Home Brewing in the Time of Covid-19
In the beginning, home brewing was a hipster trend that seeded an abundance of urban brewing companies and drove up demand for brew kits as hop-heads made vats of craft ale in their kitchens. Now, deep into a prohibition-style lockdown, South Africans are devising their own hacks for getting around the nationwide alcohol ban. In the time of Covid-19, home brewing takes on a disaster-style form better aligned to the doomsday prepper movement than hipster IPAs.
In a display of quintessential South African resourcefulness, home brewing became a solution to citizens’ mounting thirst during the extended alcohol ban. Many scrambled to stock up on highly fermentable ingredients like fruit juice concentrate, pears, apples, sorghum and sugar-rich pineapples. In-depth discussions sprang up on internet forums as people began comparing beer-making recipes and methods. Google Trends South Africa data show a marked increase for the search terms “beer” and “homemade beer recipe” over the lockdown period. An iconoclast at an unknown Spar store showed support for prohibition home-brewing with a rather irreverent display of unripe pineapples, sugar and yeast.