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Session IPA | 4% ABV

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In around 2015, we went to a winery for a wine tasting. The wine maker did the wine tasting herself, and upon finding out through out chatting that I was brewing my own beer, she became very interested. She told us that the wine industry in South Africa was at that time around 10 years ago looking to tap its roots into the beer industry.

At that time, I did not make too much of it, as I was still young and in hindsight, I should probably have tried to enter that market through this connection. But alas, one cannot go back in time. But the thing is, her prediction came to life, now there are so many wineries or wine companies trying to brew their own beers! I visited one of these wineries many years ago, but since then they closed down (if I am correct).

But not all of these wineries brew their beers on sight or they do not brew it themselves... Enter Cape Collective.

I recently bought a couple of IPAs and amongst them was the Cape Collective Session IPA. I have come to really appreciate and love a good refreshing IPA or what one might call the New England-style IPA. At least, these style IPAs have hit the South African market with a big bang recently, as so many beers implicitly follow this style - extremely hoppy and fruity with not a lot of bitterness.

And even as a hardcore extremely bitter IPA fan, these beers can be really refreshing. Maybe one can call these lighter and refreshing IPAs the lager of IPA drinkers! Or something along those lines.

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In South Africa, our BBQ is called a "Braai"; open coals and lots of different foods cooked over these coals. It gives a unique smokey taste to it unrivalled between any cooking (I am biased in this opinion!). But this heavy smoky flavour allows for a fresh beer to really come through. At least, for me it does.

As I poured myself this beer, the fruitiness immediately came through, as with most of these lighter beers. This was a Session IPA from a brewery that I know very well... At least, I know this is a beer from a brewery that I know, because on Saggy Stone's website under "Friends of Saggy Stone you can buy this beer. And the labels and cans are the same as Saggy Stone's. On the Cape Collective website, you will not find any mention of Saggy stone, nor on the label, but you will read on their website that they outsource the brewing entirely... Which kind of makes this a Saggy Stone beer, not?

The reason why I bring this up is because this beer tastes so similar (for me) to all of the Saggy Stone IPAs some of which I have already reviewed (see below). This is not necessarily a bad thing, but what are the chances that a brewery will brew vastly different beers, using widely and extremely different ingredients? A lot of the recent Saggy Stone (and now the Cape Collective) IPAs taste eerily similar...

Besides that, what is there not to like about a good and refreshing session IPA with a BBQ or Braai? Even though I said the above, this is still a solid beer for me. And it is interesting that folks from the wine industry are trying their fingers at brewing beer, even if they are outsourcing the brewing part.

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The head poured beautifully, with the classic white contrasted against the colourful hoppy beer. The lasing was also fantastic (photographs below), leaving behind the incredible scent of a well-brewed beer!

In the background I had the fire going strongly. A cold day outside, yet a cold beer never tasted as good! I reminded myself how wonderful it is that we have all of these different beers, even though they are quite similar - at least, my palate cannot detect the minute differences. And even though this particular beer is not brewed by brewers (or sold by brewers) the Saggy Stone brewing company (which I really think brewed this beer) did a fantastic job.

As I drank the beer, like so many others of this style as well, the warmer temperature brought out more of the fruity and hoppy notes, and I really enjoyed every single sip. Sadly, the beer was done before I even began cooking my food!

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Have you ever had a beer that was brewed by a winemaker, even if it was outsourced?

I hope that you have a good beer weekend, beer Saturday! Enjoy and keep well.

All of the musings and writings are my own, unless stated otherwise and hyperlinked. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.