The Journey of Kō - The Making of Pakeweli Tripel with Aloha Beer Co. & Kō Hana Rum
Kō - Saccharum - Sugarcane. A simple plant that grows like a weed in Hawaii and has shaped the island’s history in so many way. For many, cane is a link to the past when plantations dotted the islands and provided work and opportunity for so many. For others, like Kō Hana Rum it is a living link to ancient Hawaii when Polynesians brought the plant on their canoes to the new lands they were discovering.
This project started with a trip to Kō Hana’s facility in Kunia. Our goal was to pick out a single barrel and single varietal rum that would be exclusive to Village. The love, passional and dedication that the Kō Hana team puts into their rum has inspired us at Village for a long time and we were humbled to be able to select our very own barrel.
Our team was guided by Kyle Reutner of Kō Hana Rum, who hand selected a number of barrel samples. Each barrel is filled with rum made with a single heritage variety of cane. Kō Hana has meticulously categorized and re-discovered cane varieties that were grown and propagated by the ancient Hawaiians. Each variety has unique qualities differing in taste, color and aroma. The barrels we were choosing from were filled with rum distilled from Pakeweli, a beautiful cane with purple tiger stripes on the stalk.
After a lot of careful sipping, smelling and swirling we came to a consensuses that barrel 1291 was the winner. We loved the vibrant notes of cotton candy, vanilla, orange marmalade and the hint of spices like anise and white pepper. It was time to get this juice bottled up. Half stayed at cask strength, or 60.8% abv, while the other half we had cut down to 45% abv. While the bottles of Kila and Koho got ready, we started to focus on the second half of this project and the continued journey of barrel 1291 and Pakeweli.
Now it was time for this barrel to live a second life. We reached out to our close friends at Aloha Beer Co., to work on a beer that would showcase not only the barrel but also the pakeweli cane. Our goal was to showcase the cane in both the rum and a beer. To our delight Aloha jumped at the chance to work with Village and Kō Hana Rum. After a few discussions we all decided on brewing a Belgian style Tripel. A style light in color that really focuses on the bright fruit and spice characteristics created from the yeast used in fermentation. Many of these flavors are similar to the ones in pakeweli. Traditionally processed white sugar is used in the brewing process of this style, but we decided to replace that with freshly pressed pakeweli cane juice.
Along with Aloha Beer’s Kaiao Archer, we ventured out into Kō Hana’s fields in Kunia to cut stalks of pakeweli in the sweltering summer sun. With a few pointers and safety tips from Kyle, we got to cutting and striping the cane stalks. Unlike large cane plantations that burn their fields, Kō Hana hand cuts their harvest. It’s very hard and hot work, but it better preserves the juices in the cane stalks. After we filled the truck up, it was back to Kō Hana’s facility to press each stalk to extract all of that sugary goodness. With a hand from the pressing machine we quickly had 10 gallons of sweet cane juice.
The 10 gallons of freshly pressed pakeweli cane juice was added to the brew and after primary fermentation we transferred a portion of the beer into our barrel to sit and soak up those flavors for 6 weeks. We decided to keep the barrel aging period shorter since this is a beer light in color and we didn’t want the barrel to over power anything.
The results? From 1 field, a single cane variety helped create 2 amazing locally crafted drinks. We are excited to release both beers along side the rum on Friday, September 17th at Village. A journey of 1 locally grown product that can be tasted side by side in different forms.
Bottles of Village’s Single Barrel Pakeweli Ko Hana Rum can be purchased online to enjoy at home as well!
