Kona turns over brewhouse to homebrewer

Modern Brewery Age,  Jan 24, 2005  

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

The brewstaff at Kona Brewing Co., on Hawaii's Big Island recently invited 2004 "American Homebrewer of the Year" Rod Romanak into its brewery to recreate an upscaled version of the porter that catapulted him to the top. "We were very proud of Rod when we found out he had been honored as the best homebrewer in the U.S.," said Kona director of brewery operations Rich Tucciarone.

"It was a pleasure to brew with Rod and recreate his award-winning recipe." Romanak is the president of the Kona Coast Barley Boys homebrew club in Kailua-Kona on Hawaii's Big Island, and his winning brew was called "Positively Porter." "To go from brewing one half of a barrel to 20 barrels is overwhelming," said Romanak. "Kona's brewstaff did an amazing job of bringing in the exact specialty grains and whole hop flowers to duplicate my recipe." A batch totaling 20 barrels was brewed in early January and is being tapped up exclusively at Kona Brewing Company's restaurants on the Big Island and Oahu. Pictured L. to R. are Rod Romanak, and Kona's Dave Ericsen, Dan Kamben, Rich Tucciarone and Brit Antrim.

COPYRIGHT 2005 Business Journals, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2005 Gale Group