiration you can get by listening to the advice of Rui and Brad.

Here are a couple of pearls from Rui. Watch it with an ice cold Handwerk All-Day IPA in hand for the full effect.

Admittedly there is absolutely nothing romantic about working at a mass produced beer factory. But a little love hook up at a craft beer brewery…now that’s a different story.

Will Drinking Buddies do for craft beer what Singles did for Seattle in the 90’s? It’s be out soon, but not sure if there will be any cinemas left in South Africa that’ll still play movies like this when it gets here.

The Cape Brewing Co. is a relatively new kid on the local craft beer block. The brewery is actually situated on the Spice Route wine farm, which is fast becoming a culinary destination with chocolate tastings, a fine restaurant, arts and crafts and some of the very best Cape wine all available on the same property. If you haven’t spent a boozy lunch on the Spice Route lawn on a sunny Sunday afternoon – you are doing yourself a serious disservice.

As a personal introduction to the CBC range, we decided to give the Lager a full go.

It’s well presented in a dark brown 440ml glass bottle, sporting a non-offensive label on the front and back. The label design isn’t the prettiest thing you’re going to lay your eyes on, but its what’s inside that counts…right?

When you pour it into a glass the CBC Lager is darker than what you would be used to when compared to a Windhoek or a Heineken, and you’ll notice the distinct lack of a foamy ‘head’

If you stick your nose in the glass and give it a good sniff, it’s very lightly perfumed and smells faintly sweet. Taste wise, this is not a bitter beer and if you usually enjoy stronger beers, this lager is going to go down like cool drink. Although it looks darker than commercially produced lagers, it’s deceptively light and very pleasant.

The CBC Lager is not a complex beer and when chilled we can quiet easily see this being enjoyed by the bucket load on a picturesque lawn somewhere in the Boland. It’ll be great with pizza…topped with ham and mushrooms – rudely edible.

Overall the CBC Lager is a nice daytime beer for those that don’t want anything overly bearing.

We give it 3 stars out to 5.