Maui Brewing is coming to the East Coast, so reports BeerNews.org
To me, it's a double-edged sword. Here's a brewery that makes great beer, Great--Local--Beer.
On one hand, don't get me wrong, the ability to buy it so close to home is, according to the greedy consumer in me, great. Bikini Blonde, Big Swell, and, yes, CoCoNut Porter will all find their way into my cooler after my next trip to Maryland/DC/Virginia...but of course.
But, on many other hands, it just feels wrong. It's a Great--Local--Beer. Local to Hawaii -- to Maui. It's just one more thing that makes traveling to Maui more interesting. The lush landscape, the luaus, the aloha....and the beer from Maui Brewing Company.
Sure, it'll still taste fresher, and presumably better, when visiting the 50th state. Fortunately, of course, their brewpub will always have plenty more other beers that never make it off the island. Knowing, though, that I can get some of them on the East Coast will take just a bit of the thrill out of drinking them in Hawaii.
Showing posts with label Maui Brewing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Maui Brewing. Show all posts
Friday, October 21, 2011
Monday, March 29, 2010
Don Ho, it's off to Hawaii we go....in search of Good Beer---Part 2
I was "moved" by my trip to Hawaii. Much like many of you, I'm sure, when you go to any place of extreme natural beauty and wonder. Well, maybe I wasn't as overwhelmingly moved during the first half of our trip to Oahu. After all, I was working most of the day long and only able to partake in a limited amount of nightlife during the week. Plus, the jetlag for the first couple of days had something to say about it too. Though, between Pearl Harbor, the drive up to the North Shore, and my invigorating--though, warm--run around Diamond Head, there was enough on Oahu to satisfy my soul during the first week in Hawaii.
But, once the work was complete, Patty and I moved on to Maui where the unwinding could really begin. And, from the descent into the local airport through the entire week, I'm not sure there was a moment when I wasn't simply in awe of my surroundings. If you thought the beer on Oahu sounded just okay, then you're in for a treat on Maui. Granted, you're still not going to experience the level of good beer that you're likely accustomed to at home, but with solid Maui Brewing Company beer mixed in with a wide variety of tropical drinks, you're not likely to go thirsty for good beverage too long when on the island of Maui.
Oh, but wait. I did say that I would pick up this segment with a quick recap of one other stop on Oahu...the Yard House in Honolulu...that I neglected to mention in the first half of this double-play posting. Oddly enough, I'd never been to a Yard House before...surprising given the amount of travelling that I tend to do. They have around 50 or so locations around the country, primarily in states west of the Mississippi. Like the Ginger Man, Flying Saucer, or other (massive) multi-tap beer houses, Yard House aims to serve up a bevy of brews by a peppy staff in a noisy atmosphere. I gather this from the pictures on their website in addition to the first-hand experience that we had in Honolulu. If it's not true at other of their locations, I'm sure that one of you may correct me here.
I knew, too, that Maui would be filled with plenty of physical exercise as well. From swimming and snorkeling to running and climbing to walking and biking. (er, we never got around to biking.) It's no wonder that Hawaii was recently named the Healthiest Living State. It truly does seem that the locals do not take their place of living for granted. I can't tell you how many I spoke with who claimed to be too caught up in doing outdoor type of activities as opposed to something more vegetative like watching television. Ah, but that's another topic for another day.
Let's get into things of barley and hops here. It didn't take long after arriving in Maui for me to wander over from our resort to the neighboring ABC Store of ubiquitous Hawaiian lore to find some local brew. As on Oahu, there's absolutely no trouble in finding Kona beer. But, what I was really looking for was from Maui Brewing.
The resort that we stayed at in Kaanapali was equidistant between Maui's brewery facility and its brewpub operation. So, unlike on Oahu, where finding Maui beer was more difficult, there was little difficulty on Maui (are you keeping up here with the name of the island versus the name of the brewery?). The ABC store carries a variety 6-pack of cans from Maui, two each of their CoCoNut Porter, Big Swell IPA, and Bikini Blonde Lager. Of course, the Bikini Blonde would make for a perfect poolside companion and the Porter a nice cool evening beer. And, cans? Poolside drinking is an ideal location for toting this convenient package.
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Other than the 6-pack pickup (one of which would later be escorted home in my suitcase to Philly) at the ABC store, our most significant beer excursion on Maui was, naturally, to the Maui Brewing Company. We started a few miles south of the brewpub at the brewery where they had just recently finished a new tasting room. We sampled a few and, don't call me cheap, were frankly a little disappointed by the tasting fee setup. The sample size related to the fee basically worked out to a standard barroom cost of a pint. So, we only had a couple figuring there'd be much to find at the brewpub for dinner. No one ever accused Hawaii of being inexpensive, eh?
Not knowing when this visit would fit into our schedule, I didn't call ahead to arrange an introduction to owner, Garrett Marrero. That was somewhat disappointing because I would have loved to have some time to discuss island brewing and beer tastes in Hawaii, sustainability, and success over such a relatively short term.
