A man called Waldo, holding some Windhoek Lager. Photo: Cal Harding.

Now, look, I’m not much of a fan of lager. Really. It all tastes the same to me, out of bottles at least. I can’t tell the difference between one lager and another.

That said, I do know the difference between a lager which has been brewed with all kinds of nastiness, and a lager which has been brewed with the German reinheitsgebot purity law which basically says that the only thing allowable in your beer is water, barley, and hops. (And yeast, being honest, except that’s actually not allowable in the law, except it was repealed a long time ago and it’s just a marketing ploy these days, but you get my drift.)

When in Thailand recently, I was told that many Thai beers have formaldehyde in them, and that’s why you get a splitting headache if you have too much. This appears to be false – the splitting headache is because Thai beers were stronger than UK beers for some time and we didn’t understand this – but China apparently does still use formaldehyde in some local brews. This is why the reinheitsgebot is a good thing, since I’ve no plans to purposefully drink formaldehyde.

So, splendid to note that you can now get Windhoek Lager here in the UK. It’s Namibia’s local brew, and it’s now available in the UK (in places like Tesco). And it’s brewed (as all the Namibia Brewery beers are) in accordance with the reinheitsgebot. So it’s a nicely pure beer, as beer should be.

I was sent some to taste (and invited to the launch in the UK, which was postponed once because of the ash cloud, and then I managed to fall ill for the second try, so I missed out on that). And, you know what? It is a good beer, too. Crisp and tasty, and I’m sure very lovely at the end of a hot day.

It’s especially good at this time of year, because not only has it been quite hot recently here in the UK, it’s also a very popular beer in South Africa (which borders Namibia to the south, as I notice from Wikipedia, embarrassingly), and as such I enjoyed it as a reward for finishing some hot gardening and watching the World Cup.

The only question remaining is how I pronounce it. I thought I was right with “Wind-hook” but it turns out it’s “Vint-hook”, which is odd.

Anyway: if you’re a lager drinker and you’re fancying a change from the normal boring Becks or Carling, I would recommend it. It’s different, tasty, and formaldehyde-free!

lager, namibia, windhoek Hide