Beer Blogger: Nick Mulgrew

For a more personal perspective on craft beer culture we sought out beer blogger and general ale enthusiast Nick Mulgrew.
Born in Durbs but currently based in Cape Town, Nick is a fairly new but passionate member of the beer blogging community. His blog Suip, includes reviews of locally and internationally brewed beers, as well as beer-related recipes, products, news and events.

Q: What do you love about beer?
A: Oh, just about everything! I love beer’s innumerable styles, colours and flavours; its ability to be either a R6 can in a cooler box at a braai or a R60 bottled testament to craftsmanship; its versatility with food; its effects as a social lubricant – I could go on for ages. I guess the two main things are that, one, it tastes great and, two, it requires a great amount of practical skill and patience to correctly make it. I think those are two things that a lot of us lack in the Information Age, and I like the way they’re embodied in the ethos of brewing beer.

Q: When did you realise that you wanted to experience more than the mass-produced local beers?
A: I’ve always liked trying new beers. When I used to go to Splashy Fen Music Festival as a young(er) adult, I enjoyed the craft beers on sale there. I always wanted to try something new when I saw it. I suppose what really got me into craft beer was a good buddy of mine who emigrated to South Africa from Texas, and he started getting me into properly understanding craft brewing and different beer styles. It was then that I started to get excited about craft beer in South Africa.

Q: On a journey of beer enlightenment, where does one begin?
A: Just like anything else, I suppose: trying new things. There is such a wealth of microbreweries and beer events in South Africa (even away from the major cities) that something new to explore is always within reach. Find what you like and go from there: read blogs, visit different pubs and speak to people. Beer people love talking about beer, so never be shy to strike up a conversation with an enthusiast.

Q: What elements are important when tasting a craft beer?
A: There are a few main things. Your basics are; tasting for maltiness, bitterness and different flavor notes. It’s a lot like tasting wine, except typically beer’s flavor notes are a lot easier for a novice to pick out than wines. Obviously things like honey ale will actually taste of honey and a kriek or a framboise will taste like cherries or raspberries. Everything worth drinking will taste like something else in addition to malt and hops.

Q: How does someone uneducated tell the difference between a lager and a pilsener for instance?
A: For someone who isn’t very interested in beer, it’d be a hard stretch to tell the difference between a lager and a pilsner, especially because South Africa’s biggest lager brand and biggest pilsner brand taste pretty similar! Perhaps the easiest way to tell beer styles apart is the colour: pale ales are bronze, pilsners are golden, and stouts are almost black, and so on. Strength is also taken into consideration, so you can say that bocks are stronger than porters, which are stronger than brown ales. You can also get into differences between top-fermented and bottom-fermented beers, different roasts of malt and different hops, but that generally comes along with understanding the different styles and how they are brewed relatively well.

Q: Why do you think SA is experiencing an upsurge in the growth of micro-breweries?
A: South Africa has always had a big beer brewing culture. People have been brewing beer here commercially for hundreds of years, and people in rural areas have been brewing things like umqombothi and utwala for, well, nobody really knows how long. As far as microbrewing goes, though, I think it’s a knock-on effect of a surge in microbreweries and beer culture in places like the United States and New Zealand. More people are going overseas and spending more time on the Internet, and they get turned onto the fact that beer is a complex and rewarding interest. Another interesting thing is that artisans and foodies are realising that South Africa has characteristics that makes it exciting to brew beer here, so you’ll find people here who make beer with marula fruit or honey, or trying out new techniques adopted from different cultures. South Africa is known for its wine; beer offers us something different.

Q: What are the main differences between mass produced beer and craft beer?
A: Mass-produced beer, like the ones you see being sold by SAB and Namibian Breweries, (Castle, Hansa, Windhoek, etc.) are scientifically brewed on a colossal scale. The biggest breweries in South Africa produce upwards of 20 million litres of beer a day. It’s beyond imagination. Their products are the result of studies on profitability, production efficiency and market research. As such, they’re cheap and consistent, but the beers aren’t as exciting as they should be, and generally they don’t come in a great amount of styles.