Nonetheless, we took a tour of the brewery, with a fine young gentleman showing us all around. (I had to say fine young gentleman, because the danger in letting this posting go for so long is that I, unsurprisingly, have since misplaced my notes which included our brewer/tour guide's name.) At the time, he was recently new to the brewery. He came from southern California where it seems many locals have moved from...just getting closer to paradise I suppose. We crossed paths with a couple of honeymooners from the Pittsburgh area and wound up sharing a table with them at the brewpub, a few miles up the road toward Kapalua.
The brewpub is located in the elbow of a strip mall...not so glamorous, I suppose...but it's what's inside that counts. What's inside includes an extensive draft list of Maui's finest, close to 20 of them. In a sense, it reminds me of Victory here much closer to home. Folks outside the region won't get a whole lot more than Prima Pils, HopDevil, Helios, V-12, WildDevil, Golden Monkey, and Storm King Stout. But at Victory's pub, as at Maui's, there are at least a dozen or more outside of their core brands that give you a glimpse into the brewing prowess of the staff.
For example, the recently crowned bronze medal-winning Father Damien, the beer (in honor of the recently sainted Damien, the local priest who was canonized the Sunday before we arrived in Maui...for whatever it's worth) was available on draft as well as big, tasty beers like their Maui Coffee Stout, Hibiscus Trippel, and Red Cock Doppelbock (try ordering that one with a straight face) that might not ordinarily associate with island beer drinking. We spent a shorter-than-average time here, so getting into a sampling of the remainder never happened.
The food at Maui Brewing matches up well with the diversity of beers. Serving as our dinner, we dabbled in Chili and sandwiches. And, of course as any proper Phillies Phan would do, I brought my rally towel to add to the local color. Funny how no matter where we went from the airports to the resorts to the bars and restaurants and luau, local Phillies fans weren't difficult to spot.
Since this really wasn't a beer trip we were making to Hawaii, I didn't go out on much more beer exploration. And, that frankly is a good thing. There's way too much to do to get bogged down in bars in Hawaii. It's great to know that when you want a meal that you'll, at the very least, be able to find some very good local beer. According to some of my research, though, very near the airport in Kahului there are a few joints to find some good beer and interesting scenery like: Brigit & Bernard's Garden Cafe and Kahului Ale House.
After taking yet one last day on Oahu before flying home, we arrived home in time to take in the Phillies NLCS-clinching game at Citizens Bank Park in Philly...see, there's always a beer angle to each part of my stories. A couple of Sly Fox and Flying Fish drafts at the ballpark made the night all that much more sweeter. Funny how we went from watching the Phillies six time zones to the west and in the sun and weather 30 degrees warmer while sitting at the poolside bar to watching the game in the cool autumn nights of the East Coast while wearing jackets.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Don Ho, it's off to Hawaii we go....in search of Good Beer---Part 1
Hawaii. It's awesome; It's beautiful. Everyone should have the chance to see something so naturally beautiful more than once in their lives. The food is fantastic, the drinks are refreshing, and good beer can be found here and there but not everywhere.
See, if I could exercise just a bit of brevity, you might have read a long time ago of my first trip ever to Hawaii. My trip...as in my trip all the way back in October. My trip that touched on the busyness of business, the relaxation of resorts and spas, the thrill of an adventure, and the spiritual emotion that nature's awesome beauty and wonderment can awaken.
The trip began as a business trip that would take up all five days of the first week of October. It was spent on the island of Oahu in downtown Honolulu...Waikiki Beach area to be exact. Patty joined me and we turned it into a vacation with another week on Maui after Oahu.
Oh, and my Lancaster County Correspondent (remember him? he hasn't checked in for a while around here) was along too. Have you followed closely over time to realize that he's a co-worker and a friend as well? So, this worked out to be a real nice trip. Business, friend, wife, tropical locale...now just need to find a good beer or two.
Most people know of Kona Brewing and Maui Brewing companies. Kona actually brews very little, if any, beer on the islands anymore except for draft-only local consumption. Apparently, most or all has been contracted out to Redhook (or shall I say Craft Brewers Alliance?). If I had more gumption, I'd track down the truth in that statement.
In my beer preparations for this trip, I gathered that Maui had much more beer geek cred than Kona. Maui Brewing and its owner Garrett Marrero have been around just 5 years, but have gathered a lot of interest in their beer, particularly CoCoNut Porter and Father Damien, for which they have won WBC Gold (2006) and GABF Bronze (2009), respectively.
But, Kona has a brewpub just a few miles from our Waikiki hotel, so that seemed like a no-brainer. Though, while I'm throwing out awards here, I should mention that Kona's Pipeline Porter gets kudos from the beer geeks...from the judges as well (GABF Bronze, 2007).
Before I get out-of-control here, let's rewind and take things from the top. I've got to make sure that I don't short-change you out of any of the high-quality beer travel information that you're accustomed to finding around here!
