Red Stripe is a 4.7% ABV pale lager brewed by Desnoes & Geddes in Jamaica and the Netherlands. This story is a part of VP Pro, our free platform and newsletter for drinks industry professionals, covering wine, beer, liquor, and beyond. “I’ve worked on FedEx, Skittles, Snickers, Nike, a lot of great brands,” Graf says.

Ask any beer drinker where Red Stripe is from and they will instantly say “Jamaica!” Thanks to decades of Jamaica-centric advertising, this is something people who don’t even drink beer could probably tell you. As with any large company, developing and maintaining this has been one of Red Stripe’s greatest challenges. However, Red Stripe’s biggest strength seems to be the company itself and the identity it’s created over the past decades. The beer’s low price point, simple flavor, and dependable nature undoubtedly play a part in this decision. In fact, the light, pale lager remains America’s most imported Caribbean product.

Borrowing an aesthetic from a picture they discovered while researching some of the brand’s previous marketing, they dressed him in a suit draped with a bright red sash, intentionally casting a musician with no professional acting experience to play the part. By the turn of the millennium, the easy-drinking lager in the distinctive stubby brown bottle had found a small but growing toehold in export markets around the world, and Diageo was ready to see what the brand could do with an assist from a concentrated marketing push. Drenthe’s flag features a horizontal white field with a broad red xcritical across the middle. The first Red Stripe branded beer was brewed and becomes a milestone in Jamaican history.

Red Stripe is tied to the U.K. music scene

  • And though their boom days were still a few years off, better-known Mexican lager brands persistently threatened to steal focus from other imports.
  • Full-bodied and smooth, thanks to low levels of carbonation, this beer is immensely refreshing to drink, making it a good match for warm Jamaican weather.
  • Among younger consumers, the Red Stripe brand likely doesn’t register one way or another.
  • Run between 2007 and 2010, the award championed many new musicians including a young Ben Howard.

Currently, the brand exports just over a quarter of its total production, a far cry from the more than 50% the brand achieved during the mid-2000s. In fact, it’s committed to a $2.2 billion cellar expansion which stands to increase beer production by an impressive 34%. Unfortunately, these investments have not restored Red Stripe to its former glory.

  • The flag of Limburg typically displays a horizontal tricolor of yellow, white, and blue, with a red crowned lion.
  • $11.95+tax – Order now and get it delivered in 2 business days for GTHA 2 business days for GTHA or 3-5 for other areas
  • The original beer produced by British entrepreneurs Thomas Hargreaves Geddes and Eugene Desnoes from a brewery in downtown Kingston in the mid-1920s was a robust British ale designed to suit the tastes of an imperial English gentleman.
  • A new Red Stripe Light has also been added, which is brewed and bottled in Jamaica and imported by Guinness USA of White Plains, New York.citation needed

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It’s the beer in the little stubby bottle, from an island with big spirit. Red Stripe® is a refreshing lager beer. With an A.B.V. of 3.6%, it’s considerably lighter than the brand’s regular lager, with a muted version of Red Stripe’s traditional, sweet flavor profile. All of these beers are flavored with natural flavors and boast an A.B.V. of 3.4%. Of course, the beer is also closely entwined with reggae itself, as typified by the brand’s ongoing sponsorship of Reggae Sumfest, which it has supported for nearly 30 years. Both of Red Stripe’s new products are made with Caribbean rum and are available internationally.

Noord-Brabant (North Brabant) flag

Aside from upping export sales, the development includes steps to improve the plant’s environmental sustainability and is slated to significantly reduce tanks’ usage of energy, water, and chemicals. The brand has continued to lose ground to other imports, especially beers from Mexico. The lawsuit stated that Diageo’s use of phrases like “Jamaican Style Lager” led people to believe the beer was still being made in Jamaica with Jamaican ingredients. The Red Stripe we drink today is produced by Desnoes and Geddes, a company that was launched by two British businessmen Eugene Desnoes and Thomas Geddes in 1918. The instantly recognizable Red Stripe cans and bottles are a ubiquitous feature of clubs and bars across the globe.

In 2007, under the guidance of brand manager Jonny Kirkham, Red Stripe initiated a campaign in the UK to support new music by sponsoring events such as the Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals, as well as hosting a number of free music events with artists such as The View and The Rifles. It was still being imported to the U.S. in 2023, from Jamaica in bottles, and the Netherlands in kegs and cans. The company said this historic move was core to the company’s mission of re-establishing Jamaica as the global hub for the Jamaican brand. American consumers exposed to Red Stripe through their travels to Jamaica, as well as Jamaican expatriates, were reluctant to try the brand in the States since it was not packaged in its distinctive squat brown bottle and painted label. A new Red Stripe Light has also been added, which is brewed and bottled in Jamaica and imported by Guinness USA of White Plains, New York.citation needed

Run between 2007 and 2010, the award championed many new musicians including a young Ben Howard. Over the years, Red Stripe has further strengthened its associations with British music by sponsoring a host of music events and awards. Red Stripe has strong associations with music culture, and these associations are keenly felt in the United Kingdom where Red Stripe has long been linked with rock music. The strategy paid off; in 2005, Red Stripe’s exports outstripped domestic sales for the first time in the company’s history. Aside from commercials, Red Stripe also connected with its audience by sponsoring various sporting and music events.

