Kona Pipeline Porter

While at my buddy Jeff’s house in New Jersey, I tried a bottle of Kona Pipeline Porter. The beer pours a dark amber with a filmy tan head. The aroma consists of coffee and light chocolate with toasted malts. The taste is bold with lots of coffee built on a toasted malt and chocolate base, and the finish is dry with vanilla accents. The alcohol content is 5.4% ABV. The Pipeline Porter was a solid coffee based beer with a great coffee flavors and a balancing chocolate accent.

Kona Wailua Wheat

I picked up a six-pack of Kona Wailua Wheat in Ocean City while I was on vacation. If you are wondering, yes I poured this beer the proper way that a wheat beer should be poured: glass upside down on bottle, tilt, and pull bottle out of the glass ahead of the beer stream. The beer pours a golden color with a lofty and foamy head with lots of lacing on the glass. The aroma consists of wheat, orange, lemon, and passion fruit. The taste is sweet and smooth with a wheat flavor coming out at first, then turning to a passion fruit tartness that does not overwhelm. The finish again is sweet and has some butter and toasted cracker notes to it and is somewhat dry. The alcohol content is 5.4% ABV. I was recommended this beer by my coworker Mike, and he did not disappoint with his recommendation. The beer is light and refreshing for the summertime, yet complex and flavorful. If you can locate this beer, I recommend trying it.

Kona Longboard Island Lager

I picked up a six-pack of Kona Longboard Island Lager in Ocean City, MD. This was my first experience with Kona, but I have heard good things about the brewery. The beer pours a pale yellow color with a thin bubbly white head. The aroma consists of sweet malts and sour hops with slight accents of lemon and caramel. The taste is very smooth and round, and feels like it fill the mouth more than it actually does (shall we call this expansive?). There are flavors of sweet caramel malts with a lightly balanced sour hop finish. The finish is slightly dry but refreshes nonetheless. The alcohol content is 4.6% ABV. The Longboard Island Lager is a perfectly done sessionable lager that refreshes as much as it satisfies the taste for craft beer. There's nothing experimental in this beer, just quality ingredients and a well done lager for summertime consumption.