Beer in South Africa
High priority was given to beer production because it was an essential beverage for combating the dreaded scurvy so prevalent on ships engaged in the trade between the Netherlands and the East Indies.
Greater differences in price between natural beverages and spirits and the easy availability of the former are recommended as part of the scheme aimed at diverting the drinking habits of the people in this direction."
Dr. E. M. Jellinck, who was regarded as the world's leading research scientist in the field of alcohol studies, came to the following conclusion: "The type of beverage used is always revealing of drinking habits.
Local breweries operated by the black population, especially groups such as the Sotho, Zulu and Xhosa, have been brewing forms of sorghum beers long before any Europeans arrived.
In recent years commercially produced Bantu beer powders have replaced sorghum malt in home brewing and at smaller industrial breweries.
Although most of the industrially produced Bantu beer is still sold in bulk, modern packaging in plastic and other types of containers was rapidly being introduced at most municipal breweries.
In Leipzig, Germany, a centuries-old brewery is preserved as a tourist attraction, and its product is hard to distinguish from Bantu beer.
From the purely fiscal angle, there was seen to be a strong case for encouraging the Bantu to drink more European beer because more significant amounts would become available for the government budget.
Today, South African Breweries (SAB) controls the vast majority of the South African beer market, and with the notable exception of imported brands such as Heineken, Guinness, and others, SAB owns and produces all the major brands in the country, as well as owning Miller's Genuine Draft (American) and long list of others which makes it the world's second-largest brewery.
Jo'burg beer, an independent business and low-priced beverage, is dominant among lower-income groups and incorporates the tastes of traditional brewing.
Initiated by Beer Route, a collaboration of craft breweries in South Africa, other players have since come on board to help guide tourists to taprooms throughout the country.
Homebrewers meet monthly in major cities, including Cape Town, Johannesburg, Port Elizabeth, Durban, and Bloemfontein.
