The German Brewer Making French Beer in the Caribbean

We were wrong. Maxie, Michel and I thought we were going to a brewpub in the capital of Guadeloupe. As French language students, we probably misunderstood Gwada Beer’s website. I was expecting a craft brewery with French and Caribbean influences, so were Michel and Maxie. What we encountered was unexpected and delightful.

Gwada Beer is a brewery… just not a craft brewery. It’s the beer of the island; a sort of national beer, if Guadeloupe were a country and not a Caribbean territory of France. The only thing “craft” about the brewery was its small size. Troeg’s Brewery in Hershey, PA is larger, so is Ever Grain Brewing in Mechanicsburg, PA.

As the three of us entered the brewery, we saw a very small bar area and couple of glass door refrigerators. Pretty standard stuff. But it seemed the three of us were the only visitors. We greeted the tall guy behind the counter in French. He asked if we were German — Maxie and Michel said they were; I said I was American. He then said speaking German or English would be better for him. He said that he was from Germany. He then explained that we were not in a craft brewery — they weren’t serving beer and food. The place was strictly for producing Gwada Beer… sort of.

The three of us had accidentally met Stefan Fascher, the head brewer of Gwada Beer. We had caught him and his coworker in the middle of working on some fermentation tanks. “I just moved here a few months ago to take the position.” Stefan mentioned that Gwada Original — the popular lager seen all over the island—is currently made in France. The brewery in Guadeloupe had fallen on hard times and he was hired to raise its quality. “So, like a good German, the first thing I started doing was cleaning,” Stefan said with a laugh.

From behind the bar, he poured us three glasses of a silky, golden beer. “Try these. This is Gwada Ice. It’s tough to find around Guadeloupe at the moment.” It was a delicious wheat beer. It tasted like a lager and didn’t have any grassy notes of a wheat. I’m not a big fan of wheat beer, but maybe it was the tropical heat because I loved it! He poured us another beer; this one was reddish and amber in color. “This is Gwada Magma with a higher ABV and tastes more like a pils.” It was also delicious. “It’s also rare to find around here,” he said.

Stefan then invited us to take a look at the brewery operations. “Come on back here. I can show you around a little.” The equipment was familiar—mash tun, boil kettle, fermentation tanks. As we paused by some of the equipment, I asked him if it bothered people on the island that Gwada Original wasn’t brewed locally anymore. “Well, to be honest, France is not a big beer culture. It’s more wine. And on the island, it’s more about rum. Beer is beer. Eventually, it’ll return to be brewed here.”

We walked back to the small bar area and chatted over more beer. Stefan has been the United States a few times. “My brother lives in Wisconsin. I’ve had a lot of good beer and great times there.” And, thanks to Stefan at Gwada Beer, Maxie, Michel and I had good beer and a great time in Guadeloupe.

More Information on Gwada Brewing and Beer

The following comes via Untappd.

The Gwada Brewery proper is known as Les Brasseurs De Guadeloupe and is located at Baie-Mahault, Guadeloupe France and is labeled a micro brewery. They have 12 unique beers and over 3,000 ratings for a global average rating of 2.87 (as of 3.6.25). Their Untappd description is left as blank, and there are no links to any social media platforms or websites (from Untappd).

• Les Brasseurs De Guadeloupe – Untappd

However, this website does pop up when doing a Google search: Gwada Beer (Homepage).

Paul R. Kan is the author of Hawai’i Beer:  A History of Brewing in Paradise which was a North American Guild of Beer Writers’ award winner and a #1 new release on Amazon’s Books on Beer.  He has written for Good Beer Hunting and is Editor-at-Large at The Beer Thrillers.  Along with beer reviews, book reviews and interviews, he also writes about the interesting ways beer intersects with people and society.  His current book project is Red, White and Brew:  The Beers and Battles that Shaped America. He lives in Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

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