The day was hot and beautiful with only a slight cool breeze that made things bearable. The sky was beautifully blue, and the road trip was capped off with a brief lunch/dinner (depending on how much you eat in a day) at Darling Brewery in Darling.
It has been on my list for a couple of years now, and it finally happened. We arrived at the SLOW BEER brewery.
I have been drinking their beers for many years, and I think one of my favourite beers is brewed there. They have an incredible lineup of beers, from sweet and fruity zero % alcohol drinks for those who do not drink to double IPAs and imperial Stouts that will hit you in the face with their brutal and full force.
I could not wait to drink that first beer!
So, please join me as I take you with us on this virtual tour of the Tasteroom at Darling Brewery, in Darling, South Africa!
The Brewery
As you walk up the stairs to the bar, you are greeted by all their accolades and prizes. They have won so many prizes for their many beers, but in all honesty, I think that they are some of the best "small" breweries in South Africa. Sometimes, their beers are a hit and a miss, but mostly, they have some of the best beers in South Africa (in my opinion).
They also have the beer passport, the very thing that got me to travel to all of these breweries!
The bar is beautiful, with so many taps it is as the beer drinker a bit sad that you cannot drink from them all! Especially with the high ABV beers, you will roll out of the bar.
You can also sit outside, but the brewery itself is on the inside and when you sit at the bar you will have a beautiful view of where the beers are brewed.
Beers and More Beers
I took my beer passport with me, as I always do, and I scanned it for my beer. I also got another pint or two, the double IPA and the imperial stout. It is not always when you get this great opportunity to drink these big beers from tap. (I was a bit disappointed in the glasses, as they could have given more thought to using beer-style specific glasses, but this is me being a bit too picky.)
Either way, these beers were incredible, and I loved every single sip. It was special, and I shared it with friends and family who enjoyed it with me. We could also not order some greasy pub food...
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Burgers and Grub: Pub Food
The menu, just like the many taps, presented a specific conundrum: we wanted to order something of everything. But we opted for a chicken and beef burger, and I was glad we did take these! The burgers were amazing, juicy, fatty, greasy, and just the right thing to soak up the extra alcohol we consumed.
My fiance feels like pub food is the best, and I have to agree with her. These pubs make the best food ever!
A Unique Pub Snack: Spent Beer Grain Chips
When you brew your own beer, you make a tremendous amount of waste in the form of spent grains. If you want to make a beer of a certain amount of alcohol, you need a lot of grains. When you extract the sugar from the grain, you still have a perfectly edible grain. Usually, they give these spent grains to farmers who feed it to their cattle. But Darling Brewery has recently been trying to make chips with it! Or crisps. So, we bought a couple of bags and I have to say it is really good. Not only is it healthy, it helps reduce waste from the brewing process.
If only more places thought about their waste...
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Postscriptum, or So Everything Ends
So, every trip ends. But this only helps with creating space for the next visit!
I hope that you enjoyed this virtual tour to yet another brewery in South Africa!
For now, happy beer drinking and travelling, and keep well.
All of the musings, thoughts, and drunk opinions are my own. The photographs are also my own, taken with my Nikon D300.
BEERMAPS: The Philosopher's Brewery Visit List
📍Anvil Brewery
📍Charlie's Brewhouse
📍Clarens Brewery
📍Den Anker Brew Pub
📍Drakensberg Brewery
📍Hops Hollow Sabie Brewery
📍Karoo Craft Breweries
📍Route 96 Brewery
📍Sabie Brewing Co.
📍Saggy Stone Brewing Co.
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Darling is a cool name, Home's better, though. Or Work.
If somebody calls you, you wife perhaps, where the heck are you, you can always say you're at Work. And you wouldn't lie ;)