Actually, it's quite simple. As I've already described, this trip comes in two parts. The first part goes with the first week. A lot of me doing my day job thing with really no beer excursions at night to speak of. There was, however, a Thursday night dinner at Roy's (the original one) to celebrate my birthday (my 38th, since you asked, thank you).
This isn't a food blog and since there was only one beer involved (and nothing much to speak of, at that) I will only make one more comment about Roy's. I'd never been to Roy's anywhere before and was at first hesitant to take in what I figured might amount to a "chain experience" at Roy's. Boy, was I ever wrong! From the front door to the table seating, service, and ambiance to the food, drink, and presentation, this was a top 10, likely even a top 5 dining experience of all-time for me. Everything about Roy's impressed me and has me anxious for my next visit to a Roy's restaurant...even if I'm already preparing myself for a great letdown.
So what the first week really boiled down to was the Saturday and Sunday preceding the workweek. Not wanting to let a wasted day go by, we took the first flight out on Saturday morning and arrived in time to grab a late lunch/early dinner. Of course, the three of us were a bit punch drunk from the long flight.
No, I didn't say drunk...punch drunk, I said. I mention this because, yes we did indulge at around 10am at O'Hare airport in Chicago at the Goose Island Pub. Apparently, and maybe this is true at all airports?, the liquor license covers the entire airport. Because.....when asked if we wanted a Matilda "to go," we appeared quite a bit dumbfounded. Yes, the bartender says, "I can fill a plastic cup for you to walk through the airport with." Well, giddyup!!
Back (once again) to Hawaii. The best we could do for gathering ourselves and coming to a decision by committee (a bad thing to do when all on the committee are jetlagged) was to stagger down the street a block or so to find what appeared to be a decent restaurant. Decent, it was.
We had dinner and a few beers at LuLu's Waikiki Surf Club. It's a second floor, open-air restaurant at the end of Waikiki Beach near the City Zoo and Diamond Head. With a decent food menu ranging from casual pub grub to steaks and seafood, both Kona and Maui brews to choose from, along with a few other larger crafts, we knew this would work out just fine. Well, in fact, it worked out well enough that we wandered back in again at the end of the week. While it's not necessarily a beer geek destination and the service hits the midrange acceptable mark, it will do the trick and give you something tasty to drink if you're at that end of the strip.
Now with all of that miscellany out of the way, I can focus us all on our Sunday tour around the island. We started downtown and made our way out to Pearl Harbor, for the requisite, moving tour of the base. We then moved on up the island through the pineapple fields to the North Shore where we grabbed a shrimp plate from a food bus prior to landing at Turtle Bay for a couple of drinks. This is where I ran into my first of many Kona Longboard Lagers during this two-week trip to Hawaii.
We carried on around the Windward side of the island during the sunset hours and finally made it to the Kona Brewpub, which is just a short bit to the east of downtown Honolulu in Koko Marina. It didn't take long for me to rank this brewery right up there amongst the most scenic...right there with Anderson Valley and the like. This is their second of two locations, the first being on the Big Island.
The service could not have been more accommodating at Kona. From the friendly 'aloha' at the front desk to our server who handled a full load of tables, but was not too busy to answer our questions about Kona's history, the food, and the beer, the staff and waterside dining set the stage for a completely enjoyable evening. If we weren't tired out from our island-circling driving tour as well as being jet-lagged, on top of needing to get to work the following day, we certainly would have stayed for at least 1 or 4 more!
But, given all of that, the sampler platters of beer were more along the lines of suitable for us. Then, pick a favorite, get a pint of it and call it a night we did. Between the three of us, we only duplicated a couple of the beers and were able to sample just about the full lineup of beers.
If I have my facts correct, the packaged beers (bottles and cans) that you can get from Kona are produced on the mainland under their agreement in the Craft Brewers Alliance. I believe that goes for kegs of the same brands too...but that's a fact that I need to check. The specialties, though, are produced on site and on the Big Island of Hawaii but do not get packaged in any form, including (unfortunately) growlers, to go. The consensus at our table enjoyed the Black Sand Porter, the Lavaman Red, and the Hefeweizen. Their version of a coconut porter, though, was not up to the standard, we all agreed, set by Maui Brewing.
We caught a little of the live music that had begun while we were polishing off nachos, fish tacos, and salads. As I'd mentioned earlier, the location, the live music, decent beer and food, and attentive staff all combine to make this one of the most well-rounded brewpub experiences I think could be enjoyed. Everyone brings a little something different to the table. At Kona, they've got a little bit of everything which, in the end, contributes to a greater whole.
I was gonna break for part 2 right about now, then I realized I missed telling you about my first visit ever to a Yard House. There are enough of them around the country and you'd figure for the amount of travel that I do, that I would have run (or walked!) into one of these by now. Eh, nah, I'll put the pictures here and save the words for part 2. See you on the flip side where I'll finish up with Oahu and move on to Maui.
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