The answer to this question is very inexpensive beer! I will have a very hard time buying a beer at any restaurant or bar when we return to the states. There are several ‘local cheapies’ that would compare to Miller/Coors/Budweiser. One of the interesting things that I have learned about South Africa is that labor is  cheap, due to the wide range of social classes. There many people that live in the townships and will work for very little, much different than in the United States, and this in turn affects the price of beer/wine and anything produced locally. The average beer costs 12-18 Rand or $1.00 -$1.50 at any bar/restaurant.

Castle lager – This brewery sponsors the South African national rugby, soccer, and cricket teams. Castle also produces a Castle lite, which compares closely to a Miller lite. In fact; the company SABMiller (South African Breweries – Miller) own and produce Castle in South Africa. It is a typical lager, 5% ABV with a decent flavor. I prefer the Castle Lite over the original. The first night we got to Cape Town our friend Dre took us out to a local bar and purchased Castle Lites bottles for 10Rand or a whopping $0.87/ea.

Windhoek Lager – This is advertised as the purest beer in South Africa. The brewery for Windhoek is based in the capital city of Namibia (where it gets it’s name), but there is a South African brewery just outside of Capetown. Nambia was mainly colonized by the Germans and it shows in their popular brew. Windhoek is brewed in accordance with the reinheitsgebot, which is a german purity law dating back to 1516. This is a 4% ABV lager that you can commonly get in the 440ml bottle (bigger beer). Windhoek is probably my favorite of the bunch. They were sold at our surf hostel for 17Rand (<$1.50), perfect after a 2 hour surf session. This beer has that distinctive clean finish with the German hops flavor that I  really enjoy in a lager.

Carlings Black Label – The bottle slogan for this one is hilarious. ‘Champion Men Deserve Champion Beer!’ Black label is actually produced in South Africa by a Canadian company and thus also has a higher 5.5%ABV and is enjoyed by most people because of the higher ABV. When you need more booze, this is the beer to drink! It is preferred by most of the township residents and people looking to get the most alcohol without going straight liquor. This was the preferred beer of choice when our buddy Dre took me to the township in Hout Bay where I got the chance to hang out and drink some with the locals. I also bought this when I played against some Germans in beer pong, but they weren’t to happy about the crappy quality (“Why you buy this shit?!). A 750ml (25 oz) bottle of Black Label cost us 25Rand ($2.15) at one of the backpackers, but at a local shop they are available for much less.

My Darling Brew

Craft Beers – We have heard a lot about a recent boom in South African craft beers. When we were in Muizenberg and downtown Cape Town we took it on ourselves to try a few of these in the more trendy areas. We tried some Jack Black’s brewery and Devils’ Peak brewery, but really we not impressed for the increased price of ~35-40Rand ($3.25) for a pint. It seemed that there was still a long way to go before the craft beer segment was even close to what we see in the US (both quality and volume). We tried a Darling Brewery’s Slow Ale that was actually really tasty. This has been our favorite by a long shot, but the price tag has kept us away from trying much more.

Our perception of beer costs has taken a radical shift; it is going to be a tough adjustment when we get back to the States. This is definitely something to think about next time you’re planing for the $80/day drink package at some over commercialized resort in the Caribbean. It took us almost a month to hit $80.