Malt & Grain

What malt is Red Stripe brewed from? Barley malt, like almost every lager. Malt is made by soaking barley grains until they germinate, then stopping the sprouting process by drying, known as kilning. Barley favors cool, long growing seasons. In Jamaica's tropical climate it doesn't thrive, so the brewery depends on malt imported from other countries.

Red Stripe's signature profile is pale, golden-colored and slightly sweet upfront. It's meant to feel light in hand after a hot day, and that's achieved with pale malt, which gives the beer little color.

With Dragon Stout, it's the opposite. According to information on the brewing process, it uses European malts, caramel malt and roasted malt, along with dark cane sugar. Caramel malt is made by heating moist malt in an oven so that the starch in the grain turns to sugar and browns; it brings sweetness and color. Roasted malt is heated even more intensely and tastes of coffee and cocoa.

The sugar leads back to the island's history. Sugar cane was Jamaica's most important crop for centuries, and cane sugar still features in some of the island's recipes today. The stout is thus an example of how an Irish and English beer style takes its own direction with local ingredients. This, too, should be taken with caution: breweries rarely reveal exactly how much sugar goes into the brew of a given beer, and labels usually list only water, malt, hops and ingredients under general terms.