Great Beer. No Problem.
Red Stripe With The Relaxed Fun Attitude Of Jamaica Continues To Grow Its US Market.
(July 31, 2008) It's summer, and as the song says the livin' is easy. Lazy days by the pool. Outdoor fun with friends. Time to go to Jamaica, man. Red Stripe Beer - brewed in Kingston, Jamaica since the 1930's - captures the easy-going essence of the islands and delivers a little piece of Jamaica right to your Kansas doorstep.
From the quirky ad campaign featuring the Red Stripe Ambassador to the laid back Jamaican attitude that comes through in every sip, Red Stripe Beer is the essence of summer fun. As easy going as an afternoon in Jamaica, Red Stripe is a very drinkable light beer that's excellent with all kinds of food from Caribbean dishes to spicy American fare. It's moderate in body, bitterness, hop aroma, and flavor, but comes through with a low butterscotch flavor. It's the kind of refreshing, crisp and clean taste that will have your customers saying "Hooray Beer" on a hot Kansas summer day. The iconic Red Stripe stubby bottle sets it apart from other bottled beers on the shelf and in the cold box.
Customers won't be the only ones saying "Hooray Beer." For retailers Red Stripe sets the cash register ringing. Once again IRI named Red Stripe to its list of top-performing beer brands for 2007. Red Stripe sales have been growing at a phenomenal rate -- faster than Heineken, Corona, the beer category as a whole, and import beers in particular. That growth in recent years can be traced back to the introduction of the Red Stripe Ambassador - a fictional tongue-in-cheek brand spokesman who appears in Red Stripe advertising and POS.
The Ambassador first burst on the scene in 2001 and made his Internet debut in 2003. His simple refrain, "Hooray Beer" carries him through all kinds of entertaining adventures promoting the beer and responsible beer consumption. The Ambassador grooves to reggae music as he comes out with pronouncements like "Helping our white friends dance for over 70 years." He spreads the word about Red Stripe Beer through television, radio, print, and the Internet -- with particular emphasis on the Red Stripe website at www.us.redstripebeer.com.
The origins of Red Stripe Beer go back to Thomas Hargreaves Geddes and Eugene Desnoes. Starting in 1918 their company, Desnoes and Geddes Company Limited was a well-established producer of sodas and distributor of imported liquors. But what Desnoes and Geddes really wanted to do was brew beer -- a really good Jamaican beer of international quality.
In 1927 Desnoes and Geddes began work on the Surrey Brewery on Pechon Street in the heart of downtown Kingston. The first Red Stripe Beer was brewed a year later. The beer got its name when brewmaster Paul Geddes was pulled over in a routine traffic stop by the Jamaican police. He noticed the red stripe that runs down the leg of the Jamaican police uniforms, and figured it would make a great name for a beer.
In the early days, Red Stripe was more like an ale, heavy and dark. The light, golden Red Stripe we enjoy today was first brewed in 1934, the creation of Paul Geddes (later Jamaica's first brewmaster) and Bill Martindale. The new Red Stripe was so successful that it shook the beer establishment of the time. By 1935 Jamaica's Governor, sent a dispatch to the home government in London warning: "this local industry turns out a beer so excellent and at so cheap a price that the English beers are unable to compete."
The answer was prompt: "Tax local beer but not British imports." It didn't sit well with the local Jamaican population. So great was the public outcry that the order was quietly withdrawn. The tax didn't reappear until 1940 when the British were able to levy an excise tax on the local beer and other goods since "Jamaica would have to pay its share of the cost of World War II."
Did the tax, and the increase in price that followed, spell doom for Red Stripe? Just the opposite. World War II brought large contingents of Canadian and American troops to Jamaica. The soldiers fell in love with Red Stripe and carried that love -- along with the beer -- back home with them. Red Stripe sales soared.
Over the years the business remained a family affair and the baton was passed on to Peter Desnoes and Paul Geddes. They envisioned a new, ultra-modern plant and they decided to gamble everything -- selling some property and using deeds of others as loan securities -- to buy land and begin construction of a plant that was to be the marvel of Jamaica.
The old Surrey Brewery on Pechon Street was phased out in 1958 when the ultra-modern plant at Hunt's Bay went into operation. This was the most modern brewery in the Caribbean and with its capacity the horizons of Desnoes & Geddes widened considerably.
Desnoes & Geddes became a public company in 1970. The company remained under the control of the Desnoes and Geddes families until 1993 then controlling interests were acquired by Guinness Brewing Worldwide that later became part of Diageo.
When Guinness assumed management of the company it sold the soft drinks division to Pepsi Americas. Today the company's exclusive focus is on beer.
The signature taste of Red Stripe Beer is created from five main ingredients: malt, corn, hops, yeast, and water.
Barley is specially prepared to produce the choice grade malt that gives Red Stripe is mellow flavor and body. The malt and hot water are placed in a mash vessel where the mixture is cooked at different temperatures. This allows for extraction and conversion of proteins and carbohydrates into their simpler components.
The mash is transferred into a special vessel (Lauter Tun) where the mother liquor is separated from the malt husk. The filtered liquid (wort) is pumped to a stainless steel kettle where hops are added, and the solution boiled for 90 minutes.
The boiled wort is passed through a cooler to the fermenting cellars, where oxygen and yeast are immediately added. That's when the magic begins. Over the next seven days, the yeast ferments the liquid forming alcohol, carbon dioxide and other products, and the brew now takes on its distinctive fruity/yeastey and sulphury character and taste.
At the end of fermentation, the yeast is removed and the beer transferred to storage tanks for aging. This 'lagering' phase is when the flavors developed in fermentation are brought into unique balance.
Red Stripe Beer is available through Standard Beverage.