Maui Brewery - Coconut Porter

.
Tasting Notes - Maui Brewery Coconut Porter

In a previous blog, I wrote about my first experience of Maui's Big Swell IPA. I thought it was a really nice beer and I also rather liked the novelty of drinking a quality beverage from a can. 


Next up for the beer monkey taste treatment is another one of Maui's fine beers, their Coconut Porter.


As you can see from the picture, the can is a very fetching piece of alluring beer branding with the Porter splashing uncontrollably out of the coconut husk container. It's a very tempting image and one that made me want to plunge right in like a base jumper off a Hawaiian sea cliff.

taking the plunge like a Hawaiian base jumper

So how was it?


On first pour, I was a little bit perturbed as it came out looking like a can of coke - thin in body but dark in colour with a hissing, fizzing effervescent tan head that disappeared as quickly as it had materialised, leaving a dull, flat looking brew.  There was not a shred of evidence of the existence of a head, no lacing, no tracing, nothing. This, I thought, didn't look promising.


My fears, however, were put at rest when I inhaled the aroma. It had a very nice tickle of roast coffee and chocolate but it was mainly the aromatic earthy, grassy notes that were to the fore.


It tasted of mild milk chocolate - almost milk stoutish - with a delicate faint splash of coconut and, once again, coffee. It's dry and smooth with some slight carbonation and syrupy sweetness. I'm not sure if adjuncts were used in the making of this beer but the sweetness certainly tasted like it. I was expecting the coconut porter to be cloying and quite chewy in the aftertaste but I was pleasantly surprised by it's clean, faintly bitter finish.


Overall, it was a tasty beer and one that I had looked forward to trying. It was nice enough but not something that I would actively seek out again and hunt down in the future. The same, however, can't be said of the Maui Big Swell IPA. That was a cracking brew and if it crosses my path again, I'm getting my wallet out.




.

Yes! Wee Cans!

.
Tasting Notes - Maui Brewery - Big Swell IPA

Those good folk at BrewDog have recently started listing a rather nice selection of foreign, hard to get beers on their website. Being an impulse internet beer buyer, I took the plunge and placed an order for some of them. These included 335ml cans of  Big Swell IPA and Coconut Porter from Hawaiian Brewery, Maui. I'll review the porter in a later blog.

I don't tend to drink my beers from cans very often but I have to admit that I quite liked the exotic novelty of pouring, from a can, beers from the land of Barack Obama, Dog the Bounty Hunter, Steve 'Book him, Danno' McGarrett and Tia Carrerra.

I couldn't wait to get my Big Swell IPA opened. It gave quite a hissing fizz when it popped back the ring pull. On hearing that, I expected a gusher but it was fine and I set about filling my glass. It poured with a lively carbonation that formed a big thick white head on top of enticing golden amber coloured brew. A quick sniff reveals a robust honeyed resinous aroma from the dry hopping of meaty East Kent Goldings hops.

It drinks smooth, clean and crisp with a floral, citrus taste dominated by heavy grapefruit and mango that is nicely balanced by elegant sweet malt. There is also a tickle of warm yeasty bread. I had expected a big bitter finish but this doesn't happen. Instead, the taste gently subsides to a nice, satisfying and slightly dry finish.

This is a very well made and extremely drinkable IPA. I can imagine Dog the Bounty Hunter eagerly downing a few of these before humanely apprehending some bail jumping felons. If he wasn't on the wagon.




.