While unable to sell, store or transport beer, South African Breweries (SAB) has resorted to tossing thousands of litres of beer down the drain.
Last week the brewery pleaded with government to allow them to transport their beer to storage as they could no longer keep it on the brewery grounds due to capacity laws.
It seems the request may have been ignored as one of their breweries in Pretoria was seen disposing of 25 000 litres of beer with millions expected to be dumped over the next few weeks.
Beer drinkers look away now. SAB has begun dumping beer. 25 thousand litres went down the drain in PTA today. Unable to sell or move current stock, SAB could dump over 130 million litres. pic.twitter.com/BicgC29aFJ
— Vumani Mkhize (@VumaniMkhize) May 8, 2020
The brewery reached capacity earlier this month. Approximately 132-million litres of beer is on site. This equates to 400-million bottles of beer sitting in tanks, with the possibility of being discarded in the near future.
With the destruction of the beer, SAB says they will be forced to operate at half capacity over the next four months, with no bottling or distribution taking place. If the beer is discarded, roughly 2000 jobs will be lost. A further R500-million worth of excise tax will be lost as well.
Beer-lovers will have to look away while some of the countries most-loved labels such as Castle Lager and Black Label are flushed down the drain in weeks to come.
Picture: Twitter