Nestled at the edge of the Knysna Forests, Bibbey’s Brauhaus is an avant-garde exploration at the fringes of brewing art. Seldom satisfied, never complacent, always seeking an edge in craft-brewed sensory experience. Process, ingredients, boldness and time. No compromise. Consistency is not our hobgoblin.
Our beers are named for Bibbey’s Hoek-adjacent places, personalities, history, lies and legends. Some of these might only be recognised by locals. The forest keeps it’s own secrets and the Brauhaus honours and cherishes that reserve.
We do not distribute outside the local area and production quantities are finely tuned to the ecological footprint natural to a nanobrewery. Our beers are brewed using natural rainwater, quality ingredients and time. We apologise if any particular beer you seek is out of stock upon enquiry, but impatience is not compatible with the making of fine beer nor with life in Bibbey’s Hoek.
Regulars
These are the beers we do our best to have on hand at all times, our most sought after and popular recipes. Scroll down for one-offs, seasonals and our wilder experiments.
Brauhaus beers are bottle-conditioned: carbonated by an extended additional fermentation in the bottle. This means they take longer to brew, their flavours and aromas ever evolving as they age. Many grow older with grace and style. Some will reward handsomely those who can muster the patience and fortitude to endure an extended shelf maturation. It also means that alcohol levels are an approximation and will change over time.
All our beers contain live yeast and gluten.
In the beer descriptions below, letters in [square brackets] are the bottle-cap codes we use to label our beers.
The Gateway Collection
Buffalo Bay Blonde [B]: A crisp, malty blonde ale. Where blonde ales can frequently be bland and characterless, Buffalo Bay is refreshing, tantalisingly toasty and opinionated, showcasing light malt flavours with a hint of mountain flowers. Finishes dry and cries for the next sip to be taken. Serve with seafood, pork chops or pizza. ±4% ABV
Wildside Blonde [WB]: Modest fruity flavours, light, a touch prickly, and dangerously drinkable. A Belgian Blonde Ale in the abbey tradition, honey-gold in colour with a pillowy, white mousse, and a touch of hop spice. Paella, Moule Frite, Chicken Biryani. ±6.5% ABV
Woodcutters’ Weiss [W]: Classic Weizenbier (Wheat Beer) – Light, fruity flavours: subdued Banana, hints of candy, all balanced by a restrained, spicy overtone. Cloudy with yeast, spritzy with bubbles. A lovely Summer-day’s quaffer. ±4% ABV
Saisons in the Sun [SS]: French Farmhouse Ale. Fruity and earthy, finishing dry, with a thirst-quenching acidity. Light body and high carbonation make Saison ideally suited to serving cold on those hot late-Summer days we get in Bibbey’s Hoek – so much so that we don’t usually brew Saison during the Winter months. ±5% ABV
Millwood Gold [MG]: A Golden Strong Ale, rich in colour, flavour and mouthfeel. Silky balance of sweetness, fruitiness and floral aromas, a hint of spiciness for balance, and quite strongly carbonated. A very fine complement to fish grilled or fried, and to potatoes of any style. ±7% ABV
Don’t Worry, Be Hoppy
Outeniqua Rust [OR]: One of our most popular ales. A hoppy American Amber Ale. Amber coloured, with a sweet balance and plenty of fruity, citrussy hop flavours and pear/apricot aromas originating from a small locally-grown herbal addition. Less bitter than IPAs, much more sessionable, Outeniqua Rust plays exceptionally well with Thai curries and Mexican food. ±5.4% ABV
Bigfoot IPA [BF]: This one is for the American IPA fans. Classic American-hop flavours and aromas – oranges and naartjies and enough bitterness to make you sneeze (99.9 IBU!) all riding atop a lovely creamy base of malt with just enough sweetness for balance. This is not a beer for laying away – those hop oils last only a few weeks before they begin to fade, so drink up! Pair with Malva Pudding, Glazed Ham, green salads or Thai food. ±7.2% ABV – You’ve been warned!
Lemon Drop IPA [LD]: Another American IPA, somewhat dry with a balanced bitterness (70 IBU) and showcasing lemon and grapefruit flavours and aromas backed by a tropical-fruit supporting cast. My goal for Lemondrop was a greater drinkability, less of an all-out assault on the taste-buds – something a little less assertive than IPAs tend to be. A delicious Summer hop-bomb ideally suited to fish dishes, green salads and green curries. ±6.5% ABV.
