Don’t be a fool and miss out!

With the second edition of the Fools and Fans Beer Festival happening this Saturday the 7^th of April in Greyton, Burger Brews caught up with the festival’s founder, Trevor Gerntholtz, to get some more info on this awesome event.

The Bru: How does a renowned Nephrologist from JHB go from that to living in Cape Town and expanding his repertoire to now also include being a craft brewer and organiser of the Fools & Fans Beer Festival?

The Brewer: Actually, my wife thinks I have ADHD and she said I needed something to keep me busy one day when I retire, other than pestering her. So she encouraged me to take up a hobby. Brewing looked very interesting, with its various aspects including microbiology, engineering, chemistry, etc. and so my homebrewing just evolved from there I suppose. Once we had the Micro brewpub in Greyton, a festival seemed the logical progression. Also, the Overberg has a large number of wonderful owner-run breweries that we were keen to have over so that we didn’t have to drive around!

The Bru: This year’s festival has seen an increase in participating breweries from 6 in 2017, to 10 this year. What other differences, if any, can visitors expect for this event as opposed to last?

The Brewer: We actually have 16 microbreweries and the Helderberg Homebrewing club. This year will also see a big refining of what we started last year in terms of our Food/Beer pairing event, led by Beer Country. We want all beer lovers involved, from drinkers only, to homebrewers and commercial brewers. We also have wonderful wine and gin in the area and including some of our favourites seemed like a natural choice.

The Bru: What lessons were learnt from the inaugural event that you, perhaps, used to help you in the planning of this year’s event?

The Brewer: We have tried to accentuate our initial successes (brewer on site, owner-run operations, food/beer pairings, brewers spit braai) and include some new ideas, such as an informal pre-event “Potjie at Potters”, where brewers are encouraged to share their more ambitious brews! This should be very exciting and informative. ALL brewers are welcome to share their wares here.

The Bru: What is your ultimate vision for the Fools & Fans Festival?

The Brewer: We would like it to slowly evolve into a festival that celebrates everything to do with brewing. We are very impressed with our friends up in Clarens and what they have achieved and would like to have a similar event down here in the Cape: a destination, quirky, niche event for brewers arranged by brewers.

The Bru: And lastly, as a person with one kidney myself, I am interested to know whether drinking craft beer, with its natural ingredients, is better for me than drinking other normal beers?

The Brewer: Hahahaha. Probably equally good. It is a fact that beer is good for kidneys! (maybe not so good for livers and erections, but definitely good for kidneys!) The water itself is beneficial and the alcohol content does not damage kidneys. Everything in moderation is probably the best policy.

Well there you have it…on the good doctors’ orders, drink beer!

Burger Brews is giving away two double tickets to Fools & Fans 2018. See our Facebook page for more details.