Sister Craftbrewers from the Cederberg seek funding for legal battle

Here’s the story…

Back in 2013, Melanie and Tania Nieuwoudt started a brewery on their family farm in the Cederberg. Growing up on the farm as 7th generation Nieuwoudts, the two have a natural passion for the environment and for good beer! With a dream to brew their own beer, they both headed into university studies with a plan to build a business from what they’ve study.

Melanie completed her PhD in Food Science, specialising in brewery related problems and Tania completed her Mcom in Logistics. They kick-started the business with left-over bursary money and designed their own brand and labelling to try cut some costs.

Linking their passion for beer with their passion for the environment, they decided to name each beer after one of the fish species found in the Krom River, which are critically endangered. And so in doing this, the mission has been to raise the profile and awareness of the status of these endangered species.

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The sisters excitement and entry into the business world as young female Craftbrewers and entrepreneurs was incredibly exciting and for the first few years, the business starting to gain traction and most importantly people were really enjoying the beers!

Their excitement was unfortunately short lived, as earlier in 2015, a neighbour, distant relative and winemaker had beaten them to it and trademarked the brewery name and served them with a letter from his lawyers!

And so, they are now unfortunately dealing with legal fees to pay and costs to rebrand and rebuild the business.

“We remain passionate about our beer and our business and will not let this stop us from producing great quality and tasting beer! We do, however, need a little bit of help to cover our costs and we would really appreciate any support possible in this regard.”

If you’re a believer in entrepreneurship in this country – if you love craft beer and want to see our product on the market – then we ask that you please share our story and support us!

If we are successful in our mission, we’ll offer ALL contributors the best free beer tasting of our full range when they visit our farm in the Cederberg!

MAKE YOUR CONTRIBUTION HERE