Aloha!

Jen and I have returned to the east coast after a wonderful honeymoon in Hawaii. We visited both Kauai and Maui on our journey. The islands were beautiful, the food incredible, and the craft beer delicious. Hawaii isn't exactly a likely spot to find quality craft beer since it's more of a Mai Tai town, but we found it at the Maui Brewing Co.

MBC was founded in 2005 and currently has two locations in west Maui: The brewery and the brewpub only miles apart in Lahaina. Like many other successful breweries, MBC embraces their location and has adapted a mission within the same line. They distribute using cans instead of bottles, an uncommon choice for a brewery who only produces craft beer. An explanation for this decision can be found on their website:

...cans don't break like glass bottles do and it is particularly important for us to do whatever we can to keep our 120 miles of coastline, 30 miles of beaches, and other public areas free of broken glass! Cans can be recycled, are virtually unbreakable, and are lighter to carry and easier to chill than bottles. Also, key to the purity of our beers: cans eliminate light damage and the risk of oxidation. This will ensure that our canned microbrews will be flavorful, brisk, and satisfying.

Four beers (Bikini Blonde, Big Swell IPA, CoCoNut Porter, and Mana Wheat) are available in cans. You're unlikely to find any around here since distribution is limited to the west coast, but I highly recommend both the Big Swell and CoCoNut along any trip out there. While out in west Maui we only made it to the brewpub since the rest of our day was spent on the beach. The pub offers a larger selection of small batched brews so we headed there for lunch and snapped a few pics:

Outside the brewery

The brewery inside the pub

Fermenters

The owner with homebrew ambassador himself, Charlie Papazian. The website says they sell homebrew equipment at the brewery too.

Awards

More awards

Keg Lighting

The lineup at the brewery. We tried nine of the fourteen :)

Wild Hog Stout on nitro and the Smoked Hemp Ale

Bread made with spent grain. They incorporated a lot of beer ingredients into food.

The honeymooners enjoying a Pueo Pale Ale and Bourbon Barrel aged KGB

The taps complete with Hula Girl

A growler of Pueo Pale Ale to end the day.

As you can probably tell from the pics, the Pueo (Hawaiian Owl) Pale Ale was a favorite of mine. A very sessionable pale ale with great aroma and flavor from the centennial and simcoe hops. The website offers some insight to the recipe and it just so happens I have all the ingredients in house. This will probably be the basis for my next recipe. The rest of the honeymoon was incredible, but way too long to discuss here. I will leave you with some of my favorite restaurants we found that I highly recommend if you're enough to visit either island.

The Tavern (Princeville, Kauai)
Koiso Sushi Bar (Kihei Maui)
Capische (Wailea Maui)

Mahalo!