Friday Happy Hour: A Tale of Two Turk’s Head Beers

Beer of T&C?
Turk’s Head Amber + Lager Beers/SBPR

They are the best of beers, they are the worst of beers…

Never before on my beer-sampling travels throughout the Caribbean have I encountered two beers about which opinions run more hot and cold. Turk’s Head hit the market with both Lager and Amber varieties a little more than 10 years ago, setting about to become the beer of the Turks & Caicos.

According to many of the locals I met a few weeks ago between Provo and Pine Cay, however, Turk’s still has a ways to go to meet its goal…

Tastes like horse piss!

This was certainly the most strident of opinions with which I was presented, though it’s safe to say contempt approaching this level was expressed by a solid majority of those I came across.

If you ask me, though, I’d say they’re half wrong.

The lager – blonde, light and refreshing when ice-cold like most Caribbean beers – is just okay to me. It leaves a bit of a sour aftertaste that had me reaching for such popular alternatives in Provo as Heineken and Presidente.

It was during one such eschewing of Turk’s Head Lager that I discovered her Amber cousin.

Now this I liked!

Dark, tangy and more full-bodied than the blonde in the family, Turk’s Head Amber is anything but your typical Caribbean beer. It’s fairly robust at 6% alcohol by volume and pretty hoppy too – perfect for those who like a bit of bold and bite in their island brew.

Both are definitely best enjoyed cold while reveling in one of those stunning seaside settings for which the Turks & Caicos are famous, especially since you’re not likely to find either Turk’s Head beers outside the country any time soon.

Turk’s Head may be a lot of things to a lot of people, but one thing it will most certainly be to anyone who gets to enjoy one in the Turks & Caicos is fresh. The brewery uses all-natural ingredients, with hops and grains imported from the U.S. and Germany, and ultra-refined desalinated water produced right in Provo. The beer is never pasteurized, which is why you won’t find it in the States (or most anywhere else outside the 649). Every bit of it that leaves the brewery must be consumed in under three months, which, come to think of it, may explain the horse piss.

Not that I know what horse piss tastes like, mind you, but I’m guessing that if you got your lips on a Turk’s Head Lager past its prime, it’d be pretty easy to make the association…

Cheers!

 

Last updated by Steve Bennett on .

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