Beer education and entertainment
NEWTOWN – Museums tend to struggle in terms of visitors, but the SAB World of Beer sees many visitors each day who come for an enriching history lesson.
The SAB World of Beer in Newtown offers to entertain and educate visitors on a daily basis with their history and beer-making tour. The tour is highly informative and interactive with different stages of the beer-making process.
Operations supervisor Felicia Mokhehle said that in terms of visitors, the museum is doing very well. “The City tour bus helps us out a lot as we are one of their stops,” she said. The museum has daily tours that start at a replica of ancient Egypt. Mummies and rock corridors show how Ancient Egyptians were some of the first people to brew beer. It is believed that the Egyptians used beer to baptise their children.
After being in Egypt, the Pyramids change into African huts and visitors have a chance to learn the art of traditional beer making and enjoy a taste. Beer was also very popular in Europe. Mokhehle said that Germans drank beer out of mugs with lids as they believed that flies also enjoy beer very much. The Greenfields show the growing process of barley and hops, two critical ingredients in beer.
The history part of the tour finishes in 1900s Johannesburg. Mokhehle explained that mine workers in Johannesburg were very thirsty after work and the need for bars and shebeens was very high. Visitors also get to see Charles Glass’s office, the founder of Castle Lager beer. Apartheid-era Soweto is also on display and shows how the term ‘shebeen’ originated.
After a history lesson, visitors are taken to the brewery to see the mash tun where the ingredients are mixed. The SAB World of Beer won the best tourist attraction in 2009 and 2011.
Details: SAB World of Beer, 011 836 4900.
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