Durban Brewing Company was started in 2014 by Scott Hunter. Brewing was already in Scott’s blood — his father runs Sedgefield Brewery in Sedgefield in the Cape — and Scott brought that passion to Durban.
From the beginning, Scott wanted to do things a little differently. The beer was packaged in distinctive 660ml bottles, this was his unique selling point. It was a small, independent craft brewery with its own character and identity.
Around 2017/2018, Barry and I had started making gin, and Scott would buy our gin to sell at his events. That relationship eventually led to something much bigger.
By 2018, Scott was doing everything himself — brewing, selling, marketing, labelling, delivering and running the day-to-day business. It had simply become too much for one person. He approached Barry, Allan and me to see if we would be interested in buying Durban Brewing Company.
At the time, it was really a passion project for the three of us. We put our money into the business, brought salespeople on board and, in a relatively short period, grew the turnover to almost ten times what it had been.
The brewery was operating from its original premises in Redhill, Durban North, in a space of roughly 200 square metres, and things were going well.
Then COVID changed everything.
During the COVID period, I noticed that a property across the road from my other business had become vacant. I immediately thought it could be the perfect home for the brewery. I called Barry and Allan and said, “Guys, I’ve found the perfect place for our brewery.”
It was more convenient for me, but more importantly, it had something special — idyllic views over the mouth of the harbour. We decided to move.
The new premises, however, was considerably larger than what we needed for a brewery. We realised very quickly that we needed to bring food and other offerings into the space. None of us were in the food business, so we reached out to friends who helped us find tenants. Slowly, the idea of creating something bigger around the brewery began to take shape.
We brought additional partners on board to help fund the move and development of the building. After approximately three years, that partnership changed and the original owners bought those partners out. Our strongest tenant during that period was the Nadasen family. The relationship developed over time, and they eventually became partners in the facility, taking responsibility for running the property.
Today, the ownership is Wally Pelser, Allan Spies and the Nadasen family.
The move wasn’t a case of handing the keys to a contractor and walking away. We got stuck in.
Between the three families, we built tables and chairs, painted, fixed things, put things up and transformed the premises ourselves. Our kids were part of it too. They grew up around the project, playing around while we worked and, on more than one occasion, hanging around on scaffolding.
It was hard work, but it was also enormous fun. I remember sitting at home in Cowies Hill with Barry and Allan, experimenting with gin recipes, mixing flavours and seeing what we could come up with. Some of our best evenings happened around those experiments.
I’m not sure our wives were always quite as excited about what was happening in the kitchen as we were, but we had a lot of fun creating things. And that’s where some of the best stories came from.
We had a pink gin on tap that we’d named after my daughter, Madison. Then we noticed something very simple:
So we went into my wife’s kitchen, opened the baking cupboard and started looking for inspiration. We found blueberry essence and blue food colouring and started experimenting. That little kitchen experiment became our blue gin, which is still sold today.
It’s one of those stories that perfectly captures how we’ve always approached the business — take an idea, have some fun with it, experiment and see what happens.
COVID was a difficult period for everyone in the hospitality and brewing industries. Many independent breweries didn’t survive. We managed to keep going.
Over time, the business began to recover and grow again. We’ve continued to develop our range, adding products such as our Pilsner and our own lager, alongside the original beers that Scott established.
We’ve also had to compete in an increasingly crowded market, with the major commercial breweries dominating a large part of the industry. But we’re still here. And that’s something we’re proud of.
When I look back at where we started, it’s remarkable to see what Durban Brewing Company has become. What began as Scott Hunter’s small craft brewery in 2014 became a business that Barry, Allan and I bought as a passion project. It grew, survived COVID, moved premises, expanded into a much bigger facility and became a place where families, friends, tenants, staff and customers have all played a part.
The kids who once ran around the building while we were putting it together are grown up now. That’s probably one of the strangest parts of looking back. The business has grown up with them.
But while things have changed, the spirit of what we started with hasn’t. It’s about good beer, good people, experimentation, friendship, family and having a bit of fun along the way. That’s what Durban Brewing Company means to me.
We’ve come a long way from those original 660ml bottles, but we’re still building, still experimenting and still looking forward.