Brewed in Belize, Guinness is pride of Ireland

It’s a drink that Belizeans have come to love, although very few are aware–or could care less–of its proud Irish heritage. And while personally I prefer Gin and tonic, yesterday News 5’s Janelle Chanona used the opportunity of St. Patrick’s Day to find out just what makes a two hundred year old drink from so far away, so popular here in Belize.

Janelle Chanona, Reporting

Every year, more than a hundred and twenty thousand crates of Guinness–roughly about two point eight million bottles–are sold in Belize. Apparently, Belizeans have always been big Guinness drinkers. We started importing it from Ireland in the late 1940s until the Belize Brewing Company got the license to start bottling it locally in 1989.

According to the Belize Brewing Company, Guinness has always been a strong performer. How come? Well, it couldn’t be because of that high alcohol content…could it?

Reinhard Happ, Brew master

“I won’t say it’s the main reason, but I think it’s one of the major reasons. I guess it’s the taste, the brand, one of the major reasons for the consumption of Guinness.”

“It’s always been that alcohol that conveys the taste, that makes it feel rich in the mouth, it’s the body; that’s what people like on Guinness.”

Hilly Martinez, G.M., Belize Brewing Co.

“The bitterness unit in a beer is roughly between sixteen to eighteen BTUs. Our stout is about twenty-eight…Guinness is between sixty and seventy. So it’s very bitter and some people like that taste, some don’t.”

Okay, so let’s get this straight, it tastes bitter and it’s a quick high. With a rap like that, who wants it? Well, according to local producers, the strong stout is a status symbol for Belizean men.

Hilly Martinez

“You know, in the past, it used to be looked at, and seriously, as a macho image…you know, you drink Guinness, you are the man with power, recently, Guinness had the Michael Power promotion. But [we are] trying to divert from the fact that it’s good for you or it’s a man’s drink, we want to say it’s a fun drink, it’s fun to socialize with Guinness.”

But even if a tall glass of cold Guinness isn’t your cup of tea, Belizeans have used the beverage in some interesting ways.

Hilly Martinez

“I know after donating blood, the Blood Donor’s Association used to always ask us for a couple cases of Guinness so they can give people…they have a choice of drinking Guinness or whatever they want. And it’s used for making cakes, some people felt that when their so-called blood was low, they would use it with milk, eggs and nutmeg etcetera, but that’s just a side thing. Guinness is really a dark beer so to speak, a stout.”

A stout, which according to Brew master Reinhard Happ, that isn’t hard to make. All you need is some barley malt, hop, colouring and of course, the secret extract for that unique taste…which they test just to make sure they’ve got it right…but, a state of the art, multi-million dollar, fully computerized factory, with plenty of Guinness experts on hand, certainly doesn’t hurt.

In other parts of the world, Guinness sales might have increased sharply as men and women celebrated St. Patrick’s Day, but there wasn’t any fanfare or product promotion on Monday, pretty much because, as we’ve just told you, here in Belize, every day is March seventeenth. Reporting for News 5, I am Janelle Chanona.

In case you were wondering, approximately ten million glasses of Guinness are sold worldwide each day, made in breweries in fifty-one different countries. As to the question of whether Guinness builds the strength of its drinkers, we can only note that brewery founder Arthur Guinness fathered twenty-one children.