Dear Pirates Members and Friends
It is with great pleasure that I can announce the launch of the Pirates Craft Beer Club (PCBC). PCBC will follow the very familiar style of our successful wine club where every month we invite a different microbrewery to present their brews to our members. The brewer will conduct a brief tasting session through their various offerings, followed by an evening of camaraderie over a few ales (or weiss or pilsners etc). Song and dance is not guaranteed however is most welcome providing singers aren’t tone deaf and dancers are co-ordinated, although later in the evening the criteria may swop around.
This is currently a very unique concept in Johannesburg and at Pirates we are proud that we are at the forefront of allowing the microbreweries to come on a regular basis to market to a captive audience. Pirates will also be stocking craft beer from the various microbreweries that visit us allowing bar patrons to get their favourite brew at their favourite spot.
PCBC will occur on Thursdays in the first half of each month with the following dates confirmed for the balance of 2013:
- Thursday 15th August
- Thursday 12th September
- Thursday 10th October
- Thursday 14th November
Beer evenings will start at 7pm on each of these days in the Pirates Main Bar.
At this late stage of the year there is no membership payable however there will be a small fee for attendance R50.00 per person This fee will include your tasting beers (estimated around 100ml per brew) plus a light meal from the Pirates Grill. We will send out emails on a regular basis with details of the next tasting. In order to allow the breweries to accurately estimate their stock requirements we will be requiring people to RSVP at least a week prior to the tasting. Due to the size of the main bar we have to limit numbers to 120 people each evening and these will be filled on a first reply basis.
As the very familiar phrase states “The early bird catches the worm”.
It is not a requirement to be a Pirates member to attend these tastings so we encourage you to forward this email to all your friends, foes, family members and anyone else that you think may enjoy these evenings. Please ensure that we also get their contact details if they would like to be included on future mails. The main bar will also be open during the evenings so non-beer drinkers are more than welcome to join – in fact it may be a sneaky way to enjoy double the quantity of tasters if your partner prefers something else.
PCBC’s aim is to create an environment that fosters greater interest and appreciation in the world of brewing, we will thus also take any suggestions/recommendations on improvements that we can make, whether it comes from the brewers side or the drinkers side.
Information about our First Tasting – 15th August
We will be tasting Copperlake Breweries at our first tasting on Thursday 15th August
Some interesting facts about Copperlake
The reason Copper Lake Breweries started was out of the necessity for real beer.
They make a Dark lager (Schwarzbier), English Ale, Chocolate Stout, Light Lager, Pale Ale and Barley wine, they are all popular because they are all fantastic beers and people who enjoy beer like to change what they drink often to experience beer.
Brendan Watcham is the 2010 winner of the Worthogs best four beers league tasting 2010 award, a Brewing competition and is the first micro brewer in Africa to attain a diploma in brewing through the IBD (International Brewing and Distilling).
We will be tasting three different beers on the night and these beers will be available for sale after the tasting with a light meal
Please rsvp to Non at non@piratesrugby.co.za and if you have any suggestions or ideas about the actual tasting please contact Dave Case dcase@magwitch.co.za as he is the brain child behind this great initiative.
If you are unable to attend on the 15th August but would like to be on our mailing list for future tastings please send Non a mail.
Keep your mailboxes open for a continuous stream of exciting news from PCBC.
I hope all our members are as excited about the launch of the Beer Club as we are and we look forward to hearing from many of you.
Kind regards
Dave and Non
