The Darling Brew Story

Darling Brew is one of the most recognisable and highly acclaimed craft beer brands in South Africa, having recently earned the title of Best Local Craft Beer at the 2023 Kfm Best of the Cape awards. The brewery was established in 2010 in the small town of Darling on the West Coast and is officially recognised as Africa's first carbon-neutral brewery - a bastion of operational excellence throughout the industry.

Darling Breweries aims to be a premier lifestyle brand, crafting innovative, authentic products of exceptional quality. Committed to sustainability, community engagement, and upholding core values, we strive to inspire adventurous living while making a positive societal impact.

Managed by Tewie Roos (Managing Director), and owned and invested in by Mario Delicio since building the state of the art craft brewery in 2015, Darling Brew was originally the brainchild of Kevin and Phillipa Wood, who started the business in 2010. After a decade with Darling Brew and establishing it as a household name, they were ready for a new venture and sold their remaining shares to Mario, after appointing Tewie Roos who was ready to take the brand to new heights.

The idea that led to the establishment of Darling Brew came to the original founders when they were travelling through Africa in 2007, and came upon and were inspired by a local microbrewery on their journey. Upon returning home, they slowly started up a small turnkey brewery and eventually happened upon a talented brewmaster who came on board to give Darling Brew the boost it needed to officially join the South African craft beer movement.

With Tewie now at the helm of Darling Brew, the business is growing and developing in exciting new directions, while still staying true to its core vision and mission of creating captivating products that tread lightly on the earth. Read more about Darling Brew MD Tewie Roos, his extensive industry experience, and his vision for Darling Brew here.

The first beer ever produced under the Darling Brew label was the iconic Slow Beer, which was inspired by the geometric tortoise - a beautiful reptile that is endemic to the Western Cape and critically endangered due to threats to its habitat, illegal animal trading. etc. The term 'Slow Beer' also encompasses the Darling Brew philosophy, highlighting the brand’s trademark slow fermentation process, as well as the beauty of products that are not mass-produced, but rather lovingly made in small, bespoke batches. Visit our product portfolio to see what more we have to offer.

Our sustainability journey starts with our passion for the conservation of our environment and the beautiful animals we share it with which is why we not only want to be good to the planet in our brewing operations but help our incredible wildlife by continue to use our platform to shine a light on the pressing issues these creatures are encountering. Each of our beers are inspired by an endangered species and positioned to create awareness for their animal kingdom likeness. Learn more about our conservation practices at DB Safari.

In 2016, Darling Brew released Africa’s first carbon neutral beer, Blood Serpent (rebranded as The Wanderer), with the intention of later extending it across the range. Blood Serpent was seen as a catalyst within the African beer industry, especially towards decarbonisation and company buy-in for carbon neutrality. The beer was celebrated for being an innovation, not only within the craft beer industry, but towards sustainability in Africa. Among many other awards, the Wanderer also won Beer of the Year 2022.

In order to simplify how much impact humans have on the environment, environmentalists have equated all impacts to one measurable yardstick: carbon emissions. Carbon emissions refer to the amount of greenhouse gas released into the atmosphere as a result of human activity, such as burning of fossil fuels. This is measured in metric tons of CO2. ImpactChoices’ technology provides a unique solution that enables Darling Brew to apportion these emissions through their brewing process and then mitigate these through the purchase of certified Carbon Credits resulting in a carbon neutral brewery and line of beers.

In order to ensure that the brewery is reducing its impact, Darling Brew have teamed up with sustainability consultants Ecolution Consulting who, in addition to guiding the brewery through the carbon offsetting process, are working with Darling Brew to reduce the water and energy consumption, as well as the brewery’s waste to landfill percentage.

“We are identifying short and long-term strategies to ensure that Darling Brew continues to travel further along their sustainability journey,” says André Harms, sustainability engineer and founder of Ecolution Consulting. “This started with the procedure of tracking and recording consumption and waste data to ensure that real progress is being made.”

The financial benefits of these Carbon Credit purchases are received by The Kariba REDD+ project in Northern Zimbabwe, which works with communities to rehabilitate forests and through sustainable farming practices whilst ensuring gender parity and social upliftment. REDD+ is an acronym for Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and Forest Degradation and the carbon offsets carbon offsets are validated by the Verified Carbon Standard, the Gold Standard and the Plan Vivo.

It is with this in mind that we have committed ourselves to the ongoing journey of achieving a more sustainable brewery and brewing process. To create awareness around animal conservation and the preservation of their (and our) habitat; and to engage with our local community.

At Darling Brew, we believe in doing good as much and as often as we can. After all, our business was not established nor grown in a vacuum - we form part of the communities in which we operate, and their welfare is of great importance to us.

As such, we are a proud contributor to the annual initiatives rolled out and promoted by Darling Alumni. This organisation was established by previous learners of Vooruitsig Primary and Darling Primary, the two primary schools in the West Coast town of Darling. The primary objective of this important organisation is to assist the two schools in the development of their learners, both academically and in sporting activities.

The Darling Alumni Golf Day is one of the annual events in which we partake each year, by means of sponsorship and operational involvement on the day. The proceeds of the event go towards things like infrastructure improvements and providing tutors to assist vulnerable learners with academic help after hours.

To bolster the impact we are able to make in this regard, we have now added a donation functionality to our Darling Brew online shop. This allows our DB patrons to add a donation of their choosing to their online purchase amount if they see fit. These donations will go directly to the Darling Alumni program in order to make an even bigger difference in the lives of the learners at Vooruitsig Primary and Darling Primary.