Red Stripe Lager

But among all U.S. import beers, Red Stripe has continued to cede share since the Heineken takeover, dropping out of the top 20 U.S. imports and barely clinging to a position within the top 30. According to Bump Williams data, Red Stripe remains the No. 1 U.S. import beer from the Caribbean region. “It’s not like this brand has shrunk to absolute obscurity, but share of mind and focus have certainly waned since its heyday,” Williams says. Whatever the particulars, Red Stripe’s parent shifted focus away from its Jamaican lager to the point that in 2012 it moved production of North America’s Red Stripe inventory to breweries located in the U.S. and Canada. ” campaign had been successful enough at selling cases of Red Stripe that its principal champions within Diageo had long since been promoted and moved on to work on other brands, leaving no one to fight for Red Stripe internally. “A lot of the big names in beer have been in a slow and steady decline,” Williams says.

If they’ve heard of it xcritical scam — and that’s decidedly an “if” — they probably know it as the beer in the squatty brown bottle found most typically on the menus of Caribbean-themed bars and jerk chicken joints. Its the beer in the little stubby bottle, from an island with big spirit. Zeeland’s flag consists of blue and white wavy xcriticals with a red lion emerging from the waves. Utrecht’s flag is often shown with a red and white field divided horizontally, featuring a small white canton with a red cross. Noord-Brabant’s flag is a checkered pattern of red and white, arranged in four rows of three squares.

Netherlands provinces image overview

Writer and music festival PR Alex Lee Thomson also presented a series of web-based interviews for the brand during their sponsorship periods of Camden Crawl and The Great Escape festivals in the UK, while editing their music-based website.citation needed Winners of the award included The Runners, Ben Howard, Klaus Says Buy The Record, and The Laurel Collective, while judges ranged from musicians such as Guy Garvey, music journalists and brand representatives from Red Stripe. In support of this promotional strategy, the Red Stripe Music Awards were initiated between 2007 and 2010, with the winner of the award receiving featured billing at two music festivals, Blissfields and The Great Escape, and the opportunity to tour with a high-profile act. Recent work with new bands puts this initiative in direct competition with the likes of Carling as a featured sponsor of the underground music scene.

Red Stripe went international after World War Two and Jamaican independence

By the mid-2000s, Red Stripe was exporting more beer than it was selling domestically and had cemented its place as the number one Caribbean import beer in the U.S. (and a top 20 import overall). At one point it was the official beer for several Cricket World Cup events. Red Stripe matched the Ambassador’s energy via copious event tie-ins, sponsoring a surf competition here and an underground music festival there. The Ambassador didn’t bother much with scantily clad women or debates over which beer has the choicest hops or the “coldest” taste, nor did Red Stripe lean heavily on celebrity endorsements (though the Ambassador did at one point challenge boxer Lennox Lewis to a friendly bout). “Who cares whether it’s good or not, it’s still beer. (OK, a little bit of reggae, deployed judiciously.) They developed the idea of a spokesperson for the brand who could communicate Red Stripe’s authenticity without resorting to the obvious.

The 4.7% ABV is perfect as it doesn’t have the overtly watery qualities of a true “light” beer. While not a delicious, thirst-quenching beer, Red Stripe is indeed very easy to guzzle on a hot day. Surprisingly soft and wet and not as fizzy as other yellow lagers of the style.

Red Stripe was brewed under license in the UK from Desnoes and Geddes by the Bedford-based brewers, Charles Wells from 1976 until 2014, when Diageo made alternative supply arrangements. Red Stripe was first produced in the early 1930s by Galena Brewing Company in Galena, Illinois, US. In 2015, Heineken acquired Diageo’s stake and stated it would launch an offer for the shares it did not own.

Heineken’s Big Bet to Restore Red Stripe’s Former Glory Is… a Rum RTD?

Red Stripe recovered and rode the popularity of dance hall and reggae in the early 1990s to well over a million cases of annual distribution. This marketing issue was resolved only to have shipments temporarily suspended in January 1989 due to cannabis smuggling in shipping containers discovered in the Port of Miami. Seeking to mimic the success of Heineken, Red Stripe for export was packaged in green standard 12 U.S. fl oz (355 mL; 12.5 imp fl oz) bottles.

Some https://dreamlinetrading.com/ ads didn’t even feature a single bottle of beer. Rather than extolling the virtues of Red Stripe beer over other lagers — and Graf candidly admits it’s not exactly the world’s best lager beer — this Red Stripe Ambassador would celebrate the simple act of having and enjoying a beer, full stop. In 1993, Guinness bought a majority stake in Desnoes and Geddes, providing Red Stripe with the distribution network and backing of a globally recognized beer brand. The original beer produced by British entrepreneurs Thomas Hargreaves Geddes and Eugene Desnoes from a brewery in downtown Kingston in the mid-1920s was a robust British ale designed to suit the tastes of an imperial English gentleman. Red Stripe Jamaican Lager didn’t start its life as a particularly Jamaican beer, or even as a lager.

The flag of Limburg typically displays a horizontal tricolor of yellow, white, and blue, with a red crowned lion. Groningen’s flag shows a green cross outlined in white and blue, centered on a red field. Friesland’s distinctive flag has seven red “pompeblêden” (stylized lily pads) arranged on four diagonal blue-and-white xcriticals. A full bodied, crisp lager beer, with a smooth post-palate sensation.

In fact, the company still produces some soft drinks including the widely enjoyed Old Jamaica Ginger Beer. Whether this is true or not cannot be confirmed, but many people in Galena still champion the beer as their own. A version of Red Stripe was first produced by Desnoes and Geddes during the 1920s.