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Miss Your Cruise Vacation? Take Home a Carnival Cruise Beer When It’s Over

By Pat Evans Published August 6, 2021

Carnival Cruise Line is stepping up its beer game by adding some on-shore production to support its floating breweries.

Since the cruise company launched on-ship breweries on two ocean liners (Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon) in 2016, Carnival has served up 300,000 pints of its beer. Pleasing plenty of palates on those two vessels, Carnival decided it was time to roll out the brand to its other ships and let passengers take home a bit of liquid relaxation. A third on-ship brewery will launch in December aboard the Carnival Panorama, as Carnival brewmaster Colin Presby nears a five-ship cut level and his hope to be “brew admiral.”

carnival beer cans — Colin Presby, Carnival Cruise Line’s brewmaster (left), and Edward Allen, Carnival’s vice president of beverage (right). Image used with permission by copyright holder

“With the success of our breweries on Carnival Vista and Carnival Horizon the obvious next step was to let all of our guests fleetwide enjoy our refreshing craft beers,” said Edward Allen, Carnival’s vice president of beverage operations. “To be the first cruise line to ever scale up its beverage operations by canning and kegging their own beer is unprecedented.

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“My hope is that our guests will take a four-pack home with them to share with family and friends as a refreshing and memorable reminder of their cruise.”

“My hope is that our guests will take a four-pack home with them to share with family and friends as a refreshing and memorable reminder of their cruise.”

With a limited amount of space onboard the ships with breweries, the cruise line partnered with Florida’s Brew Hub to contract brew and package the beers for fleet-wide distribution in tap and on draft. Brew Hub is a contract brewing facility that allows brands like Carnival to scale up.

Carnival’s brewery is now packaging three of its beers in 16-ounce cans, including Thirsty Frog Caribbean Wheat, ParchedPig West Coast IPA, and ParchedPig Toasted Amber Ale. Just like breweries on the mainland, the cruise line’s breweries also like to experiment with seasonals, such as Miami Guava Wheat and Pumpkin Spice Ale.

All three of the recipes to be packaged were developed by the Carnival brewing team and scaled up at the Brew Hub facility in Lakeland, Florida.

”Carnival’s team of brewers have created three amazing craft beers, and we could not be more excited to be working together,” said Tim Schoen, CEO and Founder of Brew Hub. “Now passengers on all 26 Carnival ships will be able to enjoy these fresh, high-quality craft beers on every voyage and take some home after their trip.”

Former Beverage Writer

Pat Evans is a writer based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, focusing on food and beer, spirits, business, and sports. His full…

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