There’s nothing like vacationing on an island, tanning to prove you went somewhere, unwinding with the therapeutic crashing waves and sipping the indigenous beer that proudly represents its home. In the new Island Beer Series, The Beer Connoisseur’s Ale Sharpton explores some the best ales and lagers created on the sands of the world’s most beautiful islands.

When people think of the Cayman Islands, picturesque beaches, some serious diving, relaxation and the ideal stash spot for their hard-earned money (due to relaxed banking restrictions) comes to mind. As if vacationers need another reason to head to the Cayman Islands, how about some award-winning brews produced right on Grand Cayman? Cayman Islands Brewery’s (CIB) sudsy trio — the flagship, Caybrew, a German-style Pilsner; easy-drinking CayLight lager and exceptional, malty Ironshore Bock — collectively demonstrate their mission to satisfy a broad range of brew sippers from all over the world. The brewery describes Caybrew as “a full-bodied premium lager with a crisp, clean hop finish,” whose logo “is a graphic representation of the Cayman Islands’ national tree, the Silver Thatch Palm, and three red stars depicting each of the country’s islands.”

Besides earning gold medal honors from the prestigious Monde Selection panel, CIB is known for their contributions to safeguarding the earth and “keeping it real”; this 12,000 square foot brewery on three acres of land implements a strong water conservation program, donates spent grains to local farmers and runs a generous recycling program that awards $2 for a case of empty bottles, to name a few initiatives. With so much this island brewery does to preserve their environs and surrounding Caribbean Sea, while quenching the thirst of thousands of visitors a year, The Beer Connoisseur interviewed CIB’s official spokesperson, Matthew Leslie, to get a detailed breakdown on how they have been so successful in merely a three-year existence, what made them add a bock to their lineup and what the future holds.

Ale Sharpton: First, discuss why lighter lagers are so popular on the islands? Is it from the influence of the European settlers from long ago, its ideal ice-cold temperature, light alcohol...?
As far as I know, the influence of light beers is directly from North America, most of the smaller breweries in the Caribbean produce a standard style German pilsner, such as Caybrew. Guinness has a very broad reach in the Caribbean, which is the influence of the early colonial settlers.
Light and lower alcohol products have started to be produced such as CayLight, Piton in St. Lucia and Sands Light in the Bahamas to capitalize on the growth of these styles driven by non-alcoholic consumption. They are light and refreshing which is perfect for a beach beer.
 
I see that you have three types of beers, and I was surprised to see a bock.
We have three very distinct brands currently in our portfolio. Caybrew is a standard German pilsner, CayLight is a low calorie, low carb and low alcohol beer introduced with a sports/active consumer in mind. The Ironshore Bock was created to provide the expat community a beer style that would be similar to some of the dark beers sold in the UK like Bass or USA like Sam Adams.
With the use of different malts, we have created a strong beer with a roasted aftertaste.
 
Congratulations on the gold medals, by the way. Please boast why you won and a brief description of the Monde Selection who awarded you the medals.
The Gold Medal was award by the Monde Selection, a panel who judges beers from around the world on specific criteria such as sensory and organoleptic characteristics (relating to the senses). Gold is awarded if the product achieves 80 percent of points awarded.  We are very proud of the high quality that we use to brew our beers.  We meet and exceed international standards.

Yeah, I’m impressed. I knocked down a few when I kicked it on your beautiful island for the Jazz Festival, which was pretty hot by the way (www.caymanislands.ky). Speaking of beautiful, share how CIB has helped to preserve the environment. Your dedication needs to get some love.
Recycling bottles, water treatment plant, spent grains to the farmers...  We have a very aggressive recycling program that extends to our clients and private customers. They get back $2 a case when they return the empty bottles and this helps keep our landfill free of our products, as we are able to recycle and reuse the bottles. This has been well received and we are at almost 75 percent in returns.  This will eventually go up to over 90 percent in due time and eventually we would love to see a complete 100 percent return on our bottles. With our water treatment plant, we are able to convert our waste water back to reusable water which we can donate to local charities for irrigation for parks, sport fields and the Botanic Gardens if they want it. Water consumption can be very high as it takes 10 liters of water to make 1 liter of beer. And finally after filtering, we take the spent grains and gladly give it away free to the farmers, which is very high in protein and vitamins. We encourage them to come see us and get it for free.
 
Very cool. Besides the Caybrews, what other island beers do you consider at the top of the list?
Hmmmm…Red Stripe, Kalik and Piton. But we still think we are #1! (Laughing.)

What are the most challenging things regarding brewing on the island?
The expense of running the brewery is the most difficult — water and utilities are very high, but the products have been very well received by particularly our overseas tourists. Overall, we are happy to continue growing in popularity.
 
So what’s on tap for the future?
We are really looking forward to the next couple years as we expand our market with international distribution and also our involvement locally. We sponsor many charities and sporting groups and we feel that as a part of the community, we need to do our part in keeping it Green.  This is something that has been of importance to the brewery from day one.  Our shareholders have put a lot of confidence in the management team headed up by James Mansfield who has a wealth of experience and that is complemented with an excellent support staff, myself included.  So we are really happy with our direction. 

For more info on Cayman Islands Brewery, visit www.cib.ky. The next Island will be St. Lucia and their Piton brew!

-- by Ale Sharpton

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