Has anyone done the Beliken Brewery Excursion?

[mamascruisin]

We have booked this excursion and would like feedback from others who have done it.

 

TIA

[Slacks]

We have booked this excursion and would like feedback from others who have done it.

 

I was planning on it and changed my mind. If your desire is to try the beer it's readily available all over the main pier and shopping area and won't require a trip to the brewery. It's on draught at the Smoky Mermaid, a block behind Pier 1 as well.

 

Cheers,

Rick.

[driftwood]

HI!

 

I will be honest--we did not do the tour! BUT we drove past the Belikin brewery, as it is very near the Philip K. Goldson International Airport, and as the brewery has a glass wall, I could see that it was a very up-to-date, beautiful brewery (and believe me I have seen the inside of breweries), and if you would enjoy a brewery tour, you will enjoy touring this brewery!

 

Right now [i believe it is correct to say] Belikin makes four beers under its own brand name, two of them lagers about which I know nothing except that sales seem to be good; a dark beer (something like Bass Ale in color) named "Belikin Premium," which I found excellent and recommend as a good complement to almost any food served in Belize, and a good beer by itself--I think it recently won some international award--; and a stout, or very dark beer, not quite so dark as Guinness Stout or so heady, but still quite respectable--especially if one has become inured to the "Guinness Stout" brewed in Canada, which to my taste has never remotely approached the genuine Irish article. So I would say the Belikin stout falls between--better than the Canadian interpretation of Guinness, but still not so hearty as the real Guinness. But Belize is a very hot country, and a darker or heavier stout might not be desirable.

[Slacks]

Belize Brewing also brews the local Foreign Extra Stout version of Guinness, at 7.5%. Not sure if you can taste it at the brewery but you can at the port, and it's excellent!

 

Cheers,

Rick.

[driftwood]

Well, it shouldn't take too long to get a headache with that! 7.5% is awfully high--and of course has no effect on flavor . . . .

 

Curiously enough, they seem not to have a website of their own. It wouldn't pay to get hooked on Belikin because it is not widely distributed, and as you know major North American/South African beer companies have pretty much locked up all distribution by everybody for the United States. Had a Löwenbräu Dark lately? I thought not! But certainly, enjoy it on the ground when you are in Belize--it wipes the floor with Red Stripe.

 

Belikin is good enough to sell all their product domestically and to Mexico and perhaps Guatemala, I think. They may only waste money trying to go abroad--shipping anywhere is murder for everyone.

[Slacks]

Well, it shouldn't take too long to get a headache with that! 7.5% is awfully high--and of course has no effect on flavor . . . .

 

While I'd argue you can definitely taste alcohol, and thus it would affect the flavour, beyond that the Guinness brewed in Belize is significantly different from the Guinness brewed throughout North America. Not even similar, and definitely worth a try for any fan of beer who happens by.

 

Cheers,

Rick.

[driftwood]

is that more or less alcohol in beer has very little effect on taste, but a great deal of effect (over time) on drunkenness. In the United States higher alcohol beers, or "malt liquors," are cynically and intentionally marketed for specific social groups. Cui bono. But of course the more drunk you are, the less able you will be to taste anything anyway . . . .

 

I had no Guinness Stout of any description in Belize, so I am right out.

[Slacks]

Oh man, you're missing out! High alcohol beer doesn't necessarily mean malt liquor. Yes, of course, malt liquors do tend to be high in alcohol. But there are plenty of incredible high-alcohol beers that are viewed as some of the best in the world!

 

Samuel Adams Utopias (27%)

Dogfish Head World Wide Stout (18%)

Avery Mephistopheles Stout (16%)

Rochefort Trappistes 10 (12%)

Chimay Blue (9%)

 

Not to mention just about anything made by Unibroue - check this stuff out, you won't regret it!

 

Cheers,

Rick.

[driftwood]

Those are no longer "beers," and I am too old to be fooling with that stuff. I can get headaches from reading, and it's virtually free.

[bmacri]

My son has always told me if I found Chimay Beer, to buy it.

We live in Wa. state.

Might I see it in the Caribbean?

Belize, Cozumel, GC or Roatan?

 

I'm taking my son on a cruise in June and he would think I was pretty cool if I knew where to find the Chimay.

 

Thanks.

[driftwood]

I would think you were pretty cool if you could find it here in Virginia--but stranger things have happened--I once knew a man who had a cellar full of Drambuie. The consequence of that, of course, was that he had nothing to drink or to offer BUT Drambuie, and if his kid thought he was cool at first, perhaps the novelty wore off. :rolleyes:

[sag1804]

I would like to know how to get some of this when we are there. Whether it is before our cave tubing or after!!!;)