This month we took a drive down the coast to Pearly Beach located in the Overberg District Municipality in the Western Cape Province to talk to Stavros Pastellides from Whale Coast Brewing Co, about starting a microbrewery.
To add to their accolades and just to show they make excellent craft beer they took part in this year's African Breer Cup and won Silver and Bronze.
So, lets get on with the Q&A below with Stavros.
What inspired you to start a microbrewery?
We originally had no true intention of starting a microbrewery. My father in law saw the building in Pearly Beach for sale in 2016 and was a good investment opportunity. We then visited his friend in Montague who started Route 62 brewing company, and thought it was a fantastic idea, and would be something that Pearly Beach needed (a brew pub essentially). We then started the process of getting our licensing together and bought the microbrewery equipment in for the size of 300L, thinking that this is way to big for what we can offer, while we can hardly keep up with the production now. The equipment stayed locked up for 3 years, as then it was always going to be a pipe dream that we were going to start it up one day. We were staying in Somerset West at the time, and when lockdown hit, we decided to move to our holiday house in Pearly Beach. During that period we were obviously a bit bored, and decided to put the brewery together. It took myself, my father in law and my wife a few months, but we ended up coming right. We got more and more excited about the process and started implementing the kitchen equipment and getting the brewpub up and running. We officially opened our doors in April 2021, and could not be happier that we took this leap of faith.
How did you decide on the location for your microbrewery?
What were the initial challenges you faced, and how did you overcome them?
What kind of beer do you specialize in, and why did you choose this focus?
What are the challenges about obtaining the necessary permits and licenses?
Tell me about your brewing equipment and setup.
Tell me about your branding. Why Whale Coast Brewing Co?
What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own microbrewery?
How do you see the future of your microbrewery? Any plans for expansion or new beer, liquor offerings?
What has been the most rewarding aspect of owning and running your microbrewery?
Did you have any prior experience in brewing or the beer industry?
The only experience I had in brewing and the industry, was that I brewed home brew beer during my university days with my friends, and that I worked for Craft wheat and hops in Stellenbosch in 2014. This was where my love of beer started to develop. My father in law fortunately has a lab supply company, which helped with understanding the process of making beer, and my wife has a degree in marketing and business management, which helped with getting the business operational. Besides that, I had no prior experience, and we figured it out as we went along.
My wife and her family has had the family farm in Pearly Beach for many years, and we always felt that the area needed something more. Luckily a commercial building was available at the time, with the property next door being open for expansion. This made it a perfect opportunity for us.
I think any craft beer manufacturer will always have the main issue of licensing. This was one of the biggest challenges, and we originally applied for the license in 2018, and it was only approved in 2021. It is a long and slow process and one has to be very patient. But it is always worth it in the end. Our main challenge we are facing now, is that our system is to small for what we are offering and we're sometimes running out of beer and are unable to serve a larger market (i.e. more off consumption). The majority of our beer is consumed on-site.
We don't particularly have any kind of specialty beers. We offer a variety of different beers to suit all tastes and seasons. We have 7 beers permanently on tap & a rotational tap where we make single batch of beer to keep it exciting and gives us a chance to play around abit with something new or different. Sometimes it works out and sometimes not!
The biggest challenges when it comes to obtaining the necessary permits is the paperwork and the long waiting period. As well as having any type of objections which can come up from around the establishment. As we have residential areas next to the premises, this was one of our biggest set backs. However, as long as the paperwork is in order and you understand the requirements, everything should fall into place.
We have a 300L brew house with a total of 4x300L fermenters. We have a slightly more old school way of brewing, where we are not able to heat our mash tun during our mashing period, not allowing us to do step mashing. We understand this can give slight issues for certain styles, but we know how to work around it. We also have a 4 head bottle filler for our offsale consumption. We are able to make on average around 1800L a month with our current set up. We purchased our system with very little intention/knowledge but it has been very good to us.
The idea behind the name came from the Cape whale coast route. Pearly Beach is quite well known for whale watching, and we drew our inspiration from that. We kept our logo and branding simple and to the point. We are also fortunate in being the southernmost brewery in Africa currently.
I would always recommend in having all your paperwork in order and making sure you have a good business plan. It is easy to make good beer, but not easy to continuously sell good beer. Also always remember to keep it fun, as if you are having fun with your beer, your customers will as well.
We are currently in the process of expanding the brewery, by adding in some extra fermentors and a canning line to create more offsale for the business. The idea is to bring in 4x600L fermentors. We also have got a manufacturing spirit license, so we are planning on making some craft liquor as well, such as lemoncellos, cinnamon chilli liquor, gin and various other spirits.
One of the most rewarding experiences is the feedback from customers, of them stating that our beer has been one of the best beers they've had. It really makes the experience worth it. One of the other best aspects is that we trained one of the locals in the area to brew beer, and the beers have gone on to win some awards at the national beer trophy and the african beer cup.
Thank you for reading and make sure on your next visit down the whale coast to pop in at the Whale Coast Brewing Co.