South African beer

i just came back from 6 months in South Africa, and WOW! do they have some great beer! Castle, windhoek, black label...

Does anybody know of any Kits or recipes for South african beers?

.....go duke bball!

Where in S.A?

I was near Cape Town for 12 months.

i was in Kruger Nat park and mapungubwe park

Nice.

I only tried Castle.
I also drank it in Kenya. It's okay if there is nothing else but I don't think I'd try to recreate it. There are plenty of pils/lager recipes that will give similar results.
I don't brew either so can't help, sorry.

oh well thanks anyways, i was intrigued because they use maize in their beer...

Plenty of pilsners and lagers use corn (Maize) in beers. Try some of them and see if there's a domestic similiar to what you liked in S.A. Then maybe we can fiddle with a recipe from a clone of one of them...

If you're really into making one, google the beer you want to make, and see if they have a website for their brewery, there might be some info as to what maize to grain ratio and what types hops they use. There might even be an email addy and you could maybe send an email to their brewmaster...If you tell him how much you digged his product, he may even help you gobble together a 5 gallon recipe you can make...

good luck.

BLACK LABEL! my best friend was born in SA. they sold Black Label next to where i went to college, it was pretty good for the price, he was always wanting to buy black label when we were there.

Not to be picky here, but Windhoek is from Namibia. It's brewed in the capitol, Windhoek, and Namibia was a former German colony, hence the good beer! When I was in ZA in '06, that was my favorite.

i live in South Africa but because we only have 3 local beers (Carling Black Label, Castle Lager, Hansa Pilsener) i never knew if they were any good (compared to other beers.) sure we get windoek, heineken, kilkenny, guinnies, amstel and more (since i started brewing i discover new (to me) beer every week and sample some) but it's SOOOO expensive that i really can't drink them on a regular basis.
one 4pack of kilkenny cost almost as much as 2 6packs Black Label!

i always *think* that windhoek tastes better that black label or castle, but i'm not actually sure if i'm just being placebo'd by the whole "imported", "german tradition", "reinheitsgebodt" thing??

but yeah, me and my friends usually drink Black Label in the end.

There is a recipe for Castle in the Clone Brews book.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/1580170773/?tag=skimlinks_replacement-20

hey d-u-k-e, here's a recipe for Windhoek Lager, from one of our very few brewshops:
http://www.thehomebrewshop.co.za/windhoek.html

WINDHOEK LAGER

1. 2,0Kg NFP Superfine Malt
2. 40g Halletau Hop Pellets
3. 500g Brewers Sugar ( Glucose)
4. 20g Southern Brewer Hop Pellets
5. 1 NFP Lager Yeast
6. 1 NFP Beer Yeast Nutrient
7. 1 NFP Beer Brewing Salts
8. 1 NFP Beer Finings
9. Pinch of Salt / Knippie Sout
10. Add a further 10g of Golding Hop Pellets, in the last 5 minutes of boiling / voeg a verdere 10g Goldings Hop Pellets in die laaste 5 minute van die kook proses by.
11. Final / Finale S.G. 1005 or Less / Of Minder


PROCEDURE:

Remove all traces of oil and cooking fats from the biggest pot available. Stainless Steel, Aluminium or Enamel may be used, BUT NOT IRON. Place +- 3 litres of Water into the pot and bring to the boil. Add the required amount of Malt and Hops, bring back to the boil, and gently simmer for 15 minutes. Now add the Salts, Nutrient, etc., that is required for this particular brew. Pour the Wort into the Brewing Vessel /Bucket, add the Sugar and stir well. Now add enough cold water to make up to 22 litres. Allow the Wort to cool down to 28-30 degrees Celsius and sprinkle the Yeast onto the Wort. Allow to ferment out until the correct S.G. is reached. - Bring 1 cup of water to boil, add the packet of Finings, simmer for ten minutes and add boiling to the beer. Allow to stand for 48 Hours.

Bottle in CLEAN STERILIZED BOTTLES. Add 2,5ml Sugar to each 350ml bottle or 5ml to each 750ml bottle. (This is called Priming). Allow 4cm of space in the top of each bottle. Cap bottles securely with new Crown Corks.

Beer is ready when clear in the bottles, but will continue to improve with time.

NOTE: DO NOT EXCEED THE QUANTITY OF SUGAR IN THE BOTTLES AS THIS WILL RESULT IN GUSHERS AND COULD ALSO CAUSE THE BOTTLES TO BURST.

and i got that from http://www.thehomebrewshop.co.za/windhoek.html