Kona Fire Rock Pale Ale

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

Dunno if this lingered or not prior to hitting shelves in Texas. Not bad, but found it somewhat vegetal and with slightly subdued hops. I realize it’s a pale ale and not an IPA and yet still seemed diminished from my recollection of their other beer I had a few years back in Las Vegas. Not really bad, but neither is it something I like all too much.

Pours a nice hazy amber with a foamy head and good lacing. Aroma is sweet malts under a fruity hop bouquet, Flavor is clean and well-balanced, nice hoppy backbone withstands the medium hop presence. It’s nice to drink an APA that isn’t too over-the top, it’s been years since I’ve enjoyed this toned down variant of the style, and I’m starting to remember why I used to like APAs so much. Maybe not dry-hopping an APA is as good as dry hopping it, after all.

Pours bright orangish amber with a mostly receding wispy off-white head. Aroma of mild C-hops, notes of grapefruit and toffee. Taste is toffee, caramel, and floral hops. Medium bodied with moderate resins with lush carbonation. Nice and easy drinking APA.

12 oz bottle. Pours a medium dull amber with some haze and very light carbonaiton- forms a modest head and leaves some lace. Aroma is moderately floral, with a faded orange zest kick from some citrus hops- medium fruity esters and some gummi bear candy. Flavor is backed up with more malt- caramel , and medium to light smooht sweet crystal malts, doughy, and nutty with a clean mild hop bitterness. Relatively smooth- perhaps a bit old though.

This is ok, but not really worth it to me. Reddish amber, it has a very thin off-white head soon diminishing to a ring. Aroma is pretty nice, caramelly, slightly earthy malt (reminiscent a bit of a malty vienna or the like) with citrusy, mostly grapefruity hops. The taste is ok, but the first thing I noticed was a pronounced alcholic quality. I then read the ABV, 6%. Before that, I assumed it was lower and this explains the alcoholic quality, but it seems crude, unnecessarily strong and noticeable, and rather gratuitous here. There is some fairly nice malty grain body and sweetness, but also a lot of grapefruit, especially grapefruit pulp, and not much else besides these and the all-too-obvious alcohol. The finish has a light grapefruit bitterness and the balance is really off. In the end, this is ho-hum and not something I’d buy, but it’s better than some. My biggest beefs are 1) the alcohol; I like plenty of stronger beers, even ones where the alcohol is very evident in the taste, but not when it is a rough, unnecessarily obvious quality that seems to do nothing other than make it more potent; 2) I am getting really tired of the ubiquitous grapefruity hops. This element can be good when done well but this is not the be-all and-end-all of hop style, much less beer and I am not interest in beer that makes me thin I’m chewing on grapefruit. If I want that, I’ll chew on grapefruit. That said, I prefer Kona’s own Longboard Lager to this.

Bottle. Amber, quite nice offwhite head. Quite fresh hoppy aroma, mixed with malt. Malty flavor with some citrus and hops. A decent ale.

12 ounce bottle in pint glass. Clear copper/amber with lasting ring and some lace. Mild fresh hop aroma. Very mild initial sweet fruitiness and abrupt dry finish, seems to be missing most everything in between. Medium body and medium-high carb which adds to astringency/bite. Drinkable for a trendy beer, that tries to market itself as if it were from Hawaii, though on the mainland it’s brewed in Oregon.

Nice reddish-orange color. Solid off-white head. I like the way this beer doesn’t hit you over the head with hops, which too many pale ales do. Hops don’t dominate the malt, and hints of...cinamon? Reasonably complex taste, yet goes down smooth.