{"id":2740,"date":"2011-04-18T00:01:53","date_gmt":"2011-04-17T12:01:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/?p=2740"},"modified":"2011-06-16T02:44:12","modified_gmt":"2011-06-15T14:44:12","slug":"maui-big-swell-ipa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/04\/18\/maui-big-swell-ipa\/","title":{"rendered":"Maui ‘Big Swell’ IPA"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Maui<\/a>
Maui 'Big Swell' IPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

And then, a few days later, something rather similar<\/a> — which makes a certain amount of sense in that my Monday was spent dealing with the same nonsense that lead to the unexpected Saturday night off<\/a>. But it all worked out alright, and was fun in its own peculiar way, and so I cracked open one of these to celebrate.<\/p>\n

Plus, here we are with another canned beer. I gave some of my thoughts on them<\/em> — and on the spelling of Aluminum (no<\/em> second i<\/em>) — in my recent Diary<\/em> entry on the same brewery’s Coconut Porter<\/a>. That<\/em> rant (the canned-beer one, not the Aluminum one so much) was prompted by comments made by local beer writer Neil Miller, and this was his Birthday. Perfect.<\/p>\n

So soon after the Ballast Point ‘Big Eye’, it was nice to have another big-but-balanced American pale ale. The tagline on the can uses the word “hoppy” for thirty percent of its text, but the beer serves as a nice reminder that hoppiness isn’t exactly the same as bitterness<\/em>, closely related though they are. It manifests here with all those wonderful classic American pale ale flavours of citrus fruit and fresh, resiny pine — but they’re all just a little more relaxed than they often are. Not tired<\/em>, like a bad import or anything lacking in freshness, just relaxed<\/em>.\u00a0Imagine something already-delicious like Hallertau’s ‘Maximus’ finally escaping the clamour of Auckland,1<\/sup> getting itself a beach holiday and just chilling right the fuck out. Rather fitting, really, given its Hawaiian origins.<\/p>\n

And damn, they aren’t kidding when they say smooth<\/em>, either; it’s peachy, hazy golden colour, pillowy soft, excitable bubbles and luxuriously lush feel all put me in mind of Golden Bear’s ‘Bear Trappe’<\/a> though the two beers otherwise come from quite different backgrounds and styles.\u00a0As I said on the Twitterthing<\/a> when I bought this and the porter, anyone who wants to say there’s no such thing as good canned beer should have to do so to the Maui Brewing Company’s face — and to 21st Amendment, and to BrewDog, and… You get the idea.<\/p>\n

Addendum:<\/strong> And then, the day after I posted this, Neil presented a somewhat-more-nuanced position on Twitter:<\/p>\n

My definite preference<\/a> is for beer in bottles but cans have their place. What is in the vessel is ultimately the most important. Some cheap cans<\/a> can taste a bit metallic but a good can is fine – Big Swell IPA being the perfect example.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Though there’s still an under-current of anti-can sentiment in there — why else the definite preference? — I totally agree with the idea that it’s the beer<\/em> that counts most. On that, given the inner (non-metal) lining of the sorts of cans usually used, metallic tastes are much<\/em> more likely to be a brewing fault than attributable to the cans (a point covered, ironically, in the recent New Zealand TV programme<\/a> for which Neil was a Talking Head). Still, it’s nice to know the fairly-strident lines he delivered in his \u2018Beer 101\u2019 tasting session — overhearing bits of which while clearing glasses was what initially freaked me out — don’t quite match up with his considered views on the matter.<\/p>\n

Verbatim:<\/strong> Maul Brewing Co. ‘Big Swell’ IPA 18\/4\/11 355ml can $10 @ NWT 6.2% Reward for a weirdly enjoyable return to lawyering today. Really pretty hazy peachy gold, big fluffy white head. Soft nose of fruit + piney oily sides. Not big and bitter and punchy, still soft and smooth. Lush. The bubbles are totally reminiscent of Bear Trappe<\/a>\u2019s. And hey, it’s Neil Miller’s birthday, so a good canned beer is apt<\/a>. It’s like Maximus went on a beach holiday + chilled out.<\/p>\n

\n
\"Maui<\/a>
Maui 'Big Swell' IPA, tagline<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\"Maui<\/a>
Diary II entry #93, Maui Brewing Co. 'Big Swell' IPA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n
\n

