Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale

Brewed by Kona Brewing Company
Style: American Pale Ale
Kailua Kona, Hawaii USA

Pours a cloudy amber from the bottle with a trim white head. Mild hops on the nose that continue into the flavor. Notes of mango and perhaps pineapple. Very smooth and refreshing.

Pours a deep copper color with firm white head. Hoppy aroma. Flavor is crisp with bittering hops balanced nicely by caramel malts. Medium body. Very drinkable, delicious and refreshing.

Tastes like a really boring amber ale to me. Really weak taste of piney hops is the only trace of APA in this. Caramel malty flavor is sweet and finishes sweet. Could have used something to balance it. Pretty drinkable though.

A Mes rate: Bottle at GBBF.
Rich amber with a thin but excellent white head. Nice blend of rich malt and big hops. Very sweet and American. Similar in a lot of ways to Great Divide Hercules. Not really enough to get overly excited about but it’s still an enjoyable beer.

Draft at GOBF ’08. Pours a light amber with a foamy, off-white head sticks around, leaving some streaks of soapy lace. The nose was floral hops, citrus and pine. Flavors followed suit, with the addition of some slight caramel, and dry malts. The palate is medium-bodied, watery, with a solid clean, dry finish. Great little grocery store APA.

Bottle from GBBF 08. Amber, thick beige head. As an Englishman, how can you have a session beer that’s 6%? Seriously, if I lived in America, I’d last, what 18 months, maybe 2 years before I’d die. I couldn’t sit in a pub for 3-4 hours drinking pints of this, I’d be a mess. Yet it is very drinkable. Not the greatest pale ale unfortunately, but similar to that style. Bit of raspberry fruit flavour. Slightly sweet malt and slightly sweet grapefruit hop. Some sherbert on end, but not really bitter. In fact I now realise I confuse big hops with proper bitterness. Like many, it improves when it’s slightly warmer, than fridge termperature. The malts come more alive. The malt is a little too sweet, ok hop, but a little too sweet overall.

Bottled - GBBF 2008. A beautiful hoppy aroma. Great pine notes. More great hops in the mouth with a good malt backbone also. A tasty smooth beer which slipped down a treat.

Pretty much every craft brewery has their version of the Americanized staple of beer, the pale ale.
Fire Rock pours a thick, deep amber with tinges of ruby in its deepest sports. Bubbles scramble for freedom, creating a tight but brief head of foam in my glass. I get more malts and fruit in the nose than hops, though there is a bit of their oily esters lurking in the background. There is definitely a hint of some kind of fruit in the nose, possibly orange. With each quaff, bubbles scramble to the top, releasing their effervescent goodness. Sweet malts fill my mouth. A very smooth, heavy body for a pale ale, further evidence of the malt presence. as Fire Rock warms, a bit more of the hops come out to say hello with some lemon zest while some of the orange I got in the nose tickles my taste buds, adding to the fairly heavy, oily, clingy malt body of Fire Rock. A bit of lace trickles down the sides of my glass of Fire Rock with each quaff. The malt and hops come to an end with a more balanced flourish, mingling hoppy oils, spice, and sweet fruity malts.
A heavier Pale Ale than some others I have had over the years. I would definitely help myself to Fire Rock Pale Ale on a regular basis.