Since President Cyril Ramaphosa banned alcohol sales to help stop the spread of COVID-19, South Africans have turned to home brewing to quench the thirst. From vodka and ciders to even pineapple beer, there has been a significant rise of people creating their own alcoholic drinks in the comfort of their homes. CGTN’s Daniella Pearson reports.
At a time when South Africa’s Liquor industry is in dire straits–its not all doom and gloom for Frank van Wensveen.
Frank van Wensveen, Craft Beer Brewer: “The market has absolutely gone crazy. When the liquor ban was initially announced, we had people come into the shop in a panic and essentially buying everything in sight and a few weeks later the online orders on our website had grown out of control where we could barely deal with them anymore.”
Bars and off-licences in South Africa have been closed since late March– under a strict COVID-19 lockdown imposed by the government.
However the decision hasn’t stopped consumers desperate for alternatives.
From vodka, ciders to pineapple beer there has been a significant rise of people creating their own alcoholic drinks at the comfort of their homes.
“We’ve made home brews at school so it’s been there and people just have to do it in a safe way. There are sites where you can get the ingredients and the right procedures.”
While the a home beer brewing business is a boon for the likes of van Wensveeni, it is also coming at the expense of traditional purveyors of booze.
“Some of us, our religion believes on doing home brewed beer, going to the cemeteries, talking to our ancestors, the way we believed from the birth days, we couldn’t do that so it means like even our ancestors don’t matter anymore, our religion doesn’t matter anymore,” says, Frank van Wensveen.
With an easing of lockdown restrictions from June 1, alcohol sales will once again be permitted in South Africa, though under tight restrictions and only for home consumption.
Nonetheless van Wensveen says he won’t end his backlog, as he expects many of his new customers to stick with home brewing, whether as a new hobby or due to financial strains brought on by the pandemic.
