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Keg King Goes Cowboy

After a little hiatus, the Kings Club returned with a bang at the Kitchen Cowboys venue in Woodstock for a beer tasting competition.

The afternoon started with the customary couple of draughts poured form the Keg King Dispenser. With a fantastic range of local, imported and craft beers to taste (16 in total), there were some frantic scribbles to help identify the beers during the tasting. For some it was all too much and the joy of having that many beers proved too enticing.

Finally it was time to take places and start with round one. 5 beers were ushered out, with a sixth wildcard thrown in. The round resulted in some pretty good scores. Im not sure if it was the result of having a second go at tasting all the beers again, but as the next two rounds were ushered out, things definitely went south for some!

Final score were tallied and it was left to Slinky and Schalk to fight it out in the final taste off, but not before some legendary Kitchen Cowboys fillet steak rolls to line the stomach. The final was a wildcard, which if identified, would result in a winner being declared. Well Slinky managed to sneak in and take home the prize of a mixed box of all the beers tasted.

Drinks at Slinky’s place I think! Next round of the King’s… and Queens Club is a celebration of St Patricks Day in true Irish style. Think Guiness and Pub Crawl! A limited number of T-shirts will be available for this special edition Kings Club, so get in early.

Until next round, bottoms up!

First Kings Club Meeting Report:

There aren’t too many times in your life when you wake up every morning for a week excited beyond belief in anticipation of an event. We can categorically say that the lads here at Keg King felt this way before the first Kings Club meeting at SAB’s Newlands Brewery.

In the build-up to the event there were a flutter of comments on Twitter, Facebook and SMS to add to the excitement. A number of dodgy sick notes were arranged by the office bound workers, lift clubs and taxi’s were booked, and there were even rumours of hotel rooms being booked in case too much of the golden liquid passed the lips, after all, there were great thirsts that needed to be quenched.

And so the day arrived for the first “official” Keg King Kings Club meeting. Upon realising we hadn’t actually told anyone invited where to meet, Fordie and I decided to split up, me waiting at our final destination Caveau, and Fordie waiting at the Brewery.

The first bunch of thirsty guys arrived at Caveau and quickly ordered a round of Grolsch draughts, halfway through these we were told the rest had arrived at SAB, so we had to finish them in a hurry. Not one person even batted an eye when told this, we all promptly polished off the remaining beer and like a rugby team on its way out of the tunnel at Newlands started up the road towards SAB.

Upon arrival and after all the introductions to each other, Denis Da Silva our host and SAB Master Brewer, told us we all needed closed shoes to do the tour (apparently athletes foot can affect Black Label). Everyone looked down at each other to see why he had said that and noticed two people sans shoes, one being able to be rectified pretty easily with a pair of boots from Denis, however the other culprit was 6 foot 8 inch Rob Armstrong and his size 19 shoe. Some hasty thinking and we managed to fashion a pair of shoes out of an old canoe that was on display (tight fit) and headed off on the brewery tour.

The Newlands Brewery is truly world class, with a mix of historical features from yesteryear to the current state of the art production line. What a privilege to have Denis show us how things work, from the ingredients, to the trapping of CO2 for use in bottling. The brewery amazingly is one of the only to still use natural spring water, captured fresh off the mountain form behind Forries. A couple of interesting facts Denis told us were that the drivers are all “owner driver/shareholders” in their trucks and therefore self employed, creating a fantastic culture of entrepreneurship and buy in from them. Apparently the buildings are even eco friendly and they plant their own vegetables for use in the canteen. Most importantly, the myth of preservatives and additives was also dispelled and the few non-believers were quickly silenced with the facts form the Master brewer himself!

As the tour ended and Denis led us down to the fantastic Letterstedt pub situated in the bowels of the Old Brewery. At this point, the excitement and thirst was palpable, with the lads ready to taste the real thing, having just seen the product being made.

We started off pouring Peroni and Black Label draught from the portable Keg King draught unit, followed by some Pilsener Urquell. When the question was asked if anyone would like to go through a tasting of all the other beers, a resounding “No, let’s just drink now” was heard! At this point each attendee was presented with a limited edition Kings Club Beer Glass to drink out of. These are only available to those who attend King Clubs gatherings and will be given out at each event in the future. A great reason to join we think!

Tank Lanning was forced to let others use the tap as he had been hogging it for some time. Dax Villaneuva had become enthralled by Denis’ passion for Pilsener Urquell and a general great vibe was palpable. There were even a few meeting and other functions that got hastily re-arranged. As last rounds were called in the Lett (they actually thought the brewery might run out of beer if we stayed) we moved along to Caveau for snacks and more beer.

For a bunch of guys that had never met each other before, everyone got on like a house on fire. (Pardon the pun Jan Braai - National Braai Day Founder). Some great food to pair with plenty of Grolsch Draught was served, followed by few Cigars. Most notably, new friendships were made, business cards swapped, t-shirts were bought (thanks Beermonkey), and everyone ended up as happy as the proverbial pig. Taxis were summoned whilst others continued to quench their thirsts. The night ended and with it a wonderful first Kings Club meeting and a certainty that the most passionate beer drinkers had just gathered to experience all things beer!

Details of the next meeting will be published for members shortly. Details will also be made available for new members wishing to join us in the future. Until then……..Down the Hatch!