National Arts Festival 2016 was, let’s admit it, a rather daunting event for Featherstone Brewery. We had only had our licence a couple of months, our own town was still discovering us, and wild fires in the hills around the brewery shut down production for over a week, just when we should have been upping production to cater for Festival. (The fires lasted a week, and the Master Brewer was up in the middle of the night twice fighting fires, and then had to spend a few days finding and fixing the places the water pipe had been burned, as without the delicious spring water we’re so lucky to have access to, there is no delicious Featherstone beer.)

A year later we are not only prepared for Festival, but rather excited. The sleepy town of Grahamstown is fully transformed into the Creative City that it quietly displays all year round, but only really flaunts come June/July. We are proud to be part of that year-round creative feel, and excited to have this platform to flaunt our premium hand-crafted ales: not only the regular Featherstone range, but also the limited-edition Festival Ale, official ale of the National Arts Festival.

The Festival Ale is a crisp golden ale, beautifully balanced between its moderate hop bitterness and slight malty sweetness. A hop-forward ale, it bears the distinctive taste and aroma of Tettnanger, one of the four noble hop varieties. Brewed specifically with the National Arts Festival in mind, this beer is as at home in a smoky Jazz lounge as it is on the Village Green: an ideal all-night, all-day, feel-good beer.

Serving suggestion: drink with good friends and a healthy dose of arts & culture.

(Featherstone Brewery will feature at all the usual pubs, restaurants, and liquor stores that is does year round, as well as at The Long Table, Shakespeare’s Tavern at the Monument, and for special Tasting Sessions as part of Think!Fest)