REVIEW 102: LONGBOARD ISLAND LAGER

COUNTRY OF ORIGIN:  USA

BREWERY:  Kona Brewing Company

STYLE:  Pale Lager

ABV:  4.6%

PURCHASE:  Six-pack of 12-oz. bottles, $12.99

SERVING:  12-oz. bottle, poured into pint glass. Heady for a pale lager; a normal pour's head took up almost half the glass. A slow pour contained it to a more conventional inch and change. Decent retention.

APPEARANCE:  Light golden-brass body with the expected bright white head of a pale lager, only denser than most others. Transparent but a bit hazy at the outset. Faint bubbling action, but superb lacing.

BOUQUET:  Fairly clean and kind of generic, but what's there is amicable. "Slight" in many ways: Slightly husky, slightly malty, a bit lemony--I think--and very slightly hoppy. It's just indistinguishable. 

PALATE:  Almost like a light beer with more complexity. And because the taste is much, much better than your average light lager, it makes "drinkability" that much easier. If I had to describe this with one pithy phrase, it would be "soft yet crisp." This seems to "cushion" itself against your palate upon entry--maybe it's the Hawaiian water? Any carbonation seems to vanish; even if held, it never comes close to overwhelming. A subtle and relatively unexciting hop-malt balance is evident in the early going. After mid-palate is when things really unfold here: There's a lemony accent toward the finish--my nose was right--that only resonates in the aftertaste, which also sees a yeasty crescendo. As far as aftertastes go, this one is addictive. 

MUSINGS AND METAPHORS:  One of the flagship beers from Kona, the Longboard is an American pale lager, as opposed to an adjunct lager: No cheap additives here, boys and girls. Pale lagers such as this one are often referred to as "all-malt" for this reason. (The expression, "all-malt," refers simply to the malt proportion of the beer being all malt and no adjuncts; malt doesn't make up the whole beer, obviously. There are still hops, yeast, citrus, and/or whatever else.) And you know what? This is a very, very underrated brew.

Versatility is this beer's strong suit: It can serve admirably in any "beer situation," be it dinner, after-work get-togethers, cutting the grass, or anything else. It will refresh you and quench your thirst without drying out your mouth and throat. That's what a "summer" beer should be. Fuck Corona!

I also like that as a brewery, Kona maintains a highly eco-friendly reputation. (They're big on solar power.) But most of all--aside of course from the beer itself--I like the Hawaiian pride all over the bottle. It actually reads, "Liquid Aloha!" 

You know who else loved to say, "Aloha?" 




GRADE:  A-