A few weeks ago, Honolulu Beerworks ran an Instagram contest to celebrate their beer and can design. Thanks to a tip from Sally Greene, I posted a photo. As luck would have it, the two of us won! We were invited to go create a firkin cask, have lunch, and a few beers. It was a great experience, informative and fun. The casks will be tapped during the Beerworks Beerbowl on Saturday, February 22, 2020 at 6pm. Please come down and vote for your favorite! This is a Hawaii Craft Beer Week event, and part of a full day of festivities at the brewery.

The firkin day started with a tour of the brewery. Head brewer Roxayne Spruance showed Sally and I all the behind the scenes workings of the facility, their expansion area, and other buildings including the barrel room. It’s a busy one, always at full capacity. The constant brewing with beers in different stages made for delectable smells everywhere we went. We met with another brewer Michael who showed us some active brews.

It was here we figured our recipes and discussed how best to achieve desired flavors without being too strong or unpalatable. I think we came up with some good ideas, it’ll be fun to try the finished products. Sally went for the Surf Session IPA infused with passionfruit and blood orange purees with sea salt – “Sunkissed Surf Session.”

I went a darker route with their South Shore Stout and added some of my favorite flavors: black Earl Grey tea, and dried orange rinds – “MAKE IT SOuth Shore Stout.” It was fun to fill the cask with ingredients using sanitary procedures, then fill it from a keg with a hand pump. For mine, the tea bags will come out after cold brewing for 24 hours or so to cut the astringent bitterness that comes with tea.

After our infusion experience, we all enjoyed a leisurely lunch and beers. Mahalo again to the whole Honolulu Beerworks team for the great afternoon. I hope everyone can come enjoy the festivities!