Unable to transport beer, Cape-based breweries wait it out with soup

The lockdown has hit brewers around the country hard, but one Cape Town-based collective has channelled its energies towards another cause, reports Mail & Guardian.

Under the current regulations, alcohol sales are not allowed and, with beer not being deemed an “essential item”.

‘Soup-A-Heroes’ unite in aid of the needy

The unprecedented turn of events has already seen the country’s largest brewing company, South African Breweries (SAB) do away with a whopping 25 000 litres of beer, after reaching the legal storage capacity.

Smaller brewers such as the Woodstock Brewery, the Drifter Brewing Company and Stellenbosch Breweries face no such threat, but have turned their beer vats to pots in order to feed the needy.

The three brewers have formed a collective and call themselves the “Soup-A-Heroes”.

Woodstock Brewery owner Andre Viljoen told the publication that they are looking forward to catching up once lockdown regulations have been eased.

“We know a couple of people were smart enough to stock up for a long lockdown and there are some who have offered to buy vouchers to support us, but we would rather sell beer again in the normal way when we are allowed to. There is time for that. For now, we want to focus on more pressing needs. And that is to produce soup and porridge for the immediate needs of the less fortunate.”

Andre Viljoen

Thousands of hungry mouths fed by Cape-based brewers

This initiative has reached around 9 000 people around Cape Town.

“The fact that on-consumption of beer and alcohol will probably be delayed a bit gives us time to wait it out a little and continue producing soup,” Viljoen added.

Andre Viljoen

While waiting it out, they have put their powerful 1 000L brewing tanks to good use for an even better cause, as they have been of great assistance to smaller soup kitchens that have been unable to produce meals at a large scale.

According to the Drifter Brewing Company’s Facebook each tank can feed up to 2 000 people.

Last week, SAB flushed away 400 million bottles worth of beer before obtaining a special permit which allowed the company to transport the bulk of their supply to other facilities.