Craft beer is usually brewed by smaller breweries, (I say “usually” because SAB also do craft beers from time to time) and are made in innumerable styles, from bocks to pilsners, from porters to Indian Pale Ales. They’re localised, which means they have a sense of place and are only available in certain parts of the country, or even only from the brewery in which they’re brewed. Their quality ranges from extraordinary to extraordinarily poor. As the name implies, it’s a craft, so it requires experience, patience and a great amount of skill, and results vary from brewer to brewer.
People sometimes demonise mass-produced beers. I think that’s silly: mass-produced beers have a huge part to play, especially in this country where most people can’t afford craft beer. The amount of time, effort and money that goes into the technology and science behind a beer like Castle Lager is unreal. SAB, for better or worse, is part of South Africa’s history, and to malign its existence would be misguided.

Q: What made you decide to start writing about beer?
A: Simply because I’d like more people to know how great beer is. Humans brewed beer before they had organized religion, competitive sports or written literature. It’s something ancient and complex and, above all, incredibly fun. If I can convince people of that, I’d be very pleased with myself.

Q: On your beer journey so far, which beverages have impressed you most?
A: There’s this brewery in Port Alfred called The Little Brewery on the River that I wrote a piece about a while back. It’s not the biggest place, and their beer, while very good, isn’t mind-blowing. The spirit behind it, however, is. They brew in the old Port Alfred harbourmaster’s office and warehouse and have a beautiful brewpub next door. Their master brewer is a 72-year-old former SAB chief brewer who smokes fat cigars at 9 a.m. History oozes from every crack in its old stone walls. It’s a very special place. If you’re ever in Grahamstown, Bathurst, Port Alfred or Kenton-on-Sea, you must try their Coin Ale or Kowie Gold Pilsner. You can only get them in those four towns and, to me, they represent what craft beer is all about.
As far as individual beers go the ones that stand out are Robson’s West Coast Ale, Darling’s Bone Crusher and Hook Norton’s Double Stout.

Q: Is it acceptable to get drunk on craft beer or is it considered bad form?
A: It’s not bad form at all, but only as long as it’s a by-product of enjoying beer! I think beer gets a bad rap because people generally drink it to get drunk, and not to enjoy it. Without enjoyment behind it, alcohol is just something that damages your body. But the thing that sets alcohol apart from other substances is that its main concern is to be tasty. Without that, it has little to give you other than a headache and a belly.

Q: Craft beers are generally more expensive than average beers. How does a real beer aficionado afford to drink the good stuff? Do you budget for good beer?
A: Generally, you need less craft beer to feel completely satisfied than you do with mass-produced beers. Also, craft beer is decidedly a middle-class pursuit in this country, so most people who are very enthusiastic about it generally have little problems affording it. That said, prices from SAB have been going up substantially in some bars, so sometimes you’re just as well paying those few extra bucks for something different.

Q: Of the major beers in SA, which do you consider to be the tastiest?
A: My go-to beer is Hansa Pilsener, just because it’s readily available, relatively tasty and very easy to drink. Castle Milk Stout is probably the tastiest of major South African beers, though. It’s deep and complex, and it has a lot of flavour notes that appeal to the mass market, like coffee, cacao and caramel.

Q: If you were to create a signature beer, what kind would it be and what would you call it?
A: I would like to say that I would like to attempt something interesting like a rauchbier or a fruit lambic, but I’d probably just go for a malty, malty stout that I could call The Dude and enjoy at home with my mates while watching films starring Jeff Bridges. I have simple tastes, really.

Paul and Tracy Raphaely

Izimvo is honoured to introduce the husband and wife team behind NoMU, Paul and Tracy Raphaely.

NoMU, first started by Tracy in December 2000, produce a range of food products from their factory in Cape Town. Currently available in 38 countries, NoMU has grown to become a brand known for its quality and high impact, innovative packaging.

Website: http://www.nomu.co.za
Location: Cape Town

Paul and Tracy were kind enough to answer the following questions for us:

Personal

Q: The all important personal profile. How would a close friend introduce you at a social event? i.e. Name, age, company, interesting fact etc.

