Kona Wailua Wheat

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

Bottle. Slightly hazy amber beer with a thin off-white head. Wheat and passion fruit aroma. Wheat, light fruit flavor with light graininess. Medium-light bodied. Wheat and light passion fruit linger.

On tap at Strange Brew in Manchester NH. Pours a hazy gold color with a small white head. Left no lacing. Aroma is wheat and citrus. Palate is a bit light, but decent enough to know you’re drinking a beer. Low carbonation. Flavor is wheat and a tart citrus taste that I thought was pineapple, but I guess is passion fruit. Just enough to be interesting. Did not notice the sourness some raters have mentioned. Pretty good.

[Tap] Pours a golden color with a slight amount of haze and little head. Aroma of citrus and grains. Taste is actually surprisingly tart and sour. Definitely the passion fruit there. Besides that, it’s a light and grainy convoluted mess. I just felt like I was drinking a tart cider or something. Interesting, but not in a good way.

From the 12 fl. oz. bottle with a stamped label marked DC17 I think. It was a bit muddled. Slogan under the bottle cap read AKAMAI - Clever. The pour was a hazy orange-amber with just about no head. The aroma was of rotted fruit and flat hops. Could have been a bad batch. Totally unimpressive. Medium mouthfeel. The taste was kind of malty and sour. This beer did nothing for me.

12 oz bottle while in SC. My instinct here is that this beer is slightly underrated, and I feel from just a few sips that it’s an above average wheat beer (I’m not sure I’d call it a fruit beer because the fruit to me takes more of a background role). Without going into too much description on this one, it smells, feels, and tastes exactly how I would want a beer of this style to. Some standard yet well done wheat notes, some nice hints of citrus and passion fruit. A refreshing and well balanced summertime beer, and nothing more, but not in a bad way.

Bottle: Light golden with a weak off white film of head. Sharp aroma- grainy wheat notes with a slightly citric yet perfumy passion fruit skin note. Crisp body. The flavor has a natural fruit presence- some apparent soft wheat malt crispness at the fore followed by a perfumy yet natural passion fruit presence. A touch of fruit skin tannin notes. Simple and vague, but very drinkable.

12oz bottle. Clear gold pour with a thin white head. Tropical fruit aroma with lots of malt and some yeast. Flavor is mostly tropical fruit with some malt and a sweet finish.