This is a pretty smart little Golden Ale, though I’m not sure if Iolani is the brewery or the brand or the beer’s name or what.
I’ll Google it later*.
Pouring an unsurprising gold, the smell is apples and pears on a bed of straw.
There’s a particularly nice malt here that’s full of sticky honey, white pepper, burned sugar syrup and a handful of sultanas.
The hops are crisp and bright, as green apple skins, grass clippings and a splash of lemon lead you into a good dry bitter and lingering finish.
*I Googled and am still not 100% positive whether or not Iolani is the brewery or just a brand name for The Drink Thing Ltd.
Source: The Beer Hawk
They do an Iolani Red and Iolani Black as well, although for us the Gold was the best of the bunch. New brewery, so will revisit the others as they play with the recipe
Thanks for the positive review Simon. We are very pleased to hear that you enjoyed IOLANI GOLD. Our ales have been available since April 2013 and we have received very encouraging feedback in that short period of time.
IOLANI is a trademarked bottled ale brand owned by The Drink Thing Limited. We collaborate with some very experienced brewers to have our beers produced. We do not have our own brewery. We know some people can be put off trying ales produced in this way so we would like to provide some assurances…
IOLANI is brewed in the traditional manner from quality ingredients. We take great care to ensure that our beers are of a high quality. The pictures on the ‘Brewing’ page of our website show the process used; the photographs were taken during a brew of IOLANI RED.
Our website address is iolanidrinks.co.uk – we do not use the word brewery in the web address or anywhere else for that matter as we do not intend to pretend to be a brewery but as Simon was left unsure it is obvious that we have not been clear enough. We will amend the website so as to be more transparent.
We hope that everyone will enjoy IOLANI for what it is – quality ale produced with the best of intentions by enthusiasts. Cheers.
Thanks for the info.
Certainly in terms of CAMRGB members a good beer is a Good beer.
Cheers.
Oh nooo, I can feel myself getting sucked in to a “definition of” discussion. Is a brewery only a brewery if it owns the building? Must they own 100% of it or may a bank have a mortgage hold over it? Can a head brewer work part time on his own brews or must it be a solus commitment to the building that is 100% owned by the bank…. definitions are irrelevant and that’s why we like CAMRGB! For me a brewery is a catch all phrase for the mighty fine people that bring us good beer and this is a good beer. Nuff said.
I couldn’t agree more!
🙂