Carnival Vista Hops on Craft Beer Craze

by  Kristen Boatright | Jun 9, 2016

Beer lovers have a good reason to toast the new Carnival Vista. The RedFrog Pub on Carnival Cruise Line’s latest ship is also a working brewery, where three different beers are crafted as part of Carnival’s Thirsty Frog Line.

And the beer is good! It helps that Carnival enlisted some of the biggest names in beer to help create the new brews. Each was developed in partnership with Miami-based Concrete Beach Brewery, which is part of Alchemy & Science, a group started by Magic Hat’s Alan Newman and Jim Koch of Sam Adams.

Carnival Vista launched in May 2016 and is summering in the Mediterranean before heading to the Caribbean in the fall, and the ship’s beers are all inspired by destinations it will visit. The Port Hoppin’ IPA has passion fruit and citrus notes; the ThirstyFrog Caribbean Wheat is an unfiltered wheat lager with tastes of banana and spices; and the FriskyFrog Java Stout is rich and creamy with hints of coffee.Though it’s not brewed on board, you can also order a pint of the line’s original beer, Thirsty Frog Red — a fleet-wide favorite.

If you want to get a behind-the-scenes look at the brewery while on board, tours with tastings are offered on sea days and some port days for $12.96 per person.

We talked to Carnival’s very first brewmaster, Colin Presby, who walked us through the process — from grain to drinkable brew (which takes about 14 days start to finish). Watch our video above to get an inside look behind the scenes.

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