Western Cape, South Africa

Nick Smith and Amanda Addison literally carved out their place in the world of South African craft beers when they hewed their brewing space out in the four-foot-thick cement walls of the ancient Drakenstein Wine Makers Guild co-op building, just east of Paarl in the Western Cape.

Good luck brought Nick and Amanda together in the United States, where Amanda worked for an NGO and Nick for several large craft brewers.  Nick completed the Master Brewers Program at UC Davis, spent ten years in the US craft beer industry including time in brewing, distribution, and sales.

The two returned to Amanda’s home in South Africa to start Soul Barrel Brewing Co., and immediately began making an impression on the immature local craft brewing scene. The family welcomed its son “Jack” and its first bottling in the same year. The investment of time and love into both the family and the brewery are the markers of the success of both.

Nick is one of the initial founders of the Craft Brewers Association of South Africa. The Association is active in the regulatory space, the supplies and services supportive of the craft, and acts as a knowledge base, and clearinghouse of ideas for the craft.

Nick and the other founders then built the Beer Association of South Africa which is home to the mega-brewers. Nick acted as spokesperson for the Guild, making public appearances on television and in social media, authoring articles for the craft beer magazine, “On Tap,” and leading many of the educational initiatives intended to raise the awareness of skilful craft brewing.

Nick innovated the re-design of critical brewing equipment to “Africanize” it – using local artisans to construct vessels out of readily available materials. Nick even re-imagined the bottling technologies to make a MacGyver styled bottling line that actually delivered better dissolved oxygen numbers than the imported gear. Nick shares these economical innovations with great humility.

Through alliances with small format craft brewers Nick is helping dozens of brewers deliver a quality beer, maintain the cold cycle, and discover more cost-effective packaging to reduce market entry in the electricity challenged markets. These innovations and this enduring optimism for craft brewing as an occupation as well as an art is why Regina Mundi likes Soul Barrel Brewing Co.

Visit the Sould Barrel website at https://soulbarrel.co.za/.

View Nick’s LinkedIn page at https://www.linkedin.com/in/nick-smith-50727913/.

There are a number of media clips available, as well: