Home - Soul Barrel

Who We Are

At Soul Barrel Brewing, we aim to create a world-class South African beer culture by brewing artisanal, innovative beer that reflects our time, place, and personality. We believe real beer is made with soul. Our brewing showcases our passion for local ingredients, hoppy ales, old world barrel fermentations and our uncompromising commitment to quality.
We believe beer is the greatest beverage in the world. Savouring an amazing brew can be a life changing experience. Our brewery exists to contribute to these epic moments.
The brewery is in the heart of the Cape Winelands outside of Franschhoek, built
within the old tank walls of the former Drakenstein Cooperative Winery.

Come share in our passion for brewing & celebrate beer made with Soul!

RAW MATERIALS

World-class craft beer starts with quality raw materials. A beer will only be as great as the potential provided by the ingredients. Most beer is made up of four ingredients: malt, hops, water, and yeast, although craft brewing traditions explore any and all ingredients in the quest for flavour and innovation.

Fruit, Fynbos & Spices

OUR BREWERY

Our brewery was built within the old Drakenstein Winery according to out custom design. Our brewing space layers over this unique historical place where beverages paying homage to the flavours of the region have been made for hundreds of years.
MILL, MASH TUN, LAUTER

All alcohol is the product of yeast consuming sugar and converting it into CO2 and alcohol. Alcoholic beverages differ regarding where that sugar source comes from and how it is processed. In beer, the sugar comes from cereal grain starch that we convert into sugar in a process called mashing.

This begins with milling the grain, which exposes the internal part of the grain and grants us access to this starch. We then mix the milled grain with hot water, which activates enzymes from the malt that convert the starch into sugar. This process takes about an hour. Once all the starch has been converted into sugar, we separate the sweet sugar liquid called wort from the husks and other grain remains. This is accomplished in a draining and rinsing step called Lautering. Our spent grain then goes to local farmers to be used as cattle feed.
KETTLE

Once we’ve collected all the sweet liquid in the kettle, we begin boiling. Centuries ago mankind discovered the beneficial properties of boiling which includes sterilization, evaporation, protein precipitation and isomerization of the hops. It is at this step that we add hops to contribute bitterness that balances sweetness from the malt. Once the boiling is done we cool the wort down and pitch the yeast!
HOPBACK, DRYHOPPING

At Soul Barrel we are insane about hops! While we add hops at different stages during boiling to add bitterness, flavour and aroma, we also add hops at the end of the boil during whirlpool, on the way to the fermenter in our custom hopback, and during fermenting and aging in a step called dry hopping. This enables us to capture the delicate aroma
CELLAR

Once the beer has been boiled and cooled, it is mixed with yeast in the fermentation tank. This is where fermentation begins. The yeast will consume the sugars and produce CO2, alcohol and flavour by-products. Our custom designed stainless-steel tanks are called cyndroconicals. Their unique shape enables us to ferment and age beer in the same tank. We have additional dedicated aging and dry hopping tanks, and we also employ a cellar of used wine barrels to explore wood aging techniques that merge winemaking methods with beer making experimentation.
OUR BUILDING

Our brewery lives within the tank walls of the former Drakenstein Winery located in the heart of the Cape Winelands in the Simonsberg-Paarl appellation of origin outside of Franschhoek. The cellars we brew within were built over 100 years ago! In 1906 the Drakenstein Winery was the second wine cooperative to be established in South Africa. After the winery closed in the mid-nineties these giant tanks were used as bulk storage for local wineries until we revived production here by creating Soul Barrel. This unique location provides history and character that is part of our identity and inspiration.

THE KREWE

NICK SMITH

Believes great beer will change the world. After attending the Master Brewers Program at UC Davis, he spent ten years in the US craft beer industry including time in brewing, distribution, and sales for Abita Brewing Company in New Orleans and New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, CO. In 2016 he embarked on a new adventure and moved to Cape Town to start Soul Barrel Brewing.

DEVIN HENDRICKS

Devin is a homegrown talent straight from Paarl. He believes the world of beer is full of adventure and excitement and is the greatest beverage in the world. His beer career started with our friends at CBC, which sparked his passion for brewing and led him to us. He aspires to grow the brewing community and be among the next generation of South Africa’s great brewers.

MARK GROENEWALD

An avid home brewer for many years while running an IT company working with wine and fruit farms, Mark is married into a 5th generation Simondium wine farming family. Starting a brewery in the old wine tanks has been an invigorating way to return the farm to a higher purpose, while building for the future of South Africa.

TAPROOM

VISIT US

Our beer is only available onsite at our taproom & beer garden, in bottles and growlers to go and in limited distribution. We believe in serving our beer as fresh as possible so our customers can enjoy the beer as intended. We do a number of limited releases and always seek to push the boundaries and try new flavours. Please come visit us at the brewery to try all the beers and see where we make it. The Brewery is located on the R45 in Simondium between Paarl and Franschhoek before the Klapmuts Rd. Look for the two big barrels on the road!

Check out our full menu of tasty beers HERE

TAPROOM HOURS:

Mon – Thur: 11 – 6pm | Fri: 11 – 7pm | Sat: 11 – 6pm | Sun 11 – 6pm

CELLAR TOUR AND GUIDED TASTING:

We offer an intimate tour and guided tasting of our cellar and brewery by our head brewer, getting an in depth experience of who we are and what our brewery is all about.

We offer a number of tasting options and routinely have a few limited release beers

Call or email to make a booking: nick@soulbarrel.co.za or 0836008716

Sign up for our newsletter where we’ll be sharing updates on fun events, beers, and in depth info around our brewery and beer culture. Go beer!

Owner’s Cell: +27 (0)83 600 8716

Email: nick@soulbarrel.co.za

TRADING HOURS:

Mon – Thur: 11 – 6pm | Fri: 11 – 7pm | Sat: 11 – 6pm | Sun 11 – 6pm

2017 SOUL BARREL BREWING COMPANY