Spotlight On: Kona Wailua Wheat
The wife and I decided to go out for dinner last night. After dropping off a cake sized version of the triple chocolate shooters we had at our Let’s Get Lit event, she decided to head over to Hukilau in the Japantown district of downtown San Jose.
I am torn by this restaurant. I find that whenever I go, the service is either good or bad; it is rarely in-between. At times, this place can be very hectic and crowded or, like many other restaurants, it has it’s slow periods. I’ve had good and bad service in both instances so I’m not really sure what to attribute that to. I can’t blame it on the wait staff as no one there is consistently good or bad either.
The food is typical Hawaiian fast food-type stuff. You can download their menu here. Needless to say, there’s nothing really groundbreaking or truly authentic about their food but what keeps bringing me back is their poke, or raw tuna salad (for lack of a better term). I think the cuts of tuna they use are decent… lean but good texture. They mix it with diced red onions, green onions and a particular type of seaweed. The sauce is soy based but not overly salty. I can’t find any other place that comes close to their poke so I keep getting sucked back in.
So, like any other bar in San Jose, they have the same 7 bottles and similar taps. The only difference is they carry the mainstream Japanese beers (Asahi, Sapporo) on bottle and Kona Brewing Company beers on tap. Uninspired, I ordered an iced tea and Sammy ordered a Widmer Hefeweizen. Our waitress told us they were out of that and suggested Kona’s Wailua Wheat, so that’s what Sammy got instead.
This beer is named after Wailua Falls on the Hawaiian island of Kauai. This beer poured a hazy, gold color with a white head that didn’t last too long but left decent down the side of the glass. There is a noticeable fruit aroma of guava and a slight wheat malt characteristics in the background. The initial flavors you get are the guava fruit flavors while you get wheat malt character in the finish. There are slight banana esters in the aroma and flavor but those are subtle at the most. I also noticed a fruity tang to this beer as well with low hop flavor. This is a medium-low bodied beer with high carbonation. It is light and effervescent.
Sammy is good with her Asian fruit flavors. She ate a lot of them growing up and continues to eat them now. So, when she says she smells and tastes guava, I believe her. In fact, those are the same characteristics I picked up. My initial sip instantly brought me back to our honeymoon when we were on an ATV tour at Kualoa Ranch. Our guide took us on some backroads and we stopped to pick some fresh guava from the trees. This beer reminded me of that. Yet the product page on the Kona website says they use passion fruit. So, I guess you can substitute passion fruit wherever I used guava but that’s what we both tasted and smelled.
Overall, this is an effervescent and refreshing spring/summer passion fruit wheat ale. When consumed on those hot days and warm night, I doubt anything will hit the spot as nicely (think Hawaii!). I think the fruit dominates the base beer flavors to a degree but this is meant to be an entry-level beer. It is supremely easy to drink I and think you could do some interesting food pairings with this beer.
