When we recently visited the Clarens Brewery, I could not help but buy their "12 beer" special. If you buy 12 beers, you get a 10% discount. At first, I just wanted to buy a couple, but then when I started to stack the beers on the counter, I quickly ran into the problem of "there are too few not to take the special". Plus, I had two beers already, so my rational mind did not really work at that stage.
I proceeded to take a case of twelve different beers, or 10 different ones, and two of my favourites: two IPAs and two Hazelnut brown ales.
This was a massive beer haul, and I had beer for the entire stay when we camped. Or so I thought... When I opened some of them, the others began calling out, alone, in the fridge... So I drank a couple a day!
Luckily, I did not drink all 10 on one day, so I reviewed them systematically as I proceeded.
In this post, I will share with you the review notes that I made while drinking these beers. If you ever come across these beers, do give them a try, especially the brown hazelnut ale! And without further ado, please enjoy this massive 10-beer review.
IPA
The IPA was my favourite beer, because of my obvious IPA obsession. It had a beautiful white head, with a dark pour. The smell was obviously hoppy, and I loved it. I was glad that I bought two.
 | As I noted in the earlier linked post, I think that they are using the same hops in many of their brews. I knew the hops they used, as the beers tasted a lot like my own. The lacing was nice, the strong hoppy aroma wanted me to crack open another beer. Which I eventually did! |  |
With this beer, you could really tell what hops they used. When I get back home, and if I remember, I will check my beer brewing log and refresh my memory of what the specific hops they used. It had very distinct grassy and spice notes.
Hazelnut Brown Ale: Clarens Goes Nuts
The beer can design and the name was by far the best on this beer! I loved the name and the design. But I also loved the beer. I bought two of them as well, and they were my second favourite of all of the beers.
 | When you open the beer and pour it, it has a very distinct nutty smell. The taste, which you almost expect to be sweet, is not. The smell gets well translated into the beer, and I really loved it. It also pour nicely, with good lacing, and a nice head. It was nice and malty. |  |
Stout
The stout was my third favourite beer. It poured beautifully, with a nice smooth head. It had some nice lacing on the glass.
The taste was very heavy, rich, with dark chocolate, and coffee notes. It was not too dry, with some nice sugary notes to balance the bitter dark chocolate and coffee.
The funny thing was that it really reminded me of the stouts that I brewed at home, many many years ago. I really enjoyed the full-body taste, which kept on developing as I drank the beer with it slightly heating up a bit in my hand.
Tondon Pilsner
My girlfriend did not like this beer. Interestingly, it was very hoppy for a pilsner in my opinion. Again, the distinct hops which they used came through very strongly.
 | It poured a beautiful head, with good lacing. It was very hoppy, but refreshing as well. It was clear, and not cloudy at all. |  |
Village Lager
The lager was like most other lagers I have tasted. Nothing out of the ordinary. It poured a little hazy though, which might come from the overly hoppy nature of most of their beers.
It did not, however, have good lacing neither did it pour a nice head. A little different from all the previous beers so far which had excellent heads and lacing.
Overall, it was cold, refreshing, and a beer! Which is a win in my opinion.
Weiss
It was an obvious cardinal sin, I poured this beer into the glass without first giving it a proper wash. I just rinsed it. But from all the bubbles on the side, you can see it was not a clean glass!
But the beer was very "clean"!
Similar to the lager, this weiss was just a normal weiss, an easy-drinking, fruity ale. It had prominent banana notes, the taste was full-bodied with the banana taste so prominent to most weiss beers (to me). It was not as hazy or cloudy as most weiss beers I had, but it had some yeast floating in it.
Overall, also just a very drinkable beer!
English Ale
Very similar in style to the IPA, this was another solid beer. It had some lacing from the beautiful white head it poured. I loved the plainness of this beer, with not too many hoppy notes, not too much alcohol, just right.
If I could buy more, I would have bought more of this one as well. As you can see, it poured really clean, without much haze.
It tasted like the first beer I would get on a night out, or a beer I would order with a pizza or a burger.
It was not too full-bodied, like the IPA, which makes it dangerous... I would drink one too many of this one...
Blonde
It feels like every brewery in South Africa is trying its hands on "Blonde-styled" beers. A brewery close to my home town makes a "honey blonde" adding a little twist to the original Blonde-style beers coming from Belgium. But with the years, and everyone trying their hands at it, the flavour of has been lost. Some of the breweries significantly reduce the alcohol, the fruity flavours do not come through as much.
With this beer, the brewery obviously climbed in on this trend and I was not really impressed with it that much. I would have rather bought some of the IPA or English Ale.
Mulled Apple Cider
This beer was a total surprise. I bought it without realising it was a mulled cider... The first sip was utter confusion, as the cinnamon and clove taste threw me a curve ball. I looked at the can, and then I saw the mulled sticker!
 | In the end, I really loved this cider. It tasted like Christmas. I wanted more. I could see how I could easily get wasted on this. It tasted like the cold nights in Europe, at a Christmas market. As I drank more and more, it got better and better. What a nice surprise! |  |
Red Ale
The last beer I had was the Red ale. Another solid beer, with a beautiful pour, white head, dark colour beer. The lacing was also good. I again really enjoyed this beer, with some upfront hops (the same hops again!) and then the subtle malty flavour coming through at the end.
It had a very clean taste, with some fruity elements coming through. It reminded me of my attempt at making a red ale, which was a disaster.
In any case, a solid beer to round the 10-beer experience off with.
Postscriptum, or an End to the Feast
The beers I tasted and reviewed offered a beautiful spectrum of difference. I wish I bought more of the English ale, the stout, the IPA, and the brown ale. The other beers were good, but they could have left those beer off of their brewing list and focused on the four top ones, in my opinion. But who am I but a strange philosopher writing about beer!
This was quite a long one! I hope that you enjoyed it. I probably could have made a part 1 and a part 2, but I think the entirety of the post resembles the experience better! I had a wonderful time tasting the beer with the mountains in the background.
I hope that you enjoyed my beer-tasting notes!
South African craft breweries are getting themselves on the map! And I am looking forward to exploring more of the breweries in our backyard.
Enjoy the last couple of days of the old year as we enter the new one.
Get a cold beer and enjoy it!
Keep well.
All of the writings are my own, and they are my own opinions. No one paid me to write any of it. The photograph are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.