Name: Maui Brewing Co Coconut Porter

Style: Porter

Country: U.S.A.

ABV: 6%

Beer description: Maui Brewing Company, which is unsurprisingly in Maui, Hawaii, produces a good range of beers. The majority of their range appears to only be served on tap while their is a more limited release of beers in cans. Maui Brewing prefers cans as they’re easier to ship and more appropriate for beach drinking than bottles.

The colour of Maui’s coconut porter is a very dark brown, almost black. It’s a pretty dark porter and looks thicker than it should be; not too thick, but looks robust. There’s also a great thick light brown head that goes along with it all.

Smelling the beer gives the distinct scent of kola nut and a general spiciness. The spices feel like trade spices that would have traveled across the seas hundreds of years ago. Nutmeg comes throughout with hints of vanilla behind it: a great combination. While it is called a coconut porter, there’s not a huge amount of coconut overtly in the aroma. There’s the general feeling of coconut, it’s more like coconut husks than the fruit itself, with hints of the fruit and milk behind it all.

In the taste, however, the coconut comes through a little more. Maui Brewing Co says that the coconut used in the beer is toasted, and this sensation really comes through in the taste. It’s not the taste of fresh coconut flesh, but has a toasted and slightly burnt quality about it. The burnt quality sits in the back of the throat and may or may not be directly related to the roasted coconut, as this burnt taste is often found in porters. It may come from some roasted specialty grains used in the brew. However, it’s a little more burnt than usual.

All these flavours come swirling together. Sometimes one comes first, sometimes last. While not cohesive, it creates a nice and constantly surprising interaction of flavours.

Although the beer originally looked thick, it’s surprisingly light for a porter. It is a Hawaiian beer after all. Porter isn’t the first beer one would choose for a tropical paradise, but if you were to have one, it should be light like this one. Conversely, as a porter, it’s not terribly malty, but it works.

All of this creates a porter with slightly burnt elements to it with a twist of coconut to take the edge off, and it’s quite nice.

Check out general summary of Hawaiian beers.

Check out more porter reviews.

Go to reviews of Maui Brewing Co.

Editor’s note – the style name porter is an interesting one, and there’s quite a bit of history to it. We did the research to learn all about the history of the name porter.