No Love Potions Here

So I hope you all weren't expecting me to serve up a glowing review of some great beer to have on the made up holiday called Valentine's Day*.  If you did, you don't know me that well.  Plus, I'm still really bitter about a certain football game and not ready to play nice.

Instead I bring you the Big Swell IPA offered up by Maui Brewing Co. based in Lahaina, Maui, Hawaii.  It is, as you can see from the picture, a canned beer. 

See, I told you it was from a can. 
6.8% ABV

Now I know the arguments for putting beer in cans, and they all make complete sense.  In fact, Maui Brewing was kind enough to point out the following on the can itself (and I quote...):
*Cans eliminate light damage and reduce the risk of oxidation, keeping this craft brew fresher than in bottles!  Yup, no argument there.
*Cans are lighter, chill quicker, and can be enjoyed on beaches and in sensitive environments.  Sensitive environments?  Like where?  The ICU?
*Aluminum is the most recycled and most eco-friendly material.  IF you recycle it that is...

It's also less costly to ship because it is so much lighter than glass. That's probably pretty important to a brewery located on an island in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.  They must not have had room to fit that on the can though. 

Despite all these great points, I still prefer my beer in a glass bottle.  This really makes no sense since I hardly ever drink it out of its original container.  If I did, how would I justify the bazillions of pint glasses and other assorted beer glassware that I own?   

Anyhow, on to the beer INSIDE the eco/beer/sick relative in ICU friendly can.  I was pretty excited for the first sip of this after I poured it and took a quick sniff.  It had a nice citrusy, sweet aroma right away, which I love in an IPA.  So I quickly took the lame picture you see above so I could try it, but was disappointed to find that the citrusy aroma didn't follow through in the taste.  Malt and bitterness unexpectedly dominated the flavor, and the bitterness lingered on my tongue for a bit longer than I would have liked.  Not that bitterness in a IPA is unusual or unacceptable, there was just more than I typically care for.  It had a fairly high level of carbonation (a little sweetness creeps up on you as the carbonation fades), and I would call it a light to medium bodied brew.

Not my favorite example of an IPA, but if you are a fan of a more bitter IPA, then grab a 6-pack of Big Swell, go visit Aunt Betty in the ICU, and give the empty cans to the first "recycling engineer" (read: homeless person) you pass on your way out.

The good thing about this is that my pinter in crime tends to like these types of IPAs more than I, so I will make him drink, er, offer these to him with a glowing review (he doesn't read my blog, so he won't know any better) while secretly drinking the 6-pack of Bell's Two Hearted that I also bought.  It's what he gets for not supporting my blog efforts. 

Maui Brewing's cans also make a nice parting gift for a co-worker who has been the victim of down sizing in our continuously sluggish economy.

In the interest of your health and well-being, it might be best to give this anonymously.  They would eventually see the humor in it, but probably not until the last one was gone. 

Have a great weekend!
Cheers!
Becky

*For the record if my pinter in crime came home with a growler full of good  beer on Valentine's Day, I would drink it.  But only with indifference and under protest.