Luhia Pale Ale
Ola Brewing Corporation

 

nothing at all wrong with this, but a pretty tame and unexciting brew, especially for these guys, who really dazzled me with some of their more exotic stuff. this is lower in alcohol but really not all that light to drink, a little hazy, deep honey colored, short but creamy white head on it, fine carbonation, doesnt look super well refined, and does have a little starchy weight to it even being on the dry side. the hops have some bitterness but are not wildly aromatic or flavorful to me, despite freshness being apparent. the grain has some baked heft to my senses, like body and warmth, not exactly ideal for warm hawaii weather, but its not way off or anything, just not maybe as drinkable as it could be. some green melon rind and generic citrus in the nose from the hops, a little more bite and a gin note to the flavor, good balance but underwhelming anyway, like sort of muddled and underflavored without being light enough to really warrant the minimalism. i dont dislike it, but the more i dig in the less is really here. the ferment is a touch messy too, one of their only beers that wasnt spic and span in that regard. i could see the folks intimidated by ipa going for this one, but they do enough other excellent hoppy beer that you could find something better than this in their lineup pretty easily...