Brauhaus am Damm, is not as close as some other craft breweries to Johannesburg, but it’s a great day trip for some great craft beer and an enormous portion of German fare!

You know when you’re itching to get out of Jo’burg for the day? Well that was not me on this particular Sunday, but Alessio was keen to go check out Brauhaus am Damm and mostly because he was willing to do the driving, I got on board with the plan. We had also just come back from the Best Holiday Ever, that I still need to blog about, and the fire of adventure was still burning bright inside us.

I knew very little about Brauhaus am Damm other than it’s basically in the North West province, they make craft beer and the menu had good ratings. There’s also very few pictures online from the place (well that I could find), which once you see how beautiful the building is, is quite a shame really.

The massive building houses an underground brewery (you can see through a glass floor near the entrance to the tanks underneath), and has a massive restaurant that spills out onto a terrace overlooking the Olifantsnek Dam.

The brews of Brauhaus am Damm

Brauhaus am Damm brews four different beers available on tap. Since I’m not a fan of a Dunkel, I opted to start with the Brauhaus Pils which was very refreshing and had a light quality to it. It’s the sort of drink-all-afternoon beer you’d want. We also tried the Farmer’s Draught and the Brauhaus Weizen, both lovely but the pilsner was a firm favourite.

Mmm… Food

The restaurant’s menu is exhaustive, with every German dish you could possibly wish for detailed out. We skipped starters and headed straight to mains and ordered the Pork belly and an Eisbein. When our dishes arrived, I had a mild panic attack because they were absolutely ENORMOUS! There’s enough food for at least four people between those two dishes!

The pork belly needed a little more of a crackle on top in my opinion, but was served with a tasty sweet pumpkin puree that was very moreish. The eisbein was excellent, roughly the size of my own head, and clearly very popular judging by how many we saw come out of the kitchen!

Ridiculous(ly good).

Even though the drive is about 90 minutes from home for us, Brauhaus am Damm is worth it if you’re going to spend an afternoon staring off into the distance and enjoying a few beers. The scenery is gorgeous, the food is great and service was good too.

The view of the Olifantsnek Dam (above), and my good-looking date Alessio…

My only gripe is that as gorgeous as the building is, the restaurant really needs some better quality furniture. I know it sounds bizarre to complain about, but why spend so much cash on your interior and then have crappy plastic tables and beer fest tables and benches outside?

We had made a reservation and managed to bag one of the last tables outside, so I would suggest you call ahead if you plan on going, if only to ask for a table with a good view and an umbrella. You can find out more about Brauhaus am Damm on their website here.