Castle Lager is a South African

pale lager Pale lager is a very pale-to- golden-colored lager beer with a well- attenuated body and a varying degree of noble hop bitterness. The brewing process for this beer developed in the mid-19th century, when Gabriel Sedlmayr took pale ale brew ...

. It is the flagship product of

South African Breweries South African Breweries (officially The South African Breweries Limited, informally SAB) is a major brewery headquartered in Johannesburg, South Africa and was a wholly owned subsidiary of SABMiller until its interests were sold to Anheuser-B ...

and has been recognised as the National Beer of South Africa , based on the fact that it is 100% grown and produced in the country, and for its ability to unite the community behind a common cause.

History

Castle Lager's origins can be traced to the

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Dem ...

gold rush A gold rush or gold fever is a discovery of gold—sometimes accompanied by other precious metals and rare-earth minerals—that brings an onrush of miners seeking their fortune. Major gold rushes took place in the 19th century in Australia, New ...

of 1886. Charles Glass, founder of the

Castle Brewery Castle Brewery is one of the oldest commercial breweries in South Africa. As company-endorsed legend would have it, the company was founded by Charles Glass in Johannesburg in 1894. UCT history professor Anne Kelk Mager has argued that the offic ...

, began selling beer to the miners after noticing a gap in the market. The new beer soon became popular amongst the prospectors of the gold rush, and in 1889 one of Johannesburg's early newspapers, ''The Digger's News'', declared it "a phenomenal success." In 1895, on the success of Castle Lager, South African Breweries (SAB) was founded, with its head office being the Castle Brewery. Two years later, SAB became the first industrial company to list on the

Johannesburg Stock Exchange JSE Limited (previously the JSE Securities Exchange and the Johannesburg Stock Exchange) is the largest stock exchange in Africa. It is located in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa, after it moved from downtown Johannesburg in 2000. In 2003 ...

. Today, Castle Lager is brewed in nine countries and is available in over 40 countries worldwide. In 2000 Castle Lager was awarded in the "World's Best Bottled Lager" category at the Brewing Industry International Awards. In 2002, South African Breweries bought

Miller A miller is a person who operates a mill, a machine to grind a grain (for example corn or wheat) to make flour. Milling is among the oldest of human occupations. "Miller", "Milne" and other variants are common surnames, as are their equivalent ...

, forming SABMiller. In 2016, Anheuser-Busch InBev acquired SABMiller.

Sponsorships

Castle Lager sponsorships include: *Premier Sponsor of the South African Football Team (Bafana Bafana). *Team Sponsor of the

South African Cricket Team The South Africa national cricket team, also known as the Proteas, represents South Africa in men's international cricket and is administered by Cricket South Africa (CSA). South Africa is a full member of the International Cricket Council (I ...

(Castle Lager Proteas). *Associate Sponsor of the

South African Rugby Team The South Africa national rugby union team, commonly known as the Springboks (colloquially the Boks, Bokke or Amabokoboko), is the country's national team governed by the South African Rugby Union. The Springboks play in green and gold jersey ...

(Springboks). *Official beer supplier to the HSBC Sevens World Series Leg:

Nelson Mandela Bay Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality ( af, Nelson Mandelabaai Metropolitaanse Munisipaliteit; xh, uMasipala wase Nelson Mandela Bay or ''uMasipala waseBhayi'') is one of eight metropolitan municipalities (also called Category A municipalities) in So ...

, South Africa. *Official beer supplier to the

Vodacom Vodacom Group Limited is a South-Western African mobile communications company, providing voice, messaging, data and converged services to over 55 million customers. From its roots in South Africa, Vodacom has grown its operations to include ...

Super Rugby Tournament. *Official beer supplier to the

Premier Soccer League Premier is a title for the head of government in central governments, state governments and local governments of some countries. A second in command to a premier is designated as a deputy premier. A premier will normally be a head of governm ...

(PSL).

Related products

*Castle Lite - introduced in 1994, Castle Lite is a reduced alcohol and lower calorie variant of Castle Lager. It is sold in a green bottle (as opposed to Castle Lager's brown) and is also available in cans and draught. Castle Lite is lagered at -2.5 °C and is packaged with South Africa's first thermocromatic temperature indicator. It has an alcohol by volume of 4%. **Castle Lite Lime - a Lime flavoured variant of Castle Lite introduced in 2014. *Castle Milk Stout - a

milk stout Stout is a dark, top-fermented beer with a number of variations, including dry stout, oatmeal stout, milk stout, and imperial stout. The first known use of the word ''stout'' for beer, in a document dated 1677 found in the Egerton Manuscri ...

that is advertised as "South Africa's Premier Stout". Castle Milk Stout is the only beer that uses a dark roasted malt to extract a rich brew. The addition of caramel balances out the bitterness in an attempt to offer a more balanced taste. It has an ABV of 6% **Castle Milk Stout Chocolate Infused - a chocolate infused variant of Castle Milk Stout. *Castle Free - a

non-alcoholic beer Low-alcohol beer is beer with little or no alcohol content and aims to reproduce the taste of beer while eliminating (or at least reducing) the inebriating effects of standard alcoholic brews. Most low-alcohol beers are lagers, but there are some ...

introduced in 2017 and the first of its type to be produced in South Africa. *Castle Double Malt - a premium quality

pure malt lager Pure may refer to: Computing * A pure function * A pure virtual function * PureSystems, a family of computer systems introduced by IBM in 2012 * Pure Software, a company founded in 1991 by Reed Hastings to support the Purify tool * Pure-FTPd, ...

introduced in 2021, made from two of the best malts sourced from the best malts producing regions, Caledon and Alrode. It is said to have a rich, complex flavour, deep gold colour and creamy foam. It has an alcohol content of 5.5% by volume.

References

External links

Castle Lager Official Site

Castle Lite Official Site

Castle Milk Stout Official Site
{{Anheuser–Busch InBev Beer in South Africa SABMiller Beer in Africa

History

Sponsorships

Related products

See also

References

External links