Kubuli beer

A name from the Kalinago

The Kalinago, Dominica’s indigenous people, called the island Wai’tu kubuli, which translates as “tall is her body”. Wikipedia’s article on Dominica suggests the phrase probably pictures the island as a goddess.

The beer takes the second half of that name. When Kubuli reached Saint Lucia in 2013, the St Lucia Star explained the name in exactly these terms and linked it to the strength and resilience the brand wanted to stand for.

Barley, hops and spring water

Kubuli is a lager. Wikipedia calls it golden, while the St Lucia Star and Wikipedia’s survey of Caribbean beer describe it as amber. The St Lucia Star lists its ingredients as malted barley, hops, yeast and sugar, brewed with one hundred per cent natural spring water from Dominica; Wikipedia names the source as the Loubière Springs.

It won a gold medal from Monde Selection, the Brussels quality awards, which both the St Lucia Star and Wikipedia date to 2002.

Dominica’s beer, and its neighbours’

At home, Kubuli has dominated the beer market: Wikipedia records a 68 per cent share of local beer sales in 2018. It has also travelled around the eastern Caribbean, with Wikipedia listing Saint Lucia, Saint Kitts, Barbados, Guadeloupe, Martinique, Montserrat, Antigua and Barbuda, Anguilla and the British and US Virgin Islands among its markets.

The St Lucia Star reported in April 2013 that the distributor Bryden’s had brought Kubuli to Saint Lucia’s shops, bars and restaurants, noting that many Saint Lucians had first tasted it while visiting Dominica for the World Creole Music Festival.

The brewery and its owners

Kubuli was the flagship of Dominica Brewery & Beverages, which, according to the trade site inside.beer, was founded in 1995 and also bottled Loubiere mineral water and produced Guinness and Vitamalt under licence. In December 2006 the Danish brewer Royal Unibrew bought a 58.4 per cent stake, part of a Caribbean push built around its Vitamalt malt drink, as the German brewing journal Brauwelt reported.

Royal Unibrew agreed in 2009 to sell its three Caribbean breweries, in Dominica, Antigua and St Vincent, to Cervecería Nacional Dominicana (CND) of the Dominican Republic for a combined 31 million US dollars. Searchlight, a St Vincent newspaper, reported in March 2010 that CND’s subsidiary International Brewing Limited had completed the purchase. In 2012 AmBev, the Brazilian arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev, bought a controlling stake in CND.

In September 2017 Hurricane Maria struck Dominica. In February 2018 inside.beer reported that the storm had destroyed the brewery and that its future was uncertain. In Emblem World, Kubuli sits in the Dominica drink collection, where people discover and rate local food, drink and music.