From Kona Brewing: Longboard Island Lager is a smooth refreshing lager fermented and aged for five weeks at cold temperatures to yield its exceptionally smooth flavor. A delicate, slightly spicy hop aroma complements the malty body of this beer.

Kona Brewing – Longboard Island Lager – 12 oz. bottle poured into a pint glass. 5.0% abv.

Appearance: Pours a clear yellow gold, with a touch of cloudiness. Even with an aggressive pour, I was unable to get any sort of head to form.

Aroma: Sweet summer corn, dry malts, and a little bit of bitter hop.

Taste: Honey sweetness, light, dry biscuity malt, bitter, metallic hops, with a fruity, light hoppy finish.

Mouthfeel: Full bodied, crisp.

Overall: Probably one of the first craft lagers I have ever had. Has a unique flavor compared to other pale lagers, very refreshing and satisfying. If you have a chance to pick this in a line up of Heineken, Boston Lager, or a Bud/Miller/Coors, I would pick Longboard each and every time. On it’s own merrit, I would put this in the galvanized bucket at the next bbq without thinking twice.

Kona Brewing Company is Hawai‘i’s largest brewery, the 14th largest craft brewing company in America and the top-selling craft beer in the Islands. Created in 1994 by father-and-son team Cameron Healy and Spoon Khalsa, Kona has also been the organizer of the annual Kona Brewers Festival for the past 14 years. There are more than 10 styles of beer available, ranging from the Big Wave Golden Ale to the Da Grind Buzz Kona Coffee Stout, some of which are only available in Kona’s restaurants.

Kona has a sustainability coordinator, overseeing things like using biodegradable cups at festivals to using a whiskey barrel to catch air conditioning systems condensation to water the Kailua-Kona’s restaurant’s landscape.

While Kona’s distribution has expanded to both mainland coasts, in order to minimize the company’s carbon footprint and “under strict guidance, Kona Brewing Company also produces its bottled beer and mainland draft beer in Portland, Oregon, and Portsmouth, New Hampshire. The beer is distributed in 19 states and Japan, and it will launch in six states in the Northeast and the District of Columbia in 2009,” shared Tucciarone.

The full article discusses past and present island favorites both local and non-local – Primo, Olympia, Steinlager to name a few.

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The popularity of craft beers stateside has grown tremendously over the past few years, giving rise to some great new breweries all around the nation. The definition of a craft brewer, according to the Brewers Association, is as follows,

An American craft brewer is small, independent, and traditional.

Small: Annual production of beer less than 2 million barrels. Beer production is attributed to a brewer according to the rules of alternating proprietorships. Flavored malt beverages are not considered beer for purposes of this definition.

Independent: Less than 25% of the craft brewery is owned or controlled (or equivalent economic interest) by an alcoholic beverage industry member who is not themselves a craft brewer.

Traditional: A brewer who has either an all malt flagship (the beer which represents the greatest volume among that brewers brands) or has at least 50% of it’s volume in either all malt beers or in beers which use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.

We have mapped the top 50 craft brewers in America based on beer sales volume.

Source: sloshspot.com