Secret Mission: Jamaica…Red Stripe

Good day friends and family, it’s your pal BeefLoaf.  It has been a bit since I wrote in this space, and for good reason, I, along with Mrs. BeefLoaf and the lovely Bonita Steakie were on a little research trip for the 108.  While the 108 budget runs on fumes for most things, like internet access and salaries for our writers, it has a YUGE meals and entertainment budget.  So, the crew thought it would be best if I (not your usual beer writer) went to Jamaica and checked out Red Stripe in its native land.

These types of trips tend to provide for a lot of sun and relaxation (and drinking) for Mrs. BeefLoaf and I…..Bonita Steakie on the other hand, gets into all kinds of adventures, just during this trip, she found a starfish, got her hair completely braided, got to swim through some coral, dominated the other kids at the kids club in bocce ball, got her face painted (twice), swam hours upon hours in the pool and ocean, shot billiards with her dad, crushed Miami Vice’s and Strawberry Daiquiri’s (virgin ldo, she’s only 7, but we do have her in a treatment program to get her off of them) and she was bit by a feral cat.  Don’t worry, in lieu of taking her to a 3rd World Hospital from feral cat bite, yours truly poured some rum into the wound while Bonita Steakie looked on with a gaze of extreme boredom.

Also, I thought it quite curious that while the Dominican Republic, only a hop, skip and a jump away from Jamaica, has tons of current MLB players as well as alumni, Jamaica has very few.  I thought about asking some of the staff at the resort or possibly some of the “entrepreneurs” that roamed the beach asking “Bob Marley?” but decided, since I didn’t see a sports bar on property that these people don’t give a fuck about baseball nor would they care that I am a blogger from some blog that nobody reads.

Any who, back to the review, I thought it made sense to try and replicate the thirst that needs to be quenched when the 108ers attended a ballgame, so I got some sun and swam a few races with Bonita Steakie (these were short sprints, which I routinely lost, it has only been about 12 calendar months that I have known how to swim so my technique is not refined yet).  I also ate a full breakfast, which occasionally included paella, so as to completely replicate conditions.  Red Stripe was a refreshing and thirst quenching lager.  Unlike the domestic macro brew lagers of los estados unidos, this actually has flavor, you can even taste some hops filtering through.  I was pleasantly surprised.  The wine that was being served on resort was meh, so I happily drank Red Stripe even when we had a steak dinner and it really hit the spot.  I even crushed several Red Stripe at the airport on the way home.  I will definitely get down on some Red Stripe again!

– BeefLoaf