Beer Review: Pipeline Porter by Kona Brewing Company

Kona's Pipeline Porter is the last beer I drank as part of the Open It! online event.  This beer is my brother's favorite beer, and when I went to Vegas I brought him back a six pack as an early Christmas gift.  He was pretty blown away, he expected just one, lonely single bottle.  Pipeline is a highly regarded Porter and only has a limited bottling run each year.  Coffee flavors in this beer are not just from malt, but also from 100% Kona coffee that is added to each batch.

Tasting Notes:
Poured a deep brown into a Pipeline Porter shaker pint and a nice tan head formed.  Strong coffee aroma with malt and chocolate behind it.  Coffee also dominates the flavor profile of this beer.  The malt brings a nice sweetness and there is no bitterness from the coffee as one expects.  A very smooth beer with nice carbonation and balance.  Definitely worth picking up given the chance.

Fire Rock Pale Ale by Kona Brewing Co.

I first had Fire Rock at a pool bar in Florida.  I ordered a different beer and then belatedly noticed a  tap handle I had never seen before.  I used my good looks and charm to get the bartender to pour me a free sample.  I immediately fell in love with this one.  It became my mission to get to Kona, Hawai'i.  In March I made it there and tried every beer they had on tap or bottle.

Now this beer has not been waiting for a special occasion.  I have been saving the glass for a special occasion.  My recent trip to Las Vegas allowed me to bring back a couple bottles of this brew.  The Kona Brewery shaker pint is made of blue glass.  This glass was to be my souvenir from Hawai'i.  Unfortunately, the glass was no longer sold due to consumer complaints about breakage.  Beer Bitch being the woman she is tracked down a set of two on eBay and gave me one heck of a good birthday gift.

Tasting Notes:
Poured into my blue glass and therefore you cannot see the color or head, but I can tell you  it is copper with about a one finger head that results in some superb lacing.  It has a nice citrus hop aroma, and is less hoppy than one would think for an American Pale Ale, but not bad. Flavors of pine and biscuit swirl together with a citrus finish.  A medium body with solid carbonation, this is an excellent Pale Ale and should not be missed if your in an are where Kona distributes.

Why Drink Craft Beer? Drink Local To Be Sustainable

Continuing my series on why people drink craft beer it is time to discuss the environmental impacts of beer.  This was one of the two comments people have left me as to why they drink craft beer.  Let me start by saying this topic really shouldn't be done in one post.  Today I will give a brief overview of the environmental impact of drinking local.  Come back next Monday for an overview some sustainable practices.  This topic may stretch out into a few weeks.

The Environmental Side of Drinking Local
Shipping beer drastically increases the carbon footprint and the environmental impact.  Water is heavy so the closer the ingredients get to the consumer before adding water the better.  However, even deeper you could look for local breweries with locally sourced ingredients.  I recently spoke with a brewer who made his first organic beer.  He had to import the hops from Germany in order to meet the organic requirement.  He and I pondered whether there was any benefit to buying organic as the shipping more than likely cancelled out the benefit.

Additionally, there are local breweries that are not actually local.  An excellent example of this is Kona Brewing on Hawaii's big Island.  Kona brews on the island for draft only.  So any bottles consumed on the island are actually made on the mainland and shipped over.  So in reality you are not drinking a local beer if you are buying six packs of Kona in Hawaii.  I learned this fact on a tour of their Kona facility and it bothered me, because I felt many people on the islands where buying the "local beer."

Unfortunately not all brewers readily identify where their ingredients come from or even where they are brewed.  We as a craft community need to push brewers to give us the information we need to be informed consumers.

MillerCoors May Be A Craft Brewer Depending on You

So this week MillerCoors announced the name and plans of a new business unit "Tenth and Blake Beer Company."  The goal of this new unit is to make craft brews and import similar quality beers from around the world.  Some blogs and twitter feeds have been scolding, some have rejoiced.  Personally, I will wait and see.

Many of the new comers to craft beer come by way of Blue Moon a not always acknowledged unit of Coors, and similarly Leinenkugel has been a unit of Miller for years.  Whether you should rejoice, be upset or indifferent depends on the reason YOU drink craft beer.  Yes I said you and your reason.

Most people fail to understand that people come to craft beer for a variety of reasons. Here is a short list in no real order:

• Taste
• Environmental
• Support Local Business
• Support Small Business

This is a short list, and in reality there are likely others and many subcategories with a massive influence on the market.  Interestingly enough, I know more than one person who jumped on the bandwagon condemning this.  However, this month Pyramid/Magic Hat is now owned by the people who sell Labatt and Kona joined a national conglomerate.  Were these mergers good bad or indifferent?

Over the next several weeks come back and see how I explore each of these issues, and their implications in Craft Beer.  Look for the "Why Craft?" label.

Also if someone has a reason they are drinking craft beer let me know in the comments.