Apartheid may have ended more than 20 years ago in South Africa, but there are still local industries where black South Africans are trailing their white competitors.

One of them is in a market South Africans take very seriously – beer drinking. However, in recent years the multi-billion dollar industry has seen the rise of black-owned microbreweries with their own offerings entering the market.

Soweto Gold is one of the country’s fastest growing craft beers. Launched in 2013, it is named after South Africa’s largest township, and it has more than 100 micro-breweries in the country.

Soweto Gold’s master brewer Ndumiso Madlala was born into apartheid South Africa – where opportunities for the black entrepreneur were difficult to come by. But after nearly a decade of learning the ropes at a national brewery, fortune smiled and Madlala stepped out on his own.

Targeting the aspiring black middle class, he created the country’s first township craft beer – creating jobs and quenching the thirst of many who prefer the artisanal taste.

“We do not really want to remain a small (brewery) for a very long time, currently we are doing 30,000 litres per month,” said Madlala. “Hopefully by this time next year we will be selling somewhere in the region of 200,000 litres. Of course South Africa right now is our focus area but we want to take our brand international.”