Wildside TIMES #5

A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ST FRANCIS BREWING CO.

We chat to Lance and Linky Kabot about their business, their new lager and the move into new premises next year.

Tell us how it all came about...

We started St. Francis Brewing Co. in 2014 as an American-style brewpub. The plan was to brew beer on-site for local consumption. The first season was a wake-up call to how much beer could be consumed locally! We went four times through our brewery’s capacity and had to scramble to source beer from other breweries. We managed to keep up in the quieter months. Still, the following season was looming. Lance approached his friends at the Devils Peak Brewing Co. They had expressed interest in contract brewing our beer recipes as Lance had 3 award winning beers at that stage. Today the DPBC are shareholders in St. Francis Brewing Co., brewing and distributing 3 of our beers country-wide.

How are you guys connected to St Francis?

Linky’s grandfather, Dr Wells, bought a property on the Kromme river in 1950 and built a fishing shack out of packing cases (The Rat & Bat). His four daughters now each have a house on this land. As a result, the family Christmas holidays can have as many as 60 people, mostly getting along together!

How did you guys end up here?

Lance & I moved here in 2013 after his surf accident at Seal’s beach. He broke his neck in a wipeout, blacked out, and got pulled out of the water by fellow surfers. Fortunately, he was resuscitated by two trauma surgeons that were miraculously on the beach. The first thing he asked for on coming around was a beer! We decided it was time for changes, so we sold the home décor business we owned in Hermanus.

I joined my friend, Maria, at Shakti Shanti and Lance home-schooled our son Makai while he recovered.

He broke his neck in a wipeout, blacked out, and got pulled out of the water by fellow surfers.”

How did Lance end up making beer?

We spent 7 years travelling after university, working jobs to earn enough money to go surfing and snowboarding. Being passionate about beer, Lance worked at several breweries in the 1990s when the craft beer revolution was gathering momentum in Europe and the USA. He learned a lot and continued home brewing as a hobby on our return to SA.

When did you realise that Beach Blonde was a great beer?

Lance and I drank plenty of them, but the 5 National Beer Trophy awards confirmed we had good taste!

Then a restaurant.

We started brewing in Tarragona road but soon realised that retailing your own beer was the best way to make money. Fortunately, I had worked in many restaurants on our travels and had a good idea of managing one.

How did you find the current location?

We were at the St. Francis market, which used to be in the Tennant centre, and noticed the empty space had a nice kitchen and great potential for a brew pub.

Your venue identity has evolved into good, rocking, live music. How did this happen?

Music was a big part of the brewpub scene in the USA. The pubs were often a natural hub for the community and always a vibey place to go. We wanted to recreate that in St. Francis, so we started with live music and teamed up with Mike from Rock Lily for a while. Today we are on the touring circuit for bands; many say St. Francis is one of their favourite gigs.

The future: New location, new lager. As much as we love our current location, we have outgrown it, so when the opportunity arose to buy next door, we jumped at it. We can now make long-term plans you can’t make when renting, like investing in a specialty brew house for seasonal and speciality beers. We can also host bigger /more famous bands as we will have the space to make it viable for them.

Beach Blonde is a beer in the American Blonde style. It can be brewed either as an ale or a lager. Lance started it as an ale because lagering equipment is expensive and high-tech. Our deal with DPBC was that we had to grow Beach Blonde volumes to 100,000L a year before they would allocate lagering tanks to brewing it. We have hit that volume, so we are excited to introduce the Beach Blonde Lager this December – even more refreshing and crisp than the Ale!