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| June 2005 |
Feature |
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Traditional Eastern Cape beverage literally hops back onto the shelves
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Hop beer makes a comeback |
Between the late 1890's and early 1900's the Senior Government Analyst of the Cape Colony of South Africa analysed a number of indigenous beverages from the Port Elizabeth - Uitenhage area. A drink peculiar to the region, a hop beer called Dante, made by mixing yeast, dark brown sugar and/or honey and hops (or an indigenous substitute) was analysed. The beverage was found to be generally non-intoxicating, but stored long enough it was potentially intoxicating and so it was banned. And so another traditional African beverage was lost….or so I thought.
As a traditional beverage researcher my focus of research has been on iQhilika - an African mead, which was also condemned to illegality by the colonial government, along with various sorghum beverages. Both iQhilika and sorghum beverages have survived persecution due to the ready availability of ingredients for their manufacture. In 9 years I had however never heard of Hop beer being made.
Hence it was with great joy, almost akin to that of a conservationist finding a thriving population of what was thought to be an extinct species, that I first met Uncle Pete, the proud maker of Uncle Pete's Hop Beer. Traditional Eastern Cape Hop Beer has not only survived over the past 100 years since it was condemned, it has been commercialised by a friendly, gentle descendant of one of the brewers who would have been making Hop beer in the early 1900's when it was banned.
Uncle Pete learned the art of making Hop Beer from his late great Aunt. A devout Pentecostal Christian, he was determined to make the beverage in such a way as to contain less than 1% alcohol. Samples submitted to the Customs and Excise Department of the South African Revenue Services were analysed and found to contain less than 1% alcohol. This is achieved by carefully controlling the nutrient levels in the unfermented beverage so that the small amount of added yeast only achieves one or two cell division cycles before exhausting certain key nutrients required for growth. Thus the yeast produces almost no alcohol, and only enough carbon dioxide gas as a by product of its metabolism to carbonate the bottles sufficiently that the bottles are pleasantly fizzy and safe to open. Many brewers of other beverages such as malt beer, struggle with this art of starving the yeast in the bottle, with the result that the bottles can become small fizzy bombs. In this regard, Uncle Pete is something of a master having made 1000s of litres of Hop beer safely in bottles since 1992 when he had his last 'big explosion'.
As a beverage researcher, one of the challenges of the job is that you must taste beverages. These can range from some of your own worst mistakes, to the soulless mass produced commercial beverages that cover most shelves, to traditional beverages that need to be chewed before swallowing. On some occasions you are lucky enough to get to taste a genuinely nice beverage such as Uncle Petes Hop Beer or various small scale wines from the western Cape. These are beverages that are still human, still have a real face as their brand, and still have a real culture. Just like those that our ancestors had access to for thousands of years before the advent of global capitalism.
The taste of hop beer derives part of its magic from the blend of natural bitter compounds derived from hops and a caramelised flavour from molasses. A slight fizz, contributed by the careful bottle ageing of the product, makes the product refreshing and crisp tasting. Kept chilled in the fridge, the beverage clears to a deep brown colour.
As a refreshing cool drink on a hot day, this drink definitely does its job. Reasonably priced and packaged in a sturdy clear PET cool drink bottle, the product fills a niche market in the Eastern Cape.
So it is safe to say cheers to Uncle Pete's Brewery - 100 years after Hop Beer was illogically banned by a paranoid regime, the Eastern Capes refreshing indigenous beer is back, legal, refreshing and proudly local! A truly South African beverage.
More information:
Garth Cambray www.iqhilika.co.za
Related articles:
Science has never tasted this good!
iQhilika - a product with a golden future
Corking honeywine: natural or synthetic?
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