Bottoms up at intervarsity brewing competition

Quaffing a fine ale, lager or speciality beer is one thing, but creating an award-winning brew is quite another, brewers from UCT's Bioprocess Engineering Research Unit found.

Flying the UCT flag at the recent inaugural intervarsity brewing competition in Pietermaritzburg, two of the of unit's three offerings narrowly missed honours.

The competition, the first of its kind worldwide, is the brainchild of Ben Lamaletie, the trade brewer at SAB's Prospecton brewery in Durban.

UCT received a SAB microbrewery two years ago. The competition was hosted at UKZN, and participating universities included Pretoria, Wits, Northwest, and Stellenbosch.

Each team had to brew three beers: a lager, an ale, and a "speciality" beer.