Name: Big Island Brewhaus Overboard IPA

Style: IPA (India Pale Ale)

Country: U.S.A.

ABV: 6.9%

Beer description: Big Island Brewhaus is a Hawaiian brewery.  Unsurprisingly, the brewery can be found on the Big Island in Hawaii. The brewery also boasts that it’s Hawaii’s highest brewery at 842 metres above sea level

The Overboard IPA is great in colour at a cloudy amber with a bit of caramel straw. It’s not as dark as some IPAs but many are too dark nowadays to really be called “pale,” so it’s nice to see something lighter.

The aroma gives a solid hit of pine and citrus all wrapped around a good solid malt base of the typical caramel and vanilla that is typical of an IPA. It’s all very well balanced: as mentioned, the malt is there just to give a structure for the hops to sit on. It’s mostly the pine that comes through here. This isn’t surprising considering that Big Island Brewhaus have chosen to use a combination of of Amarillo, Cascade, Centennial, and Simcoe hops. These are all pretty standard American hops used in a lot of American IPAs, so, while welcome, it leads to a pretty standard aroma. That being said, they’ve been put together well and it’s quite pleasing.

Amongst this is some passion fruit trying to cut through everything which makes the beer almost want to have a bit of a tropical feel. More tropical aromas would be welcome considering this is a Hawaiian beer. There is a bit of a floral feel about the aroma which helps though, as well as a bit of bitterness and spice which rounds it all out.

The taste becomes a little more tropical. The citrus comes through a little more with a hint of ground flower peddles in the beginning. The flower peddles feel dirty, like they’ve been stomped on with a heavy boot, but they’re a vibrant flow so the smell is still there! An earthy quality comes through, perhaps the flower has been completely mashed into the dirt. Of course the bitterness comes through at the end to really round out the style.

Throughout there is a distinct taste of lemon; not generic citrus but lemon. This really lightens things up to make it a very refreshing brew.

There’s not a lot of malt to speak of, but it’s there. The malt is very much just used as a base for the hops, which is quite welcome. It gives a little bit of a candy sweetness when the beer is allowed to warm, but it works well with the other flavours.

The beer does well on the warm side which is good for hotter weather since it may make the beer heat up quickly. Also, given the amount of alcohol and malt in the beer, Big Island Brewhaus have done a good job keeping the beer feeling pretty light: the malt is well disguised. It’s a good beer to drink on island and a good beach beer.

Check out general summary of Hawaiian beers.

Check out other IPA reviews.

Go to other Big Island Brewhaus beers.

And for those not in the know, IPA stands for India Pale Ale. Find out why it’s called IPA.