Kona Wailua Wheat

Brewed by Kona Brewing Company
Style: Fruit Beer
Kailua Kona, Hawaii USA

Slightly cloudy golden color. Looks like a witte. Sweet aroma with a hint of tropical fruits. Clean but weak fruit flavors. Weak body. Disappointed.

Interesting subtle taste of passion fruit but otherwise an average beer. This beer pours brass with a small white head. Aroma and flavor is that of a typical wheat...light and refreshing, but eh...

Pours very light straw color, with minimal head. Typical wheat beer fruit flavors. Decent replacement if you can’t get a Blue Moon.

12 oz bottle

When I was last in Hawaii I had a couple of Kona’s releases. They were nothing special but for having the handicap of being in the middle of an ocean not a bad product. This one reminds me that that only time I’ll be purchasing any however will be on vacations. A tropical passion fruit based beer is a rarity for a reason. Perhaps it does taste better on a sunny beach; inside my house it is just like any other wheat ale.

Aroma / Appearance - The light carbonation and transparent golden body tipped me off from the start that there would not be much to this beer. The wheat, passion fruit and citrus nose confirmed that. Lacking cohesiveness or depth the aromas simply hung around like they had nowhere better to be. It was less like a beer than one of those fruity wine coolers.

Flavor / Palate - There was more complexity than I expected in the taste but it still was a basic run of the mill wheat ale with fruit flavors. Lemon, wheat and passion fruit appeared along with a very light and inoffensive bitterness. I don’t know what makes it a "limited release"; let’s hope that means it is soon to be retired in favor of something better.

Bottle shared by Dansting. Pours a hazy yellow with a thin, white skin and patchy lace. The nose is a blend of sweaty ballsack, dirty roadside rest stop toilet and passion fruit. Light-bodied with fizzy carbonation and a dry finish. Like a pale lager infused with passion fruit, it finishes dry and fairly short. Why? Dear God! Kona has ruined a perfectly good fruit for me. Thanks, Dan?

Hazy wheat gold. Not much to the nose. Mellow, but distinctive passion fruit flavor. Mostly thin and very mellow though. Different, but not anything exciting.

Hazy-white/golden pour. The aroma of the beer is outrageous. With one whiff I could pick up tiny hints of what I thought to be mango, the smell is heavenly, the rest is downhill from there. Not trying to knock Kona, I like a lot of their beers, Wailua Wheat is simply too watery. Little hints of wheat and passion flavoring, but not a lot going on, very mild, very boring for a beer with such hype, an average beer to say the least.

A lightly hazed blonde with a thin white head. A sulfury aroma strikes first with light acrid notes. In mouth, the passion fruit is lightly acidic and pungent, but this is a lightweight. Overall, not impressive.