James' Story

I grew up in South Africa and went University in Cape Town, where I studied Microbiology and Zoology. Once I completed my undergrad degree, I applied for Law and to become a brewing trainee at South African Breweries and let fate decide…I got accepted into both! I figured I enjoyed drinking beer so much, it would probably be a good idea to learn to make it rather than defend the world at law, so I joined SAB in Cape Town in 1999.

My brewing traineeship was for 2 years, during that time I qualified with my Diploma in Brewing from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (UK), Winning the top candidate award in Africa and also winning the prized ‘Top Brewing Trainee’ at SAB. From there I spent the next 7 years in different brewing positions at different locations in SAB in South Africa. I qualified with my Master Brewer qualification from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (UK) during this period. I left SAB to start my own brewing consultancy in South Africa for a year before rejoining SABMiller at their head office in the UK. My role was to design and build their global research brewery, based at the University of Nottingham. I ran the brewery for a couple of years, studying my MSc in Brewing Science at the University of Nottingham at the same time, winning the top student award and passing with Distinction. I became a Chartered Scientist through my brewing experience and went on to win the ‘Young Brewer of the Year’ award from the Institute of Brewing and Distilling (UK) in 2011. I moved back to the Woking head office and took a role as a Global Brewing Consultant, focusing mainly on innovation - technology, process and liquid as well as working on a few global brewing strategies for SABMiller.

Once ABInbev took over SABMiller, I decided it was the right to follow my dream and start my own craft brewing company and launched the first beer in June 2017. The beer has now gone on to win three awards, including awards from The Beer Awards, Great taste and the International Beer Challenge.

One of my biggest inspirations was my dad. He had been one of the executive directors at SAB in South Africa and so I had always been around beer...I even brewed beer for my school science project! My dad retired before I joined the company, but he gave me sound advice - “People will always drink beer. They will celebrate or commiserate over a beer and friendships are born and strengthened over a beer. Its the most popular alcoholic beverage in the world and if you become a brewer, you can work anywhere in the world.”