There is one beer you will not order anywhere else — and that has everything to do with how it was once brewed.
The brewery that ran on seawater
The Antillean Brewery was built on Curaçao in 1958, and in 1960 Prince Bernhard officially opened its doors. What made this brewery unique — at the time the only one in the world doing it — was that all the water used in it was distilled seawater: converted from salt to fresh specifically for the brewing process. Amstel Bright, a little lighter and sweeter than regular Amstel, was the result.
The local brewery on Curaçao closed in 2005 under growing competition from larger regional brewers. Amstel Bright still exists, though: it is brewed in the Netherlands these days, to the same recipe and still using distilled seawater from Curaçao.
Only on the ABC islands
Amstel Bright is deliberately sold only on Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao. That makes it as much a souvenir as a drink: something you taste here and will not find on the shelves back home.
Order one ice-cold at a beach bar, and you are drinking a piece of island history along with it.
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