Beer of the Weekend #117: Red Stripe
The second beer of the weekend is Red Stripe brewed by Desnoes & Geddes Limited of Kingston, Jamaica.
The Olympic connection is that Red Stripe is the intermittent sponsor of the Jamaican bobsled team. Cool runnings! (On a nostalgic note, I saw the movie when I was in fifth grade at the Coral IV theater. Sadly, I learned tonight that the ending, where the team carries the bobsled to the finish line after crashing, is totally fictional.)
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. A cryptic code on the shoulder may be a freshness date, but I’m not sure.
Appearance: Poured a pale straw yellow into a pint glass. Two and a half fingers of billowy, white head developed and dissipated to leave a foamy lacing.
Smell: Your average adjunct grains. Nothing special.
Taste: You know, the more beers I try, the more American adjuncts all taste exactly the same, just with varying degrees of bite; it must be some brewing conspiracy or something. However, Red Stripe proves to be somewhat of an exception. The taste offers a lot more than the unspectacular smell. Simple adjunct corn, but there’s also a hint of high-class, helles barnyard malts and some citrus sweetness.
Drinkability: It’s much better than your average, convenience store macro from St. Louis or “Milwaukee.” Red Stripe is refreshing and has quality flavor. It’s more than decent.
Fun facts about Red Stripe:
-Style: American adjunct lager. These are your typical macro lagers.
-Price: $8.49/sixer at BevMo!, which is, I think, on the pricy side.
-Serving temperature: 43-45ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.7 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Special brownies, maybe? Seriously, though, Beers of the World recommends fried seafood and saffron rice.
-Why the stubby bottle? I’m not so sure. It’s probably for efficiency and economy. Since stubbies are smaller, they are easier to handle, don’t break as much, lighter, take up less storage, and have a lower center of gravity. Stubbies are common in Europe, and were almost exclusively used in Canada until 1986.
-The cool thing about the Red Stripe bottle is that the label is painted on, much like Rolling Rock.
-Speaking of beer bottles, here are some fun facts from the beer bottle page on Wikipedia:
What I learned today: drink a whole bottle of beer before hitting someone with it.
-Red Stripe was Henry Louis Gates’ original beverage choice for his beer garden chat with President Obama, VP Biden, and Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer Jim Crowley. Gates, though, switched to Sam Adams after pressure from the Boston drinking establishment.
The Quiet Man’s grade: C+/B-.
The Olympic connection is that Red Stripe is the intermittent sponsor of the Jamaican bobsled team. Cool runnings! (On a nostalgic note, I saw the movie when I was in fifth grade at the Coral IV theater. Sadly, I learned tonight that the ending, where the team carries the bobsled to the finish line after crashing, is totally fictional.)
Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles. A cryptic code on the shoulder may be a freshness date, but I’m not sure.
Appearance: Poured a pale straw yellow into a pint glass. Two and a half fingers of billowy, white head developed and dissipated to leave a foamy lacing.
Smell: Your average adjunct grains. Nothing special.
Taste: You know, the more beers I try, the more American adjuncts all taste exactly the same, just with varying degrees of bite; it must be some brewing conspiracy or something. However, Red Stripe proves to be somewhat of an exception. The taste offers a lot more than the unspectacular smell. Simple adjunct corn, but there’s also a hint of high-class, helles barnyard malts and some citrus sweetness.
Drinkability: It’s much better than your average, convenience store macro from St. Louis or “Milwaukee.” Red Stripe is refreshing and has quality flavor. It’s more than decent.
Fun facts about Red Stripe:
-Style: American adjunct lager. These are your typical macro lagers.
-Price: $8.49/sixer at BevMo!, which is, I think, on the pricy side.
-Serving temperature: 43-45ºF.
-Alcohol content: 4.7 percent ABV.
-Food pairings: Special brownies, maybe? Seriously, though, Beers of the World recommends fried seafood and saffron rice.
-Why the stubby bottle? I’m not so sure. It’s probably for efficiency and economy. Since stubbies are smaller, they are easier to handle, don’t break as much, lighter, take up less storage, and have a lower center of gravity. Stubbies are common in Europe, and were almost exclusively used in Canada until 1986.
-The cool thing about the Red Stripe bottle is that the label is painted on, much like Rolling Rock.
-Speaking of beer bottles, here are some fun facts from the beer bottle page on Wikipedia:
Beer bottles are sometimes used as makeshift clubs, for instance in bar fights. Pathologists determined in 2009 that beer bottles are strong enough to crack human skulls, which requires an impact energy of between 14 and 70 joules, depending on the location. Empty beer bottles shatter at 40 joules, while full bottles are somewhat less effective weapons, shattering at only 30 joules because of the pressure by the carbonated beer inside the bottle.
What I learned today: drink a whole bottle of beer before hitting someone with it.
-Red Stripe was Henry Louis Gates’ original beverage choice for his beer garden chat with President Obama, VP Biden, and Cambridge, Massachusetts police officer Jim Crowley. Gates, though, switched to Sam Adams after pressure from the Boston drinking establishment.
The Quiet Man’s grade: C+/B-.
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