Beer of the Weekend #111: Pipeline Porter

I was wearing an Iowa sweatshirt when I bought my Defyance 3’s today. One of the sales guys said to me, “Iowa. Did you run for Iowa?”

Are you kidding? For a moment I thought about saying yes, but told him no. Shit, for most of my college career I could barely run around the block.

The beer this weekend is Pipeline Porter brewed by the Kona Brewing Company of Kona, Hawaii.


I’ve had Pipeline before, sometime in the summer of 2007. Normally I try not to sample brews I’ve had before, even if I haven’t profiled them, but I’ve seen Pipeline on the shelf at BevMo! and have been tempted to get it again. So here we go.

Serving type: Six 12-ounce bottles.

Appearance: Poured an opaque black into my Anchor Porter pint glass. I messed up the straight pour so only about a finger and a half of cappuccino colored head developed before dissipating quickly, leaving a spotted lacing and ring around the edge.

Smell: Very enticing. A toasted coffee aroma dominates, and is well balanced by dark chocolate.

Taste: The coffee from the smell is prominent, but there’s no backing as the chocolate has mysteriously disappeared.

Drinkability: Pipeline is smooth and tasty, but I was expecting a lot more after the tempting aroma.

Fun facts about Pipeline Porter:

-Price $8.49/sixer at the BevMo! on Beach.

-Serving temperature: 45-50ºF.

-Alcohol content: 5.3 percent.

-IBU: 23.

-Gravity: 13.5º Plato.

-Food pairings: BA recommends barbecue, buttery cheeses (Brie, Gouda, Havarti, and Swiss), chocolate, and meat in general. The Kona website says this:

Pipeline Porter is perfectly paired with hearty soups and stews, roast beef sandwiches, pot roast and mashed potatoes. It’s also a perfect beer on its own, drink it to take the chill off a windy, cold day!

Windy, cold day? In Hawaii? I bet they’re like the windy, cold days here: 60º and partly cloudy.

-Surprisingly, Pipeline is only seasonal. It’s available September through March. Also, Kona brews are only available on the Hawaiian Islands, Japan, and select US states.

-The bottom of the carrier is chock full of good material, which makes my job easier:

Kona Brewing Co.’s Pipeline Porter is dark, toasty and smooth because it’s brewed with roasted barley, a select blend of premium hops and 100% pure, Hawaiian-grown Kona Coffee. We source our beans from Cornwell Estate, located on the slopes of Mauna Loa, in the heart of the Kona Coffee Belt. The plantation sits at 1500 feet elevation with rich, deep volcanic soil, sunny mornings and cloudy afternoons — an ideal place for growing coffee. Only red, ripe “cherries” are hand-picked and slowly sun dried before roasting to a deep chocolate brown. Authentic Kona Coffee beans can only come from Hawaii and are considered some of the best in the world.

Hawaii is home to the North Shore of Oahu, a seven mile stretch of coastline where big wave surfing was born. The Bonzai Pipeline is a particularly revered break that serves up steep, curling waves with a rush that leaves surfers wide-eyed and grinning. Kona Brewing Co. honors this mecca of surfing with a beer that delivers a little kick and thrill of its own. Brewed with 100% Hawaiian Kona Coffee, Pipeline Porter has a boost of flavor with a smooth style that makes it as awesome as the waves that inspired it. Serve it up!

Surf’s up, brah!

-The underside of the bottle cap features an English translation of a Hawaiian word. “Lilo” means “lost.” Or maybe it’s “last.” I can’t really tell because the English version is written in a weird cursive font.


The Quiet Man’s grade: B.

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