1: Well, not that Hallertau live in the clamourous<\/em> part of Auckland. Or really Auckland at all<\/em>, as such.\u00a0They’re clever enough to be a twenty-minute blat up the motorway out of town. But you know what I mean.<\/span>
\n <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

And then, a few days later, something rather similar — which makes a certain amount of sense in that my Monday was spent dealing with the same nonsense that lead to the unexpected Saturday night off. But it all worked out alright, and was fun in its own peculiar way, and so I cracked open … Continue reading Maui ‘Big Swell’ IPA<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[6,20,12],"class_list":["post-2740","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-diary","tag-pages","tag-united-states","tag-pale-ale"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2745,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2011\/04\/19\/mikkeller-stateside\/","url_meta":{"origin":2740,"position":0},"title":"Mikkeller ‘Stateside’","author":"Phil","date":"April 19, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"Gawd, I can remember the depressing blurgh of this all too well. I'm trying my best to catch up to the actual\u00a0Diary, but the value of t still stands at fifty-something days, and the memory remains uncomfortably raw. I bought this on the same shopping trip that netted the Coconut\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Mikkeller 'Stateside'","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Mikkeller-Stateside-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":767,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/09\/16\/brew-moon-hophead-ipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":2740,"position":1},"title":"Brew Moon ‘Hophead’ IPA","author":"Phil","date":"September 16, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still kicking myself that me and my friends didn't know about the Brew Moon Cafe when we were on our South Island roadtrip a few years ago. They're in the charming-enough little town of Amberly, in North Canterbury, and we stopped there (we stop a lot, on our roadtrips)\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Brew Moon 'Hophead' IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Brew-Moon-Hophead-IPA-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":901,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/10\/05\/thornbridge-halcyon-ipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":2740,"position":2},"title":"Thornbridge ‘Halcyon’ IPA","author":"Phil","date":"October 5, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting contrast against their 'Jaipur' IPA (and a worthy thing in itself), 'Halcyon' is a fresh-hopped IPA of higher strength but lighter body than usual. Its Best Before date had been set quite conservatively, to encourage people to drink up and enjoy it while that madly-fresh hoppy aroma was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Thornbridge 'Halcyon' IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Thornbridge-Halcyon-IPA-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":298,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2007\/11\/19\/gage-roads-ipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":2740,"position":3},"title":"Gage Roads IPA","author":"Phil","date":"November 19, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Gage Roads IPA. 19\/11\/07, present from KP+LB, 5.1%, 330ml. After trivia, watching Top Gear. Miss Parker & Mr Baker arrived last week, with beer in tow. This is Western, proper bottle stuff. Slight metallic note, but not nasty like Beck's. Good IPA. Hoppy + beery. Yum. Drinkable, very. Afterthoughts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Gage Roads IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1042-Gage-Roads-IPA-300x204.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":595,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2008\/11\/15\/three-boys-ipa\/","url_meta":{"origin":2740,"position":4},"title":"Three Boys IPA","author":"Phil","date":"November 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Verbatim: Three Boys IPA. 15\/11\/08 $8.50 @ Malthouse, 5.2% Had it lots, but it warrants an entry. Gorgeousness personified. Slightly less traditional than a Tuatara IPA, but proudly so. Wonderfully balanced (cf Epic...), slight grapefruity hint, not hoppy for the sake of it. Full damn marks. Afterthoughts, November 2010: I'd\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Three Boys IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Diary-1065-Three-Boys-IPA-300x219.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":816,"url":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/2010\/09\/23\/twisted-hop-ipa-with-mandarins\/","url_meta":{"origin":2740,"position":5},"title":"Twisted Hop IPA (with mandarins)","author":"Phil","date":"September 23, 2010","format":false,"excerpt":"People do get confused when they spot our Hopinator gizmo, they really do. Most often, they mistake it for a trophy of some sort, sitting rather-randomly on the bar. You have to sympathise, admittedly. But you do have to wonder what the trophy was for, when they saw it like\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Actual Diary entries"","block_context":{"text":"Actual Diary entries","link":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/category\/diary\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Twisted Hop IPA","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-content\/uploads\/Twisted-Hop-IPA-in-the-Hopinator-225x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2740"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2826,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2740\/revisions\/2826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2740"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2740"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/philcook.net\/beerdiary\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2740"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}