A: This is Paul and Tracy. They make their living flogging and exporting food across South Africa and to 38 countries. He’s 34 and she’s not telling. They have a cute kid called Joseph with another on the way and while Tracy says her baby is the most beautiful boy in the world (obviously), Paul says he takes after their two mongrel dogs; Tag and Izzy. Tracy wants Paul to become a farmer and learn how to cook. Paul wants Tracy to let him go back to Kung Fu eventually…

Q: Tell us something that not many others know about you. This could be anything from a phobia to your favorite movie.

A: Even though we are mocked endlessly for moving to the ‘Burbs (to be close to schools), secretly we actually love it and Paul delights that his friends now call him “Lawrence of Suburbia”.

Q: What do you enjoy doing when you want to get away from it all?

A: Absolutely anything that involves proximity to the sea and our dogs.

Q: How would you describe your dream home and where in South African would you like it to be?

A: A completely private and very simple beach house, overflowing with books, beds, hammocks and couches, with an unobstructed view of the sea but still close enough to Cape Town to be practical but also far enough away still to be “away from it.”

This question was proudly sponsored by Private Property

NoMU

Q: Can you tell us about the impetus for starting NoMU and share some of the companies biggest milestones?

A: We are AWFUL employees. Therefore entrepreneurship was sort of unavoidable. Tracy had been a caterer too. She was bored of the stresses of commercial cooking and decided that she actually wanted a deli or a specialized food shop of some kind. We both came up with the name by accident and we felt it was worth field testing it as a brand on its own instead. Somewhere between then and now, it became an actual business.

In terms of milestones:

Our first export order was a big one and that came within our first year of trading. When we realized that after 5 years we suddenly needed to finance and build a factory of our own and then taking that plunge. That wasn’t easy…

Almost losing it all to a large export client who went under with a lot of cash still owing to us. That was a lesson in ‘never again.’

Winning an International design award for our Vanilla Paste at the SIAL Food Fair in Paris in 2006.

Securing Private Label contracts with Woolworths at the end of 2008 was a huge success for us and would prove critical in the following two years.

Q: What were the greatest challenges you faced when starting NoMU in 2000?

A: Being a married couple – finding a way to preserve the fun and the magic of the relationship while facing all the predictable pressures has been our biggest challenge. We have developed some quite effective coping mechanisms.

No cash has always been a big problem. We have done our best to try and function with what we have had available. This has meant we have had to temper our dreams as we have gone along but that was also part of growing up. Finally, we have always created products for ourselves and so the emphasis has been on quality or ingredients and packaging. This has left nothing for actual marketing and so spreading the word about our range has always been the most difficult and challenging aspect to what we do.

Q: What advice would you give young entrepreneurs starting out with little more than a dream?

A: Just to make sure that before they start, they must know 100% that they are passionate about their dream. If you have passion then the work-ethic will flow and with that, you get practice and from practice you get success. Besides, people respond to people with dreams, when it’s convincing – it’s hard to turn people like that away and doors will often open.

NoMU Gift box

Q: NoMU makes use of very distinctive, environmentally friendly packaging. Just how important is packaging for a brand?

A: Critical to a brand like NoMU. It depends on the brand obviously. In our case you can’t see, touch, taste, feel or smell our stuff and yet we are also asking you to pay a significant premium for what we tell you is the best quality. It’s a lot to ask.

If the packaging didn’t do all of that work for us in convincing the consumer, we would be dead in the water. What people often forget is that even their service is part of their packaging and a drunken plumber is less likely to get repeat work than a sober one.

Ultimately we are all just sales people and everyone is selling something. Packaging of a service is everything.

Q: Besides your popular monthly recipe mailer, which other forms of online marketing have you used? Which of these have been the most successful?

A: We rely very heavily on our website and we also try to work as closely as we can with various online foodie authorities to secure their endorsement for their brand.

Social networking and online marketing in our view is quickly becoming one of the most decisive and important methods of generating meaningful buzz and ‘stickiness’ for brand. That said, our Recipe Mailer is now going out to over 12 200 people and so this gives us an enviable reach and direct access to our consumers.

Q: Paul, joined you at NoMU as Marketing Director. What is it like working with a spouse and would you recommend it to other married couples?

A: Absolutely not. Paul and I refer to our professional relationship as “conveniently codependent”, it works for us because of who we are and we have a lot of need and mutual respect for one another’s contributions to the business. It is a fairly lucky combination though and the simple fact though is that if we could, we would never work together. It can get a bit blurry sometimes and we will be the first to admit that it must be AWFUL for our staff sometimes…

Q: What can we look forward to from NoMU?

