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Soweto - At just 30 000 litres a month, Ndumiso Madlala's brewery produces as much beer as his biggest rival pumps out every six minutes. But that may be just enough to cause ripples in SABMiller's [JSE:SAB] long domination of the South African beer market.
Madlala's Soweto Gold is one of hundreds of new South African microbreweries mounting a small, but visible, challenge to SABMiller's 90% market share. While craft beer has found an audience among affluent whites, Madlala reckons he can bring it to a new market: the growing black middle class.
"I looked at the boom of the craft beer scene in South Africa and one thing was terribly missing for me: a brewery in the township," said Madlala, a chemical engineer who previously worked for SABMiller and other brewers.
Brewed in Soweto, just outside Johannesburg, Soweto Gold is a reminder of how far the sprawling township, still poor, but now with malls and neat brick houses, has come from its days as a flashpoint of the fight against apartheid, which ended in 1994.
"A lot of people who live in the wealthy suburbs are originally from Soweto and on the weekends they always come home. We're trying to cater to that middle class."
'Black diamonds'
Often called "black diamonds", the black middle class has more than doubled to 4.2 million in the eight years to 2012, according to the University of Cape Town Unilever Institute of Strategic Marketing. They now spend more than whites of the equivalent social class.
Designed to feel like a Soweto shack, Madlala's pub, opened this year, has a tin roof and walls adorned with photographs of South African football stars and anti-apartheid heroes.
Beyond Soweto, his beer is distributed in and around Johannesburg and Madlala is looking to move into other cities. He recently signed a deal with US distributors.
To reach a wide audience, he gave Soweto Gold the low bitterness of SABMiller's Carling Black Label, South Africa's most popular beer. He added caramel malt, lending sweetness and a red tint.
Microbrews sprouting up quickly
Like the US craft boom that began more than 20 years ago, microbrews are sprouting up quickly. The number of craft breweries in South Africa trebled in the last two years, said Lucy Corne, who writes the blog The Brewmistress.
Still, microbrews account for only about 3% of South African beer production, said Ross McCulloch of Jack Black's Brewing. That's a drop next to the 2.7 billion litres brewed annually by SABMiller.
Winning over South Africans - black or white - initially proved difficult for craft brewers. After years of quaffing light lagers, drinkers were not accustomed to robust ales.
Light lager, American ale
When McCulloch founded Cape Town-based Jack Black's with his wife in 2007, he was hoping to brew the bitter, North American-style beers he had discovered while living in Canada.
But in taste tests, people would "wrinkle up their noses and kind of want to spit it out". So he started with a lager. He now sells three ales, but it is his lager that has become one of the most recognisable craft beers.
It is also one of the few microbrews available across the country. Moving beyond Cape Town has helped to reach middle-class blacks, McCulloch said.
"In Johannesburg - even more so than the Cape - you have a lot more integration of black and white and all the classes are coming together in these pubs."
But customer loyalty to SABMiller brands like Carling and Castle remains a hurdle.
Sense of national pride
"SAB has built a very strong sense of national pride. You drink Castle because it's South African," said The Brewmistress' Corne.
This year SABMiller started its own craft beer, No 3 Fransen Street, named after a brewery it opened in 1998 to experiment with beer in small batches.
The strategy is similar to the one SABMiller uses in the United States, where it sells the Blue Moon line of craft beer.
"We like to see it as a way to develop beer culture in the country through a variety of offerings, rather than a craft beer subcategory in itself," said Mauricio Leyva, a managing director at SAB.
"With a growing beer category, there is space for everyone to play. The more people that move into beer, the better for all."
Craft brewers are gaining momentum
However, Leyva says South Africa is unlikely to see American-sized growth in craft beer, given the lower per capita consumption and smaller economy. But for now, South African craft brewers are gaining momentum.
Soweto Gold has found fans in Johannesburg's wealthy suburbs and is one of the most popular beers at Beerhouse, a brew pub north of Johannesburg, said owner Randolf Jorberg.
While craft brews are mostly aimed at wealthier South Africans, Madlala says Soweto Gold's appeal lies in its township roots.
"No one had the guts to put something in the township like we did."
