Charles Glass came to South Africa in the late 1800's during the Gold Rush. However, he discovered gold of a different form when he hit upon the brewing recipe for a pale-gold coloured liquid - Castle Lager. Originally from Kent in England, his restless nature brough him to Newcastle, South Africa, where he met a man called H.B. Marshall who first ignited his interest in brewing. He left Durban for Johannesburg, which was a mining town in those days, that very same year to set up a brewery. In 1884 he started the company Glass & Co. with H.B. Marshall and Jim Welsh in Marshall's Township, Johannesburg. It was a difficult time as Glass struggled to set up the brewery, plagued by shortages of proper building materials at the time. He had the further challenge of sourcing the hops, malt and other ingredients necessary to brew the beer. He had to import these all the way from England. The brewery was eventually completed and he started the work of producing a beer that would sell. It took a while. Miners in those days were more accustomed to drinking "hard tack" - a raw potato spirit mixed with tobacco juice and pepper - which was very cheap. At the time he was developing the brew, Charles Glass could be seen wheeling a barrow full of beer through the mining villages of Johannesburg observing the various reactions to his different brewing recipes. The miners developed an appreciation for the recipe with a "somewhat bitter, somewhat dry but never sweet" taste as it had the perfect lanace of being full-flavoured and thirst quenching. The beer grew rapidly in popularity. This brew was named Castle Beer in 1884 and the brewery was named Castle Brewery.

Urbock is a traditional dark beer know as "bock" beer.  Urbock is brewed to perfection and distinguished by its rich Munich barley malt giving it a rich malty flavour.  Urbock is only brewed once per year and is therefore only available in May of each year in limited quantity.

In the mid 1970's, international trends and local market conditions were calling for a brand of beer with Germanic heritage. SAB responded with the launch of Hansa Pilsener in November 1975. As a completely new beer style in South Africa, Hansa had the special attributes of being light, drinkable, refreshing and thirst quencing.