The Brew Crew

- Michelle Coburn

“So, exactly who is this Joe guy?” you’ll ask when you walk into the Hey Joe Brewing Company taproom on La Brasserie farm in Franschhoek. His face appears on the signage, the gigantic black-and-white photographs on the walls, the figurines on the draught taps behind the bar counter, the labels on the bottles in the fridge … He’s clearly important. The owner? The head brewer? The head chef perhaps?

But then you’ll notice the woman behind the menu, Nicola Spilsbury, moving between the tables and chatting to guests. Petite. Blonde. Full of energy. Definitely no relation to the mustachioed fellow in the photos, tobacco pipe resting jauntily in the corner of his mouth. Then someone will point out Anja van Zyl, visible through the glass window as she goes about her business in the brewery. No, Joe is not the head brewer, either.

Dig a little deeper (okay, just search heyjoebrewery.com) and you’ll find that he is a fictitious character who, so the story goes, embodies the adventurous spirit that led to the founding of this Belgian abbey-style brewery in the heart of SA’s wine country. Three years in the making, it opened in April and, since news broke that both the Witbier and Blonde had won silver at this year’s African Beer Awards, everyone and their dog (yes, this is a canine-friendly zone) has arrived to sample the food and drink. (Nicola even makes a hondbier for your best friend. Made from beef and chicken extract, it’s alcohol-free, and, by all accounts, the four-legged foodies of Franschhoek are lapping it up.)

The accolades are still sinking in for owner Gavin McGrath. “Winning two major beer awards is a huge deal for us. We were up against 15 countries and 155 breweries from Gabon to Mauritius,