Kona Brewing Co. - Big Wave Golden Ale

For the Twelfth Beer of Christmas, I dreamed of warm, sunshiny days far away from the snow in my yard.

Kona Brewing
Big Wave

This year my snow shovel learned its true purpose. It's a week after the snowfall and there's still snow everywhere. This in a city that's usually clear of snow in a day or two. What better way to get my mind off the snow than to drink a cold beer from a warm locale?

Golden certainly describes this one as it creates a glass of transparent gold with a head of solid white foam. Moderate lacing lines the glass as the head fritters away to almost nothing after just a few drinks.

The aroma is lightly sweet with a strong peach component. Other scents that come to mind are lime and toast on the lowest setting of my toaster.

With a light to medium body, Big Wave starts out lightly sweet and finishes with a distinct wash of lime. Have you ever had a sour lime at Sonic? That's lime and carbonated water. It's kind of like that. It leaves your mouth clean and ready for the next drink. At 4.4% ABV, this is a dangerous combination. You could accidentally drink 6 or 8 after mowing the yard on a hot Saturday afternoon. But hey, you earned those 6 or 8, right? Of course you did. Enjoy!

Light, clean, and refreshing. This is another that any beer drinker will enjoy.

Stats
Brewer: Kona Brewing Company
Location: Kailua Kona, Hawaii
Website: http://www.KonaBrewingCo.com/
Style: American Blonde Ale
Alcohol Content: 4.40% ABV
Interesting Note: I have two interesting notes for this. First, about the brewery, you may be thinking as I did, "Isn't it expensive to ship beer from Hawaii to the mainland?" Yes, yes it is. Consequently Kona joined the Craft Brew Alliance along with founders Redhook and Widmer Brothers to expand their brewing footprint and share other resources. So that Kona you're drinking, while designed in Hawaii, probably came from Portland.

Second, I was introduced by my friend Wyatt who had it while on one of his trips to Hawaii. Wyatt is also a homebrewer and liked it so much that he decided to try to brew his own. As many homebrewers are wont to do, he tinkered with the clone recipe until he came up with a bigger & bolder Big Wave. He named it Tsunami. While still clean, crisp and citrusy refreshing, it is medium bodied and clocks in around 7% ABV. Yes, also dangerous after mowing the lawn Or watching TV.

Wyatt brewing his Tsunami