‘We would like Seychellois to continue to appreciate our beer as it is of high quality with a very good taste,” brewer manager Vicky Dine from the Seychelles Breweries Ltd (SBL) has said.

She made the comment recently after SeyBrew, the flagship brand of SBL, won a prestigious gold award in the international lager category of the African Beer Cup held in Cape Town, South Africa.

“We at Seychelles Breweries, especially us at the brewery unit, where it all started, are very proud to have won such a prestigious award when you take into account that we have been able to surpass big brands like Heineken that have not won a gold award. It is a great achievement for us and for Seychelles. We would like Seychellois to continue to appreciate our beer as it of high quality with a very good taste,” Ms Dine said.

The SeyBrew lager was among 10 mixed lager breweries and craft breweries’ beer samples that won the gold award out of 256 beer samples from 28 entries coming from nine different countries across Africa.

For a beer to win gold it needs to score above 40 and SeyBrew received the joint highest score of 42 out of 50, alongside Arrowhead Vintage and Castle Double Malt, both brewed in South Africa. SeyBrew also won third overall in the competition for the title of Best Beer in Africa.

“I personally feel so proud to be part of this achievement and to be leading the young team of brewers that is responsible to manufacture such great quality liquid,” she added.

Ms Dine leads the alcoholic brew house unit, made up entirely of 15 young Seychellois brewers (13 males and two females, including herself).

She said that the SeyBrew beer is made manually from scratch (sugar, malt, water, yeast) and as a team, they work to ensure consistency in the brewing process, before packaging, which is long and complicated.

“The quality of our beer is as a result of improvements made over the years based on following standard procedures in place and monitoring the quality control parameters of brewing process from end to end to ensure that we get a good beer,” said Ms Dine, who noted that the operators have all been trained locally.

Ms Dine said that all alcoholic samples brewed from the brew house are sent every month to Seychelles Breweries LTD partner, Diageo group of companies, whose holding company is Diageo plc, registered in England and Wales, for sensory micro test of flavours, taste and quality.

She noted that Diageo rating for alcoholic drinks is maximum 10 out of 10 and that since 2019 the local beers were rated 7.2 out of 10 Following improvements, the scoring average for the beer samples this year stands at 9.3.

She added out of the 24 batches of products sent overseas for evaluations, the score has been 10/10 for 12 batches and the rest scoring between 8 to 9 out of 10.

The 38-year-old has been with SBL for eight and a half years and for the first five years she worked as a microbiologist in the quality unit before being appointed as the quality manager for the three years that followed.

She moved to the role of brewing manager in November 2021.

Before joining SBL, Ms Dine worked for six years with the Seychelles Bureau of Standard (SBS).

Featuring among the company’s alcoholic taster, Ms Dine said that brewery is very challenging and demanding as everything has to be of high standard in proportion, quality, accuracy and safe. As the only second women to lead the brewery unit, she stated that she would like to stay on and grow further in her career with the company.

Ms Dine has a Bachelor of Science degree in Biotechnology and Biochemistry which she completed at the University of Cape Town in South Africa. She also has a Master of Science degree in Food Quality and Innovation which she completed at the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. She completed her Diploma in Brewing while working at SBL.

On a personal note Ms Dine ended by saying, “I would like to encourage more woman to apply for a job at SBL when the opportunities present themselves, and especially in the brewing department. At SBL, there is great opportunity to gain a lot of skills, knowledge, build external networks and achieve great development career wise.

“It feels extremely good to be part of the company to deliver great quality products to meet the needs and expectation of consumers.”

The African Beer Cup is the largest beer competition on the continent. It is open to licensed commercial breweries, large and small, operating in Africa.

Source: Seychelles Nation