Carnival Cruise Line announced that is newest ship, Carnival Horizon, will be serving up will be serving up fresh beer brewed on the ocean liner.
Four varieties — a smoked porter, farmhouse ale, toasted amber ale, and West Coast IPA — will be produced under the ParchedPig brand by Carnival brewmaster Colin Presby. They will be served at Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que, created by celebrity chef Guy Fieri.
Presby and Carnival vice president of beverage operations Edward Allen made the new brewery announcement at a keg-tapping ceremony held aboard Carnival Vista.
“I’m excited about launching my newest shipboard eatery at Carnival,” Fieri said. “I know what it takes to make real-deal barbecue — quality meats smoked ‘low and slow’ and top-notch sides using the freshest ingredients. And when you combine down-home barbecue with a cold beer brewed right on board, you have a truly outta bounds experience!”
The restaurant is a “unique culinary concept and we’ve created four fantastic brewed-on-board craft beers that not only showcase different tastes and brewing styles but also serve as the ideal accompaniment to the venue’s delicious array of barbecue offerings,” said Presby, who comes by way of Weyerbacher Brewing and Stoudts Brewing.
The smoked porter is made with in-house smoked malt, lending hickory smoke notes to the molasses-laced porter, while the toasted amber ale features caramel and biscuit backbone. The West Coast IPA is packed with hops with notes of citrus and pine. The farmhouse ale is fruity and spicy with a dry finish. All will pair nicely with the menu at Fieri’s restaurant, which includes brisket, Memphis-style ribs, dry-rubbed chicken, pulled pork, and salmon.
The beers are the next evolution of Carnival’s ThristyFrog beers, which first debuted on the Carnival Magic’s RegFrog Pub in 2011. When an expanded RedFrog Pub & Brewery opened on the Carnival Vista, it was the first brewery on a North American-based ship.
Carinval Horizon hits the waves on April 2 and makes its Stateside debut in May with a 14-day, trans-Atlantic trip from Barcelona to New York. Following its relocation to New York, Carnival Horizon will make four-day trips to Bermuda and eight-day Caribbean voyages during the summer. Year-round cruises will begin with six- and eight-day trips around the Caribbean.
Now that the Carnival fleet’s second North American-based brewery is afloat, Presby appears to be another step closer to his goal — a goal the cruise line has intentions on adding to in the future.
“I want fleet brewmaster,” Presby joked when the Carnival Vista brewery opened. “Brew admiral is another one; I think when we have five ships with breweries than I can become an admiral.”
