From November 2011 I cycled about 3 months through South Africa, here are my thoughts on the beers of South Africa.

There is a reasonable selection of beer available in South Africa unfortunately most of them are fairly tasteless lagers. Most South Africans will disagree and point out that they have some good beers usually showing their bottle of “Windhoek” this is a convenient time to laugh and point out that Windhoek is a Namibian beer.

So here they are in no  particular order:

Hansa : 4.5% lager, well it has more flavour than some beers, lets call it an “acquired taste”.

Castle : Slightly better than Hansa and quite drinkable.

Castle Milk stout : 6.0% stout. Not quite as strong taste as Guinness or Murphy’s but a nice enough drink.

Carling Black Label : 5.5% Probably the best all round beer, it’s quite refreshing and has an ok flavour.

Darling Brew : 4% This is a local beer in the Western Cape and is the closest thing to a real ale that I tasted in SA so by default was probably the best beer I tried, I only found it in Robertson though….

Savannah : 6% Cider, they call it a dry cider but I found it more like a very sweet cider, also available  in a “light” version at 3%.

Windhoek : 4% like I said not a South African beer but as its so popular I’ll mention it. Brew under the Reinheitgebet (Reinheit convention) it has no additives, so it’s a very clean and fresh beer, though a little thin on taste I found, they also have a “draught” version in a bottle that has a little more flavour. Many people claimed that they drink Windhoek because they don’t get a headache from the additives, I suspect it has more to do with the fact its 4% instead of 5-6% like most other beers.

Other: In the bigger cities several European imports are a available too, but you guessed it, mainly the tasteless lagers.