We’re skeptical of writing about beers before we’ve tried them. It’s poor form and we wouldn’t want to recommend something that we wouldn’t buy ourselves. This weeks Friday Beer is a little different. At the time of writing we had not yet tried it, but when Mike Halls of The Real Beer Revolution is involved we’re less concerned. This is the RHBC x Feral Brew Break and Enter NEIPA.
Mikes not just a beer enthusiast he also knows his way around a brewery. He’s using Feral Brew as a gypsy brewery to create collabs and this is the first commercially available beer he has put out there. Brewing with RHBC (The Richmond Hill Brewing Co) in Port Elizabeth Mike said he “just wanted to create a decent NEIPA” because, and we agree, “there aren’t enough of them in SA”.
- When did Feral and RHBC brew this beer? Feral Brew had been working on many small-scale test batches of this NEIPA and through tweaks, with regular RHBC taste sessions, we finally decided on this recipe. We brewed this beer on a Sunday afternoon at the start of October at RHBC’s brewery in Port Elizabeth. We packaged the beer as fresh as possible to lock in all those amazing hop aromas and flavours. This beer style is best enjoyed young.
- How much did you brew? We brewed a 500-litre batch, with only two kegs being made available, one in PE, which was consumed within 48 hours and the other in Cape Town which will go on tap at The Biggest Little Beer Shop on Saturday. The rest of the beer was canned, with just over 800 cans hitting the shelves. This beer is very limited release and is sure to sell out fast, most of our stocks are already allocated.
- Where is it going to be available? The only bottle shop to have stock of Break and Enter in Cape Town is The Biggest Little Beer Shop. If drinking at home isn’t your thing, you will also be able to enjoy a can at Banana Jam or Beerhouse on Saturday. If you’re in PE, the best place to buy your cans is from the brewery. In Gauteng, the only place to buy is at The Green in Benoni, and in KZN you can buy from Hillcrest Tops.
- How much will it retail for? The can is likely to retail around the R50 mark, which for some will seem steep. Internationally we see these beers start from R100 a can and go much higher. It is an extremely expensive beer to make, not just because of the high ABV, but because of the sheer volume of hops that go into it. The cost price of hops alone for this beer is in excess of R10 per can!
- Can we expect Feral and RHBC to do something else? We had such good fun designing this beer together and realizing the dream of the final product. I am extremely happy with how this beer turned out, for me, it takes me back to the time I spent in Vermont, the home of the NEIPA. I have so much respect for RHBC and what they are doing for the craft beer industry and would love to work with them again in the future, so, watch this space.
South Africa needs more hazy IPA’s. They’re so damn delicious! Break and Enter is a juicy, hoppy celebration, an uncompromising beer with an explosion of citrus.
With all that said you’re only going to have a couple of weeks to get this beer. It’s simply not going to be around for very long. Let us, and them know what you think.
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Feral Brew: Facebook| Instagram |Twitter
Cheers!
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