Pics of Me in Front of Stuff: Kona Brewing Co. Brewery and Pub

Liquid Aloha in Paradise.

You can't beat it.

That's not dissimilar from Paul Giamatti racing me. (i.e. he can't beat me)

In February 1995, a father and son began to live their dream by brewing fresh local beers in Kailua-Kona on the big island of Hawaii. On Valentine's Day of 1995 they combined liquid paradise with real paradise with the release of Big Wave Golden Ale and Fire Rock Pale Ale to the 50th state. The rest is history which you can read on their website.

Just be sure to navigate back to this page and finish reading this post.

Our hotel being within walking distance of the brewery and my propensity for visiting the birth places of beer meant only one thing - Pics of Me in Front of Stuff visiting Kona Brewery. Considering that all beer is brewed with the same four ingredients - yeast, hops, grain, and water - it is interesting that Pics of Me in Front of Stuff is always looking for new breweries to visit. Beer has the exact same ingredients as bread. The beer brewing process is much different than the bread baking process but both provide live giving sustenance from those 4 basic ingredients. For brewing, malted grain (usually barley or wheat) is made into mash by crushing the grain and mixing the resulting grist with hot water. During this mashing process enzymes from the malt break down the grain's starches into sugars which will eventually be converted to alcohol via the fermentation process. Following mashing, the grains are filtered from the liquid which is known as a wort. The wort is boiled with hops and moved to a fermentation vessel where yeast is added. Aging with yeast produces carbon dioxide and everyone's favorite beer component, alcohol. For more detail regarding the brewing process check out Wikipedia.

The beer eventually makes it into kegs or bottles. Interestingly, drinking beer from a bottle in Hawaii, even Kona Brewing Co beer, means you are drinking beer from the mainland. Shipping bottles to Hawaii, filling them with beer, and then shipping them back to the mainland is not cost effective. Bottled Kona beer is brewed either in Oregon or New Hampshire and then distributed to the rest of the country including Hawaii.

Kona Brewery only fills kegs in Hawaii.

Imagine hearing that beer lesson above from a tour guide, like Jesse below, every few months when you find a new brewery to visit.

Would you keep visiting breweries?

Even if they were not in Hawaii?

The answer should be an emphatic yes because where there are brewery tours there is free beer just like these.

All of the beers were quite good, though I am not a distinguished beer critic so you do not need to take my word for it. Visit Hawaii. Since I have joined the real world and can afford better beer and I tend to drink it or at least I think I do. Beer costs at least $5 a pint in north Jersey/NYC so paying an extra $1 for good beer is no longer a significant issue. The Lavaman Red Ale was a popular choice in most of the island eateries at which CP and I ate. Duke's Blond Ale was light and would taste very good after a long hot day of working in Paradise. My favorite was the Pipeline Porter, a darker heavier beer, but not too heavy that I felt like I had to chew my beer. It is definitely drinkable in Hawaii but not a beach beer.

Free beer, especially good free beer, especially good free beer in Hawaii always equals a good time.