DrinksWorld

In this episode, Rob Heyns shares the news that they have bought League of Beers, the popular craft beer subscription business, back from Yuppiechef.com.

In this episode, our guest is Craft Gin's favourite son, Glenn Bryant, co-owner of the Six Dog Distillery. Glenn shares their 5+ year journey with us. I have watched Glenn and his team closely over the last 5 years and love the way that these industry newcomers have focused on building relationships rather than rushing into outsourcing sales and distribution to third parties. A very good lesson for new brand owners.

Glenn has always wanted to create a product that is good enough to become a global brand. Six Dogs is already exported to 23 markets. During the liquor lockdown in South Africa, Glenn realised just how vulnerable and exposed they are to the local market, and we are very excited to hear that Six Dogs has opened a European office in the Netherlands. Following the example of the many "European Swallows", Glenn plans to work in the Netherlands during the European summers and in Cape Town during the South African summer. We wish Glenn and the Six Dogs team all the best in this exciting new venture and trust that their work will also benefit the South African craft industry as a whole. This podcast is available on your favourite podcast app https://pod.link/drinksbiz or on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC04XKk_DwOg2sxsQ9XZUBGQ Visitors are welcome but by appointment only. Reach out to them here: https://sixdogs.com/contact/ A visit to the distillery may just change your opinion of craft gin. Directions: https://g.page/sixdogsdistillery Listen to the interview with Yvonne Bittmann-Steyn, distributor of South African craft gin in Germany: https://open.spotify.com/episode/1kU6NrZENEDtVLvTzYvVQs

You can find more information about Luc Vannevel, the Belgian importer mentioned in the episode at https://www.elvama.be.

The Six Dogs Gin collection includes: Six Dogs Karoo Gin, Six Dogs Blue Gin, Six Dogs Pinotage Stained Gin and Six Dogs Honey Lime Gin with plans to launch a few more. Gerrit Visser, is heading up the operation in Europe: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gerrit-visser-57606b46

Follow the Six Dogs journey: https://www.facebook.com/sixdogsdistilleryhttps://www.instagram.com/sixdogsdistillery/

Carl Grossmann from Brackenhill Distillery in Waterfall, KwaZulu-Natal is our guest in this episode. I first met Carl when he was working on a project to import Malawi Gin. Carl fell in love with Malawi (Gin) when he was on an overland trip through that beautiful country. Malawi Gin is owned by a big conglomerate that did not want to grant exclusive distribution rights to anyone, so Carl moved on and now owns his own distillery.

Carl uses ancient heritage grain varieties as a basis for their gin, vodka and whiskey. His packaging, logos and labels also reflect his local roots. Umzuzwane, or lemon bush, a small, fragrant plant gives the gin a local flavour.

The distillery offers a very impressive gin making experience and also sells their products directly to the public. The distillery was recently featured on Inside Africa on CNN: https://edition.cnn.com/videos/tv/2021/03/11/inside-africa-craft-alcohol-beer-liquor-spc.cnn

https://www.brackenhillcraft.co.za/

Welcome to Drinksworld, a beverage industry podcast. Our guest is Elzette Marais owner and distiller of Majamela Distilleries in Polokwane. Polokwane is about 2 hours drive north of Tswane and about 2 hours drive from the Zimbabwe border. Polokwane is a thriving city that services the Limpopo province. Neels Marais started home distilling about 25 years ago. Recently his daughter Elzette caught the distilling bug and joined him in the little venture. Today Majemela is a fully licensed commercial distillery. The surrounding farmlands are very fertile and the father and daughter team distill whatever seasonal fruit they can get their hands on. Commercially they produce a range of gins as well as an alcoholic shake. This dairy-based ready-to-drink product is unique and definitely one of a kind in South Africa. Majamela is currently looking for distribution partners across South Africa. You can find more information at: https://www.facebook.com/flockingGin/https://www.facebook.com/MajamelaShakes/

A Beverage Industry Podcast with Holger Meier Today's guest is Ryan Williams the founder of Gydo.me. Gydo is a app the enables you to buy a frined a beer at his favourite brewery or winery.

A Beverage Industry Podcast with Holger Meier

Holger visits the Mhoba Rum Distillery on the Greaves Family Farm near Malelane Mhoba is a farm to bottle, hand-made sugarcane rum made on the Greaves Family Farm near Malelane in the Lowveld.

After trying to market and promote Mhoba in South Africa, the bulk of the Mhoba Rum is now exported to France. La Maison du Whisky, Mhoba’s partner is also the sole distributor of major whisky brands such as The Dalmore, Jura, Compass Box and Nikka.

Listen to my podcast interview with Robert Greaves on Pocket Casts or your favourite Podcasting App. We talk about authentic rum and ponder about ways in which we could help retailers in South Africa sell more rum. Robert has a very interesting story and is a mine of knowledge. Well worth a listen.

A Beverage Industry Podcast with Holger Meier

Holger visits Tanya Cruse at her new concept store, Gin & Co in the Casterbridge Centre in White River. Gin & Co is the home of Dollie Gin and Rottcher Winery. Gin & Co offers gin tastings as well as retail sales of local craft gin and rums.

A Beverage Industry Podcast with Holger Meier

Dario Scilipoti, the founder of Bluebird Coffee Roastery is our guest today.

Bluebird Coffee Roastery was awarded the coveted Best New Roastery award at the prestigious FNB Coffee Magazine gala event recently.

Dario talks about his journey and explains the technical aspects of roasting coffee. Coffee supply chain is very complicated and not very transparent. Dario hopes to change this.

The way that coffee is being traded around the world is really unsustainable. Coffee is often traded at below the cost price. The commodity price of coffee has actually decrease over the last 20 years.

As a roaster, Dario wants to support as supply chain that is sustainable.

Dario explains that the big brands are masters of consistency whereas the specialy brands are masters at offering a flavour experiences.

Dario explains: Third wave coffee - connecting the consumer directly with the coffee Gourmet Coffee - marketing term Specialty Coffee - rated at more 80 by Q-raters

Bluebird Coffe is available at: Hillcrest Kwikspar Salt Rock Coffee company

Rob Heyns is back, and explains to us how he is helping retailers find interesting solutions for their problems. We talk about getting funding and raising capital. Rob shares his vision about creating a canning "ecosystem" for his latest business, the TinyKeg mobile canning business. Variety at a good price rather than quantity at a good price, is the motto! Watch Building A Brand: https://youtu.be/mxgOY2Ms-YI

A Beverage Industry Podcast with Holger Meier

Podcasting time with John M Murray. John's long career in cider making has taken him to 83 countries around the world. John worked for HP Bulmer, once the world largest cider maker, for forty years.

In the 1980's John opened a cider mill in Elgin and in the late 1990's he was part of the team that opened the Bulmer SA cider plant in Centurion (situated next to the old Bavaria Brau brewery).