Beerhouse, in partnership with local craft beer breweries, often host a series of free Beer School sessions where attendees are offered a free beer tasting and discussion session with the respective brewery for that week’s session. Last week’s brewery was Embombi hosted by their brewer, Thabiso.
Embombi is a local craft beer brewery based in Kyalami, where they use Brewhogs’ facilities to brew their beer. Their name is derived from the local South African term ‘embombi’ which means ‘let’s have a drink’ or ‘to drink’.
Embombi only uses local ingredients in their beers and, though, they currently only produce and sell their Embombi Premium Lager, they are looking at launching more beers next year – at the moment they brew about 9 000 litres of beer a month and aim to gradually increase this to about 25 000.
Their beers are available in kegs and bottles at about 48 restaurants and their marketing strategy intentionally aims to penetrate restaurants instead of bottles stores, which is why it would probably be hard finding this at your nearest bottle store.
ABOUT THE BEER
Embombi Premium Lager
The Embombi Premium Lager takes some time to ferment, which is what results in its fresh, crisp taste. It’s brewed to meet commercial beer and craft beer right in the middle with its smoothness compared to the smoothness of a Stella Artois or a Heineken; whilst its taste has undertones of caramel amber which gives it its fruitiness. Consumers describe its taste as slightly bitter, yet fruity. Thabiso says this is what makes Embombi’s lager unique in SA’s craft beer industry.
VERDICT: I didn’t really enjoy it. My lager doesn’t need to be confused. It should either be bitter or… bitter – not something in-between bitter and fruity but I personally just don’t enjoy fruity beers. But for people who don’t want their craft beer too bitter nor too fruity, it’s perfect!
TOP TIPS FROM THE BREWER:
- Before increasing the local distribution of your beer, it’s important to consider logistics like packaging and local weather conditions during long-distance transportation to avoid issues like your beer going sour by the time it reaches its destination, for example.
What do you think of Embombi’s Premium Lager? Let me know!
Hanging With Leanne 