Dark Secrets of the Forest
Suurvlakte Stout [S]: Black as shadows of the deep forest. Roasty and toasty, bittering coming as much from dark malts as from hops. This is a dry stout (so not to be compared to a Milk Stout). Smooth, somewhat creamy. A light floral note in the nose gives balance. Low-ish carbonation as is traditional in cask-conditioned ales. ±5% ABV
Dripkelders Dubbel [D]: Belgian Dubbel: a deep copper-coloured beer with a rich melange of stone-fruit flavours (plum, prune, raisin, cherry) backed by an almost-burnt caramel twist offsetting the sweetness in a unique combination. Finishes surprisingly dry and drinkable, making Dubbel one of the world’s classic beer styles. This beer will reward the patient: laying it down for a few years will only enhance the complexity and interest – five years is not too long. Never mind food pairing. Drink this one all by itself for a full appreciation! ±7.3% ABV
Portland Porter [P]: Dark, with just a hint of deep ruby glowing at its heart. Chocolatey malt flavours make this a heavenly pairing with puddings, and the touch of roastiness will play well with roasted and braaied meats and roasted root veggies.±5.3% ABV
Seasonals & One-offs
Beers celebrating the agricultural roots of our art, embracing the opportunities afforded by seasonal ingredients at the peak of their flavour and aroma, and yielding our desires to the implacable constraints of weather and our brewery’s limitations.
Shadows of Diepwalle [MD]: Classic Munich Dunkelbier, a dark lager made from 100% Munich malt: darker, roastier, intense malt flavour, lagered for a minimum of three months. Flavours of Milk Chocolate, finishing surprisingly dry. Smooth, creamy, malty and far too drinkable. ±5.2% ABV
North and South [NS]: A single-hop IPA featuring the Nelson-Sauvin hop from New Zealand. Clear, sparkling and bright amber in colour. All the firm, clean bittering you expect of an IPA, with the unique white-grape Sauvignon flavours that characterise the hops. An emminently sessionable IPA, excellent companion to fish dishes. ±6% ABV
Leeuwenbosch Lager [L]: Classic Bohemian Pilsner. Our once-a-year special in very limited quantities. Light, refreshing, with hay and summer flowers in the nose arising from the noble hops, underpinned by the grainy base of true continental malts. Simplicity is its own virtue. ±5.2% ABV
Beasterly Easterly [SA]: Take a Pilsbier. Amp it up with some seriously elegant hops. Refined bittering is far from an understatement, with clean, lime-lemon flavours from the oriental hops. This one-off Pils is well on its way to becoming a more regular offering. ±5% ABV
The Story
In the mid-19th Century gold was discovered in a narrow stream that runs through the indigenous forests of Knysna, and a gold rush was on. High in the foothills of the Outeniqua Mountains, a wild mining town named Millwood sprang into existence and pretty quickly featured one bank, two hotels and no less than three houses of ill repute.
One Englishman, Edward Bibbey, rather than join in the gold-prospecting frenzy, set up shop, supplying picks, shovels and sorting pans to the miners – a far more lucrative enterprise than actual gold mining. Bibbey’s store was astutely located at a convenient overnight stop for travellers undertaking the arduous and dangerous journey between Knysna and Millwood, making hostelry and innkeeping part of his thriving business.
In time the neighbourhood near this store became known as Bibbey’s Hoek, as it remains to this day despite local authorities doing their utmost to mangle the spelling of Bibbey’s name.
Of course every hotel needs a pub, and Edward Bibbey was not slow in catering to that demand. This evidently displeased local agents of the Crown Revenue, because a raid on Bibbey’s hotel took place and his still was destroyed by local law-enforcement. Legend has it that the contents of the still were spilled beneath an old Oak tree, which met its demise as a result. To this day no other tree will take root on that spot.
Bibbey’s Brauhaus honours Edward Bibbey’s enterprise and his commitment to serving thirsty working folk, and upholds this fine, time-honoured Bibbey’s Hoek tradition, celebrating its iconoclastic style and independent spirit.
