“The Special One”

Templar has been around in the Share The Taste family for almost three years now, and for those Mountaineers who have visited the Brewhouse on Open Days may have relaxed with the outstanding English IPA already. The name of the beer has been around the brewery for over a year already, but the second silver award for its quality helped make the decision that now is the time to share the taste with every mountaineer out there. The excitement about how great the brew is started when PG dropped off a few beers in Hermanus for a well-known beer connoisseur Tim Webb in Hermanus, and his comment was him being transported back thirty years to an English pub garden on the Worcestershire / Herefordshire border where a new brewery was experimenting with what you can do if you brew a pale ale with freshly harvested local hops – that is how good the hop character is in this beautifully balanced pale ale. The cherry on top was the fantastic rating it received, we then knew we were on to something fantastic here. The beer itself is by far a maltier IPA than the East Coast IPA, with an outstanding balance of hoppiness with an older edition of hop to capture these flavours, so what you smell is what you taste.

Story Behind The Label

Leading up to 2017 SANBT awards we decided it was time to put a name and label on the beer, I went into deep thought as to what the name of the beer would be. A few months before that the Groenewald family Weimeranner had just passed away, a true legend, a bold giant of a hound that everyone loved. Every time I visited the family Gandhi would always be with the children, always keeping an eye on them. I had struck the idea that I would love to pay tribute to him by putting him on the Label and calling it ‘Guardian’ English IPA.

After some time of painting the image, I had kept it an entire secret, hoping that the surprise would bring some excitement about the label. However, at the moment I showed it off, I realised it was still too soon. I could see the faces of the family drop, and in that moment I had realised truly how much Gandhi meant to the family. As a Weim owner myself, I understand that they are not just dogs, they hold a special place in every Weim owning household, they are family, they are a child. The answer was that even though they appreciate it, we should relook the angle.

I flew back home and had to rethink ‘Guardian’. PG and his Dad had mentioned playing with the idea of a Knight perhaps, and I really liked the idea. I started fiddling with sketches and found myself always leaning towards a Templar Knight, I enjoyed the history of the Knights Templar, the mysticism behind their history after they were dismantled, and knew that they were, in fact, the ‘Guardians’ of the pilgrims travelling to and from Jerusalem, protecting them from highwaymen.  It all worked together, I could still use the name Guardian and still have my tribute to Gandhi without him being on the label.

“But it’s called Templar?” you are probably asking yourself right now. Well, about a week or so after all the artwork was finished and everyone was happy I got a link from PG to Citizen Beer’s Facebook page, I felt ill, they had just released their new beer called ‘Guardian’. I had an entire thesaurus of synonyms in my head already from the beginning of the project, but nothing was as great as Guardian. However, after a day or so, ‘Templar’ started becoming more and more predominant my thoughts, it was always there, which was still great but it took some time for me to let go of Guardian.

The beer itself for me has been a romance from the first time I tasted it, it is my drink more than 3 type of beer, and of all the outstanding beers on offer at the brewery PG almost always has to pull me away from it to try out something else. I love the beer, it holds a special place in my heart because even though the image of Gandhi is lost and the tribute title had to be changed, it is still to me, a tribute to the gentle giant Gandhi.

– Woodrow –