Kona Brewing Hawaii taps 'Ulu Lager on Friday, September 4. The limited release is brewed with breadfruit flour from the Hawaii 'Ulu Cooperative. The beer is a collaboration with the co-op itself, which sources from more than 200 member farms across the islands and mills its breadfruit into flour among other products.

'Ulu is breadfruit, and it has been grown in Hawaii for generations. The brewery's notes describe it as an abundant and versatile staple - baked, fried, boiled or grilled, eaten fully ripe or slightly under - and point out that the trees are perennial, fruiting every year without replanting. That last detail is the reason it turns up so often in conversations about local food security, and it is the reason the co-op exists.

As a brewing ingredient, 'ulu flour lands in familiar territory from an unfamiliar source. Starch adjuncts have been going into lagers for well over a century, most commonly as rice or corn. This one comes off a tree growing in the same islands as the brewery.

The build around it is deliberately quiet. Kona's spec sheet for the beer, part of its Backyard Batch series, lists a single malt - pale two-row - and three hops in Columbus, Saaz and Willamette. None of the three is there to make a scene: Columbus handles bitterness, Saaz is the classic Czech noble hop, and Willamette is the mild, faintly herbal American cousin of Fuggle. The beer finishes at 17 IBU and a color of 3.1 degrees Lovibond - very pale. The sheet also records an original extract of 11.0 degrees Plato dropping to 2.0, a dry landing.

The brewery describes the result as bright, golden and refreshing, with a rich malt aroma, lively carbonation and a smooth mouthfeel. It is 5 percent ABV. Its own suggested pairings run local: kalua pork and rice, edamame, a fish sandwich, garden vegetable skewers.

Kona is framing the release as more than a beer, calling it a celebration of Hawaii-grown 'ulu and the farmers who grow it.

The launch runs Friday, September 4, from 6 to 8 p.m. in the 80's section of Kona Pub in Kailua-Kona, with the beer tapping at 6:30 p.m. Two 'ulu dishes will be available for purchase alongside it, plus collaboration merchandise and a limited-edition sticker. At 7 p.m. the pub screens an episode of "Here in Hawaii" featuring the partnership.

Editor’s Take

Breadfruit has one of the great resumes in agriculture and almost none of the fame. It can be baked, fried, boiled, grilled, mashed, milled into flour, and now, apparently, fermented. The tree fruits every year without being replanted, which makes it the rarest thing in food production: a crop that essentially shows up for work on its own. Somewhere out there is a marketing department that would kill for that story, and it belongs to a fruit most of the mainland has never once had to think about.

So I am delighted that Kona's spec card treats the whole thing with such magnificent calm. Malt: pale two-row. Hops: Columbus, Saaz, Willamette. Color: 3.1. And then, in the description, the small matter of a tree that has been feeding these islands for generations being milled into flour and put to work in a lager. No fanfare, no seventeen adjectives, just a lager with an extra line on the ingredient list. The food pairings on the card include a fish sandwich. Correct.

Source & Editorial

JollyPint independently prepares release articles using information published by breweries through newsletters, websites, and other official public communications. Brewery-supplied descriptions and tasting notes are reported as provided, while editorial context is added by JollyPint.

'Ulu Lager Is Brewed With Breadfruit Flour From a Farmer Co-op

Breadfruit gets baked, fried, boiled and grilled across Hawaii. Kona Brewing Hawaii has now had it milled into flour and brewed into a 5 percent lager. The beer is made with a co-op that draws on more than 200 island farms.

Source & Editorial