As I sit here on dad duty while Alice has a drink with some of the other volunteers (three new ones arrived this afternoon) at a local watering hole (Sunset Gardens -- with the choice location beside the car washing station a couple blocks from the homebase) I thought I would write a little about the beer available in Ghana.
(Before you think I'm hard done by having to babysit while the others are out carousing, I enjoyed a cold beer this afternoon and I went out for one last night as well as we bid farewell to Nancy, a volunteer nurse who flew home day, while Alice stayed in...)
For the most part, there are four main choices at many of the drinking establishments (I hesitate to call them bars since, for most of us, that conjures up certain images. Most of them are small patios (a couple of tables, six or eight chairs, with a little structure of some kind -- wooden shed, converted shipping container -- with some shelving, a little bar and a fridge/freezer) although some of the larger establishments -- Obama Gardens and Malaysia being two of the more prominent ones in Hohoe -- can seat many more and have large areas for dancing). There four main choices are (in order from least to most important):
Castle Milk Stout: This one probably doesn't deserve to be on the list. Despite what I said above, you only find this at some of the bars. It's also not west African in origin -- it comes from South Africa. It is, however, my favourite and since this is my guide, it makes the list. It's smooth and rich, very much like the Guinness we're used to drinking in Canada (or, for those lucky ones, in Ireland).
Guinness: This one is misleading, as I learned last weekend during our sojourn to Cape Coast. You see the Guinness logo everywhere. The company is clearly very heavily invested here advertising in many, many places. I probably see at least a dozen signs and logos on my way through town to our school placement every morning. The thing is, when you order Guiness you don't get that smooth and rich brew you get when you order a pint in Canada, but instead a bottle of Guinness Strong which is 7.5% alcohol, considerably stronger than regular Guinness. It tastes a little like drinking a very bitter dark beer with shot or two of vodka. Ironically, one of the reasons you see so much advertising for Guinness is that they are trying to sell their Malta -- a product with no alcohol whatsoever. There are a number of maltas for sale in Ghana, in part because of it's large muslim population. They are an acquired taste -- imagine Coke with molasses as its main ingredient -- that I have yet to acquire. Should you wish to try one without shelling out for airfare to Africa, you can buy it in Canada; I have seen Malta (though not the Guinness brand) at the Carlingwood Lablaws in the miscelaneous ethnic aisle.
Club: You see this almost everywhere. Unlike Guinness, their prefered method of advertising is the plastic cases the bottles are shipped in. You don't see people buying cases of beer here the way we do in Canada (though I'm sure that some people do); mostly drinks (beer and pop) are distributed to the various establishments around town in reusable cases and bottles. The club cases are a distictive green with a simple club symbol (like you find on playing cards). There is a distribution centre on our way to our placement and the cases form a wall piled 15 or 20 cases high along the fence facing the road. As for taste, I can't tell you because I haven't tried it. If I had to hazard a guess, I would say it is probably very similar to the generic lagers, like Canadian, the big brewers in Canada force us to settle for.
Star: This one is the most important -- Ghana's national beer. The Black Star is Ghana's symbol, adopted following its independence from England in 1957 (the first African country to achieve autonomy from its colonial rulers). The main square in Accra is Black Star Sqaure and there is a black star at the centre of the country's flag. I have tasted this one and there is nothing exciting about it, outside of its symbolic weight -- I would hard pressed to tell the difference between it and Blue or Budweiser. For all I know, it comes from the same vat as Club does (one of my all-time favourite Simpson moments comes during Homer's visit to Duff Brewery; there is a shot of one giant vat of beer with six or eight taps all with different labels...). On a hot, humid day, though, a cold Star tastes good and you can justify the bland taste by telling yourself that you are doing your civic duty and upholding the country's long tradition of fierce indepenence -- quench your thirst and stick it to the man!
As a side note, someone told us that Star stands for "Sit, talk and relax" which I thought was very clever, though I've yet to see that written anywhere or included in any advertising. I imagined a group sitting around an advertising firm in dashikis circa-1967 trying to come up with clever slogans, in the wake of the founding President -- Kwame Nkrumah -- being deposed by the military the previous year. "We need something that isn't tied to independence; another reason to drink Star besides patriostism. Who wants to drink beer associated with military dictators? What have people got? We need something simple, easy to digest and clever." Too many hours spent watching Mad Men? Perhaps.
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