Hawaii Beer

               My wife and I took a great trip to Hawaii recently, a place that's been high on our bucket list for a while now:           

I got the vacation started right with an early-morning (hey, the bar was open) Samuel Adams Rebel IPA at a Buffalo Wild Wings in the Atlanta airport as we waited for our flight to depart.

Hawaii has unbelievable beauty and a pretty good amount of craft beer!

My first beer in Hawaii on the island of Maui was this CoCoNut Porter in a can
from Maui Brewing out on the patio of our ocean-view condo.  My wife, Ashlee, opted for a mai-tai.  I bought a six-pack of this since we had a fridge along with a fairly worthless Primo Island Lager (Bombucha) that was actually produced in California.  I now refer to it now as "the PBR of Hawaii."

I love how this glass at Maui Brewing (just around the corner from where we were staying on Maui) says brewed "ON" Maui instead of "in."  It's the little things, you know?  This was their excellent Big Swell IPA that I had with a delicious lunch at their brewpub.  I also had a taste of my wife's choice of the Imperial CoCoNut Porter which was impressive also.   I had a Castaway IPA draught from Kona Brewing the next night at dinner while still on Maui and I've got to give it to Maui Brewing for overall taste and hoppiness when comparing the two.

In the hip little town of Haia on the island of Maui, Gene Simmons of KISS fame, is having a bar built.  I like the name and hope the "brews" are going to be good ones.  Need to come back and find out!

On to The Big Island as my UNTAPPED app indicates here.  We stayed at the beautiful Sheraton Kona Resort the first couple nights we were here and poolside I ordered a Fire Rock Pale Ale from nearby Kona Brewing Company which was pretty good.  I have had it before state-side.  I also had a Big Wave Golden Ale from Kona Brewing while at the ocean-side pool that I really liked.  It was actually hoppier than their IPA I had gotten over on Maui.

Volcanoes National Park selfie.  My giant head is blocking a beautiful sea arch.

On our way out of town, we stopped at the nearby and well-known Kona Brewing Company for lunch.  The food was excellent (a local fresh catch sandwich) and their beer samplers my wife and I had were tasty as well.   I had (from L to R) the Lavaman Red Ale, the Wailua Ale, the Black Sand Porter (my favorite) and the Hula Hefeweizen.

Over on the other side of The Big Island we had an early dinner at The Hilo Burger Joint where it was happy-hour and I got the Mehana Mauna Kea Pale Ale by Hawai'i Nui Brewing located right here in Hilo.  It was very good.  I also had a sip of the Hapa Brown Ale also from Hawai'i Nui that my wife ordered and I really liked it as well.  Too bad we didn't have time to visit this small microbrewery.  Maybe next visit, and there will be another I hope!

This was the "burger" I chose at The Hilo Burger Joint.  It's called a "loco moco bowl" which is a bun-less burger on top of two scoops of rice with an egg (scrambled per my choice) and doused in brown gravy.  It was heavenly and sinful all at the same time!

Really?  You live in Hawaii and you're gonna carry that kind of bad karma around?   It was still pretty funny though.

How can you not love a place where at sunset the breaking waves look like beer?