Carnival Horizon to mix beer and barbecue in a big way

Credit: Filippo Vinardi

Credit: Filippo Vinardi

Carnival Cruise Line likes cooking up beer on board its new ships.

Carnival Vista boasted the first on-board microbrewery for North America and the soon-to-arrive sister ship Carnival Horizon will serve up the brews too, but this time with barbecue.

The line recently debuted the four planned microbrews that will be served in a new barbecue dining venue from Food Network star Guy Fieri coming to the ship that is debuting in April and arriving to PortMiami this September.

While Fieri’s Pig and Anchor has a shoehorned (yet tasty) presence on four other Carnival ships, Carnival Horizon will give it its biggest stage yet in the form of Guy’s Pig & Anchor Bar-B-Que Smokehouse | Brewhouse.

“We wanted to do something different and unique, but we knew we wanted to make sure we had craft beer brewed right on board our ship to offer our guests really the freshest, most local craft beer you can get.” Carnival Vice President of Beverage Operations Edward Allen said. “We started working with our longtime partner … Guy Fieri … we wanted to do something great with him.”

Pairing his barbecue menu with beer just made sense, Allen said.

Once again, the beer is the brainchild of Carnival Brewmaster Colin Presby, who heads up the microbrew operations on board Vista and has come up with four new offerings for Horizon.

“We went back and forth with some beer ideas, started to formulate some recipes, and I think we’ve got four pretty tasty beers,” Presby said.

The names of the brews are all under the branding of ParchedPig including the Smoked Porter, Farmhouse Ale, Toasted Amber Ale and West Coast IPA.

For the Smoked Porter, Presby explained the flavor that includes notes of molasses and hickory smoke.

“We’re able to take malt and smoke it right here on board,” he said. “It lets us have more control and get a really nice smoky flavor to go with the barbecue.”

Both ales are smooth and the IPA has a scent of citrus and pine.

The food offerings from Fieri include smoked-on-board brisket, Memphis-style back ribs, dry-rubbed chicken, pulled pork, cedar-smoked salmon as well as traditional sides like macaroni and cheese and a lot of sauce work.

Dinner menu items are offered a la carte while a free, self-service lunch buffet will be available on embarkation day as well as sea days.

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