0 of 3
There is a small hotel on the Garden Route which is an integral part of the fabric of the Plett community since it attracts overseas guests, but also smart staycation visitors who have figured out that exploring our own country is just as good as anywhere else.
It is here at Barrington’s Small Hotel in Piesang Valley Road that you will find Plett friends gathering on a Friday night for a meal, while Saturdays are perfect for wallowing in the sun on the terraces and outdoor areas, drinking award-winning beer brewed on site, perhaps feasting on one of Barrington’s winter comfort meals, and when it’s rugby there are big screens. There’s always something going on here, a reason to visit.
First let’s talk about the beer: Barrington’s on-site brewery recently bagged two prestigious medals at the Africa Beer Cup in Cape Town, following on from a bronze award at the 2022 awards.
Barrington’s head brewer, Tristan Hartmann, proudly accepted the recent accolades; a bronze medal for The Newdigate, an English bitter, and a silver medal for Dulcy’s Weiss, a German-style wheat beer.
Winning a medal at the African Beer Cup is quite something in the beer industry and that’s because 260 beers were entered, from 14 African countries.
An esteemed panel of 58 expert judges and professional brewers from across the world gathered in mid-May to assess the beers in a rigorous evaluation that sees every beer in the competition judged twice.
Hartmann is chuffed and shooting for gold in future. He started his journey with craft beer several years ago washing kegs and working behind a bar, but right from the outset he was hell-bent on becoming a beer alchemist in spite of having a BCom degree.
He and his brother started off in 2016 playing with beer so to speak. They bought equipment and the basics ingredients to make beer at home from BeerLab HomeBrew Supplies in Cape Town, and the rest is history for Hartmann.
He became familiar with the elements critical to brewing beer, such as good malted barley, hops and pure water, and in a small bar fridge with a thermostat, he and his brother started making small batches which got rave reviews from friends.
On the path to becoming an award-winning brewmaster, he first worked as a barman in a brewery and observed as much as he could, then he spent time at the Richmond Hill Brewing Co in Gqeberha.
He took the gap to work for a smaller brewing company and learnt in leaps and bounds the techniques and tricks to brewing beer on a commercial scale before coming to Barrington’s after Covid.
Simply put for a layman such as myself, the sorcery behind making beer is all about the yeast, malt, hops and water and various processes during the hot and cold cycles of each brew.
No effort is spared at Barrington’s Brewery in sourcing the best ingredients, such as the malt from Belgium or Germany and the hops from the US.
The end result and measure of a good beer is calibrated by the colour, bitterness, body and balance.
While Hartmann does tweak these elements, he also follows recipes which have stood the test of time.
Head for the bar area and order a Barrington’s Beer Taster and for R70 you get five beers.
During the day, Hartmann is around and about and always happy to narrate a tasting.
The pub area is a favourite spot to have a beer because it’s here you get the brewery vibes with the laboratory in full view behind the glass — and the beers are on tap.
These huge silver cauldrons with thermostats set the scene for something out of Charlie’s chocolate factory, except this is beer.
There are 10 tanks which hold 1,000l of beer in Hartmann’s workshop.
It’s not only wine people who wax lyrical about the flavours in wine. Beer people also do it.
The Toplis Lager: American Lager is my favourite and it’s described as clean and floral with spicy aromatics, a light malty body which I get.
The award-winning Duley’s Weiss: Hefeweizen uses classic Weiss yeast to produce banana and clove flavours.
The Newdigate: English Ale is brewed with traditional English hops, malt and yeast and it’s supposed to have flavours of toasted bread and biscuits with hints of caramel and toffee.
Then there’s the Irish Nitro Stout, which promises to bring hints of coffee beans and chocolate. They’re all worth tasting and talking about.
Then here at Barrington’s, the pièce de résistance has to be the magnificent 1,000m² white-walled, organic kitchen garden that sprawls in front of the hotel.
Most vegetables used in the restaurant are organically grown here and sometimes — depending on what’s growing and the chef’s mood — the garden dictates a dish on the menu.
The night we visited there was a huge Eisbein on the menu with coleslaw, because the cabbages were groaning in the garden to be picked.
Wander around the veggie garden and you will find a spectacular array of veg.
I picked a few peas in the pod and ate them just for the sheer joy of it. It’s also fascinating to see how some vegetables actually look when they aren’t supermarket packaged.
Chef Alewyn Malan is a character with pedigree, having worked in top-notch restaurants in London, for the Oppenheimer family, five-star resorts in the Drakensberg, prestigious game lodges, as well as five-star hotels such as Oubaai in George and Pezula in Knysna.
His philosophy on food is that the ingredients need to be fresh and treated with respect, and he describes the Barrington’s menu as gastropub food.
There’s lots to choose from for breakfast, lunch or dinner. The Cape Malay chicken livers with smoked pear and crispy onions for breakfast may sound a bit odd, but it’s my favourite.
There is a choice of Tapas with unusual dishes such as the Bitterballen, which is pulled beef with stout maple and mustard mayo.
Barrington’s pride themselves on burgers which never fail to hit the spot, but also on winter meals such as a beef stout pie and, of course, there’s good old English Pale Ale battered fish and chips.
The land Barrington’s stands on once belonged to an old Plettenberg Bay family, the Newdigates, who came to settle in the beautiful Piesang River Valley in 1844 and then went on to play a significant part in the heritage and development of the town.
Owners Simon Ash and Hilton Nagel chose the name Barrington’s to honour Garden Route settler, the honourable Henry Francis Adair Barrington from Knysna, who was a friend and mentor to the Newdigates.
A massive coral tree hogs the limelight at the entrance to Barrington’s. The place was built around this tree, it’s that special.
I have met it several times over the years in various stages of health, but each time it gets miserable the owners find specialists to relentlessly nurse it back to health again.
There is an outdoor and indoor restaurant and a whole new area with a bar and outdoor seating has recently been introduced.
Work has been also been done on clearing vegetation, so the little river is now visible from this new deck.
Build in time to browse at a darling of a little shop in the breakfast restaurant area.
From a very impressive selection of bespoke wines, to fresh bread and novelty items and arty things, it’s the perfect place to find a unique gift. Even a man won’t mind shopping here. I wish I had a baby in my life so I could buy the tiny veldskoen shoes.
Stock up on Barrington’s craft beers sold here at the shop.
Play and stay over, why not! There are four deluxe rooms and six standard rooms to enjoy, whether you are looking for a romantic weekend getaway or just a night away.
Even if you live on the Garden Route, it’s worth a sleep-over because then you can really enjoy a beer tasting or their wine list and your bed is just a walk up the steps from the brewery and restaurant areas.
There is a special winter offer available now where you pay for two nights and get three — including a sumptuous breakfast to the value of R200, a complimentary beer tasting voucher, and a nightcap.
On Wine Wednesdays, the place bustles with more than 150 members of this wine club.
Next one up is on August 6, when Bartho Eksteen Wines, Jordan and Starke Conde will hold a tasting and cellar-door pricing.
Popular up and coming events at Barrington’s for the rest of 2025 include an Oktoberfest on October 11, which is a full-on beer fest jol with Eisbein, bratwurst and pretzels.
Local group Whiskey For Tea and Cape Town-based Duke of Note and Nomadic Orchestra will be entertaining guests. Tickets go on sale in August.
The Herald
Would you like to comment on this article?
Sign up (it's quick and free) or sign in now.
Please read our Comment Policy before commenting.