Kona Wailua Wheat

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

Bottle from Publix in Jacksonville, FL Pours with a small white head that diminishes quickly. Initial taste is unremarkable and more like a lager than an ale. The wheat taste is overpowered by an enormous passion fruit explosion that lingers on to create a fruity, somewhat unpleasant aftertaste. Not sure what to say...definitely not my favorite of the Kona limited editions. If I was blindfolded while drinking this for the first time, I might think it was Miller or Bud Light with fruit juice added. I think there is potential in making a fruity Hawaiian beer that doesn’t fail miserably. Check out some of the Mehana brews from the Big Island and you’ll be impressed.

A Mes rate: Bottle at GBBF.
Pale golden with a decent white head. Fizzy wheaty stuff with a full on hit of mixed tropical fruit juice. Interesting and enjoyable but not a big scorer.

Tap at the New Town Green Leafe. Hazy light gold, slight head fades fast, surprising in a wheat beer. Aroma is simple and grainy. Flavor is also simple wheat accented grain with some vague fruity sweetness. I had initially attributed this to an odd fermentation temperature in my head, but apparently this was from the passion fruit. Never would have guessed that. OK, but that is about it.

12 ounce bottle- poured out a clear yellow with a small white head. Aroma was sweet fruit. The taste came as a surprise, opening with an anemic, Corona type taste then the passion fruit sweetness. Palate was thin and crisp. Too sweet for my taste, but an interesting "gimmick" beer.

12 oz. bottle in trade from daknole, served in flute. Poured somewhat cloudy faded orange/gold, medium carbonation, tiny white ring for a head that tried to lace around the sides. Aroma of wheat, grain sugar, and tropical fruit. Hits the mouth with a thin body, malt is very weak, passion fruit comes in the middle and is enjoyable, finish glides away. Not bad, but something just seems missing...

Draft. Hazy dirty gold, white head. The sweet passion fruit is pretty overpowering, and the other flavors and scents are lost, meandering about aimlessly. If passion fruit is your thing, OK I guess, but as a flavored wheat it’s overdone. Still, drinkable.

Tasting at Once Upon a Vine. Fruity wheaty and somewhat sour nose. Slightly cloudy light straw with high carbonation and fizzy white head. Flavor has moderate hop bitterness with spicey fruity floral notes over fizzy wheat backbone. Bit too much going on for me.

Light hazed god, cream y white head. Bringing back honeymoon aromas of passion fruit and grapefruit zest. Warming brings out notes of nutty earth. Balanced dry citric peel and passion fruit flavors over notes of earthed wheat. Light bodied, soft carbonation, dry tropical fruit finish. Trust me...on a sunny Hawaiian beach...this stuff just plain rules the day....