A: Who knows really? The brand is still an enigma to us. Let’s just say there’s a lot of flexibility and potential there. A lot! Stay tuned to this radio station…

Life in South Africa

Q: Have you or any of your immediate family been affected by crime? If yes, has it changed your perception of the country and the way you and your family live your lives?

A: Ah, the crime question. Yes we have but also No – it has not changed our perception. We don’t live with blinkers on and we all understand the risks and exercise due caution and vigilance to do our best to make sure nothing will happen. Eyes open, eyes front, chin up etc.

Q: Have you ever considered emigration? If yes, where do you think you would emigrate to?

A: Yes but fleetingly. We are both far too committed and in love with South Africa. This is our home; this is where we will stay. We can’t comprehend of a life anywhere else, nor would we want to.

We are lucky though; in so many respects perhaps our attitude is a bit spoilt. There are many millions of South Africans with many more justifiable reasons than we have to leave or to be angry.

The best thing for Paul and I to do right now (we think) is just to shut up and get on with helping to do our best to preserve the promise of a New South Africa. That’s the least we can do for everything we have just been given already, which is a lot.

Q: If you could, with the wave of a magic wand, change one thing about South Africa, what would it be?

A: Hard question. There is a lot we would do but how about new legislation that at the end of only a SINGLE allowable term in office, our leaders would always be put on trial to review their time in office?

Their performance would need to be viewed dispassionately in light of their failures and successes and only if they win that “trial” would they then be entitled to any state remuneration or succor. No guaranteed pension, no spousal benefits and the possibility even of imprisonment if the job wasn’t done right. A nice, clean, Spartan solution to making sure the right kind of person gets the job who really wants it and understands the risks and the benefit.

Q: To which three attractions would you first take an international visitor?

A: Make them climb Table Mountain – the hard way.

Make them spend a night in a township B&B. Any one.

Take them to Robben Island and make them stand in Madiba’s cell, just to prove a point worth proving and then directly off to Caprice for cocktails just to underline the whole experience.

Q: South Africa’s greatest export is?

A: Probably Madiba’s lessons in forgiveness.

Life in Cape Town

Q: What do you enjoy most about living in Cape Town?

A: That everywhere you look (almost) is simply beautiful. We never get sick of it and we never take it for granted.

Q: Favorite kid-friendly restaurant in or around Cape Town?

A: Our personal, parental favorite after a walk on Noordhoek Beach on Sundays has to be Café Roux. It doesn’t get much better than that.

Q: How have you found running your own business in Cape Town?

A: Cape Town is fine but once again, we will be the first to say that we have been lucky. Power supply was only an issue for a relatively short time and because we have been growing based mainly on export business, we have been able to take most of our frustrations out on doing business with other countries actually. Other than that, we feel that Cape Town is also the foodie and publishing capital of the country and so it has been useful to be so close to the herd if you know what we mean?

General

Q: If you could invite any three South Africa’s to dinner, who would you invite and what would you prepare?

A: Madiba – because we love his significance. We would cook anything he wanted, no matter what.

Helen Zille would get our Seafood curry because we know she’s partial to curries and we like our dinner guests political and inspiring.

This last one is technically impossible but we would have loved to make David Ratray the best Poytjie he has ever had. So sad.

Q: If a genie granted you three wishes, what would be your first?

A: 1) No more short-term debt please. That would be nice.

2) That our children will always be safe and happy.

3) That we could utterly erase from modern memory, ALL of the three most recent Star Wars movies. Oh, and the last Indiana Jones movie too please.

Q: One book that you would make required reading for all matric pupils?

A: Gates of Fire by Steven Pressfield.

Q: Favorite South African brand?

Q: Um, NoMU I guess – we live our brand and we believe in it but apart from that we can’t exist without Mrs. Balls. However to be fair we are also quite partial to Goldfish and the Dirty Skirts: both great brands in their own right.

We’d like to thank Paul and Tracy for taking the time to answer our questions and wish them and the team at NoMU every success for the future. Be to sure to visit their website and lookout for their wonderful products at you nearest retailer.