For the past few years, Oahu beer fans have been envious of our Maui neighbors. Since late 2014, they’ve been enjoying offerings from Stone Brewing Co. and a number of other highly sought-after beers from some of the nation’s most respected breweries, all through Maui Stone Craft Beverages.
Although we are a small state, Maui Stone has distributed exclusively on Maui, leaving the rest of us looking longingly at social-media posts of the cool beers there. Our only way to enjoy them outside the Valley Isle was when someone would hop over there and pack up a suitcase with as many beers as they could fit and bring them home.
Those same dedicated folks who closely follow the craft scene on Oahu know that all of this changed in December when we received the first shipment of beers from Maui Stone.
Now all of our favorite Stone beers are regularly available at select beer shops and grocery stores. Stone IPA, Arrogant Bastard, Ruination 2.0, Go to IPA and Tangerine Express, to name a few, are distributed along with beers from other breweries that Maui Stone distributes.
A recent arrival was the newly launched Scorpion Bowl IPA. Stone has built itself into the ninth largest craft brewery in the country by making unapologetically bold and flavorful IPAs. The brewery’s early success helped define what a modern, West Coast-style IPA was all about. So it’s no surprise that its newest release is a big (7.5-percent alcohol by volume), hopped-up brew.
But Scorpion Bowl isn’t just another extra-bitter IPA of the type Stone is known for. Here they’ve used more floral and fruit-forward hops such as Mosaic, Loral and Mandarina Bavaria to produce a lighter, crisper IPA that focuses on the hop flavors with much less bitterness.
Bright golden in color and crystal clear, Scorpion Bowl bursts with overripe fruit aromatics. Lime zest, fresh-squeezed orange juice and mangoes come to mind when sniffing a freshly poured glass.
As light in color as this beer is, it fills the palate with an abundance of flavors and washes down incredibly smoothly, with just a hint of lingering bitterness. The bold fruit aromas carry right through to the flavor with notes of honeydew melon and cantaloupe layered in.
As with all Stone beers, Scorpion Bowl still ends with an assertive hoppiness, but that is properly balanced by the fruity hops and a clean, crackery malt base.
For any beer fan, the sight of Stone on Oahu shelves is a fantastic thing. Other standout breweries to keep an eye out for: Modern Times, Oscar Blues, Ale Smith, Avery, Great Divide and The Lost Abbey.
In mere months, our access to world-class breweries has hit new highs through Maui Stone Craft.
Tim Golden, a certified cicerone, shares his obsession with all things craft beer monthly. See his blog, “Beer in Hawaii,” at beerinhawaii.com.
