Kona Brewing Pipeline Porter
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You know those seasonal beers? The ones released for just a few months, then retired? I've lost my heart to one—Kona Brewing Company's Pipeline Porter.
Pipeline Porter was publicly released last September, but I, for my sins, only discovered it last week, 
and it's going to be "retired" in March. It's a typical Porter, dark, rich, with a barely discernable hint of hops (made with Warrior, Millenium, Horizon and Perle hops). Pipeline Porter's malts include Pale, Carapils, Victory, Caramel 80, Extra Special, Chocolate Malt, Dark Chocolate Malt, and Roasted Barley. The alcohol level is a reasonable 5.4%. But Pipeline Porter's main claim to fame is that it's also made with freshly roasted 100% Kona coffee grown at Cornwell Estate on Oahu. And yes, you really can detect both the coffee and the chocolate, but it's still a Porter, dense and sort of . . . chewy. It's dark in color, as it should be, with a tinge of red. The smokey/roasted grain tendency of Porters in general makes chocolate and coffee natural flavor matches, but this is the first I've seen made with coffee, though I've had several lovely chocolate stouts.
In 2007 Pipeline Porter won the bronze medal in the Coffee Beer category at the
Great American Beer Festival, Colorado, and the silver medal in the "Other Beer" category at the Australian International Beer Awards. It's gotten some very solid reviews; I note that I'm not the only one to fall swiftly into love. I'm broken hearted that Pipeline Porter is going away, but I'm going to make the most of the next couple of months.
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Thanks for the link! It is a
Thanks for the link! It is a sad time each year when this wonderful brew goes into summer hibernation. That is also the reason I buy a six pack of it for storage every time I go to the grocery store. :) Stock up now and ration carefully and you might just make it to next year without shedding too many tears.
Doug
justbeer.wordpress.com
[...] Kona’s Pipeline Porter,
[...] Kona’s Pipeline Porter, seasonal beer that it was, has gone away. There’s some suggestion that it will reappear next spring. I very much hope so. In the meantime, the Pipeline Porter slot in the store where I’ve been buying beer of late has been taken by six packs of Pyramid’s Rollick Amber Lager. Pyramid began as a brew pub in but has now expanded to two breweries (Seattle, across from the Mariner’s Safeco Field, and Berkeley, CA) and five pubs. In 2008 Pyramid Breweries won the mid-size Brewery of the Year award at the Great American Beer Festival—and three gold medals. [...]