Brand new to the Maui canned lineup, Mana Wheat has just been released and is pretty much the perfect brew for a warm summer day wherever you may be. I loved their CoCoNut Porter so I am pretty excited about what they've done with pineapple juice in this brew. Aloha!

From the Maui Brewing site:

"Mana Wheat is a fresh handcrafted American hefeweizen brewed with organic wheat, malted barley and fresh local Maui Gold Pineapple. Our crisp and refreshing wheat ale is lightly hopped to allow the fruity sweetness of the pineapple to shine."

Here we go...

Pour - pours a slightly cloudy orangish, reddish color with about an inch of white foam that is gone almost before I can grab the camera. It quickly fades away completely leaving what looks like tropical fruit juice in my glass. 

Aroma - slightly sweet and sour initially. Some wheat and malt is accompanied by a rather unique smell of pineapple juice and caramel. Its not overly sweet and actually has some citrus notes along with an unmistakeable Belgian yeastiness. Quite intriguing...

Taste - one gulp and swish around the tongue and I am sort of stunned by how well the idea of pineapple and wheat beer come together. Mana Wheat has a spiciness from the yeast that really comes out but its backed up nicely by the sweetness from the pineapple juice in a perfect way. Nothing really dominates and that acrid taste I am left with from some wheat ales is not present whatsoever. Pineapple does to this beer what it does for pork. It just makes it awesome. This is soft on the palate, sweet, spicy and extremely refreshing. Hells yeah. I want more.

Overall - Mana Wheat definitely lived up to my expectations. Another extremely solid and Hawaii-rific offering from the folks at Maui. Unique, flavorful and thirst quenching on a whole new level! Thanks goes out to Cambria at Drink Eat Travel for sharing this with me. 

Would I buy more of it? - if only I could! I'd be stocking up on this and the other Maui cans on a regular basis.

Note - Maui now cans four of their beers. You can find their CoCoNut Porter, Bikini Blonde and Big Swell IPA as well as Mana Wheat canned and available for purchase in Hawaii, California, Washington, Idaho and Japan.