Obakeng Malope is a filmmaker and a beer brewer in South Africa. She has launched a campaign called Beer is Art. Beer is art has received incredible support from Belgium, United States of America, Canada and Asia namely India and now Singapore.
They have partnered with Civilization Brewing co in Singapore and Craft Brew Asia in Singapore What is Beer is Art? An individual may ask him or herself. The youth over the age of 21 are sitting at home unemployed in South Africa.
The campaign teaches about beer, that beer is not something that you drink and get drunk off. They teach beer and food pairing, brewing, licencing, beer podcast and starting your own beer brand. They show the youth that they can turn beer into a career.
The students don’t have funds to pay for beer education, how they are going to sustain this it is through having beer documentaries and reality shows that will sustain and maintain the project. Beer is art saw an economic situation of poverty and they see it being solved by beer. In communities whereby people are poor beer is abused they want beer to go to those same communities and empower them through entrepreneurship
For an individual to start talking about beer you need to have certain level of consciousness within yourself they said. You will understand that your roots are intertwined with beer. Beer is deep, beer is spiritual beer is our DNA. They relate beer being art to the drawings that were left on the caves by the Khoisan. The Khoisan drew paintings on the caves to tell a story, a story of how they are living , what happened so that the next generation can read the stories that they left for them and get to know who they were and know their roots. Beer is telling a story, the beer that we make now it is not the beer that they will be making in the next 200 years.
The people who will be living in those times will be using the beer that we are making this time the history that we are making as reference. They will learn about the aromas that we prefer and the tastes that we prefer. Some of the national resources that we are using now will be extinct or would have evolved. They will read the stories that we have left for them and learn what kind of people we were what are our likes and dislikes and the barley, hops we used to harvest and our water quality that is influencing our beer.
A lot of people might have not been in America but what they know about the United States of America , is that when you pitch your idea be it business or philanthropy they find 30 ways to make that idea work unlike some places whereby they will give an individual 30 reasons why that idea will never work. In a nutshell it is a place to be if you are an ambitious person.
United States of America is the backbone of beer is art. Beer is art is struggling to get financing and they exhausted their savings.
Torque brewery, an award winning brewery from Canada is doing a collaboration brew for beer is art. The beer is going to be released in January 2023. The beer is a saison, the interesting part about this beer is the label on the can, the label bears the actual paintings on the cave walls that the Khoisan tribe drew many years ago. It is a theme beer is art prides its brand with.
They pay their respects to the first South Africans to walk their land. The Khoisan used the resources of the land to survive. They could cultivate the land for medicine and food. The concept beer being art is deep; they owe their being to the hills and the valleys, the mountains and the rivers, the seas and the ever changing citizens that define the face of their native land South Africa.
Beer is Art speaks to that, they are hoping to make a beer that is natural with the resources and herbs that comes from nature. They want the taste that takes you to another world you envision the hills, the valleys, the mountains that South Africa has to offer just from that one sip and a distinctive African sorghum and African queen hops smell that comes out of that beer will make it earthy.
As South Africa trade in the world market in diamond and gold and the same food in which our stomach yen, they did not to tell the world that it is the women who make beer. It is the South African women who make our traditional beer. Beer is art is a woman founded organisation we are highlighting women as well balancing the gender roles in the youth we select.
Paul Gentile the co-owner of the Gentile brewery Is the funniest gentleman ever. His passion for beer comes through when he speaks. Obakeng (the founder of beer is art) says that. She could not go to America to brew the South African Pilsner with him. Gentile brewery is a brewery in Beverly Massachusetts USA that is assisting beer is art with a collaboration brew, being in the era that we are in which is the technology era and social network era they decided to do an Instagram live so that Obakeng can tune in when they are brewing the beer. They both co-developed the recipe Paul wrote a recipe for an Italian Pilsner and Obakeng added the South African key ingredients.
The beer will be released on January 19th 2023. How will Beer is Art campaign happen They have launched beer is art, what they have done so far is videos and a trailer of the film. They will have a class room situation whereby the students will be getting education from qualified beer lectures and brewers.
They will have a Zoom or Skype; lessons’ coming from Beerstorming in Belgium teaching the beer is art student’s recipe development, Tyrell Foster a former military officer at West Point Military Academy who turned brewer and founded Civilization brewing company in Singapore will teach the students brewing an American style of beer. Americans are known by their bust of flavours when it comes to their beers.
They are creative and not afraid of challenges and mostly putting anything that they desire in their beer This comes as a blessing as Tyrell always wanted to teach beer brewing as well. Danny Soh from Craft brew Asia Singapore with teach the youth about the beer culture in Singapore, also a beer podcaster from India Chatty Girija from Cheers Chatty will teach the youth about beer podcasting Beer is art has talked to other brewers around the world they still have to sign the contract.
The concept of teaching is getting people around the world to join hands and teach the South African youth how to brew beer in their unique style from their countries. This will enable the South Africans to have influences of beer brewing from all around the world.
For More Information:
https://byo.com/article/beer-is-art/