May 1998

Vol. 13, No. 5     What's this?

Beer Breaks Rated

from the May, 1998 issue of Undercurrent  

When a Caribbean dive day is done, there’s nothing like kicking back with a cold beer, especially since the typical Caribbean brew is of a somewhat higher grade than its American counterpart. And a few Caribbean varieties are exceptional, even by international standards.

While it’s unlikely you’ll select a destination because of its local brew, I thought you might be interested in knowing how they rate. So here’s the word from the magazine Caribbean Travel and Life ranking Caribbean beers and comparing each of them to a popular brand that it resembles.

The top picks (rated 9 out of 10 points) are Belize’s Belikin, similar to Heineken, and Jamaica’s Red Stripe, which taste testers compared to Coors.

Two Trinidad and Tobago brews get a 7.5: Carib (comparable to Miller) and Carib Stag (similar to Moosehead).

Belikin Stout, which resembles Guiness, received a 7, while The Bahamas’ Kalik is at the bottom with a 4.

From Mexico, Negra Modela scores a 9, Dos Equis Amber an 8. and Corona (comparable to Bud) a 6.

While all these beers are brewed locally, the barley and hops are imported, and the brewmeisters’ formula, in most cases, originated in Europe.