Sunday, May 17

 

Hi Everyone.  Howzit? We’re doing good here.  Just relaxing on a lazy Sunday morning, watching the Red Wings and bumming around the house.  We  hit  Hapuna Beach yesterday, on the Kohola Coast.  The weather was perfect and the surf was decent, giving us some decent waves to play in.  We spent a good portion of the day at the beach and then headed back to Hilo, ate dinner at Aloha Luigis and then did some errands before coming back home and having a few drinks.   Today was pretty mellow as well.  I got up pretty early so that I could watch the Red Wings playoff game.  The game started at 9 a.m. Hawaii time. It feels kind of strange to be watching a hockey game so early in the morning, but I’ll watch hockey anytime.  I do think that i am one of the only hockey fans on this island.  I went into work for a few hours this afternoon and am now back home getting things in order for next week.  Things will be busy as usual.  We’ve been brewing almost 24 hours a day for several weeks and have no plans of stopping this pace.  The demand for our beers is growing and we don’t expect or hope that changes.   Our sales team has secured some huge accounts on Oahu, which only means that we need to brew more beer.  It’s a good problem to have.  Maybe someday we’ll consider distributing our beers to the mainland, but for now we are going to concentrate on Hawai’i and Japan.  Hope everyone is well. Aloha.

Monday, May 11

Hi there.  Howzit? Doing good  here. I took a rare day off today and Jess and I headed  to the Ka’u district of the Big Island to check out Punalu’u Black Sand Beach.  The weather report said the area was supposed to have some sun, but when we got there, there was no sun.  However, there were quite a few large sea turtles hanging out on the beach.  This beach is well known as a home for the Hawaiian Sea Turtle, or Honu.  It’s also pretty crowded with tour buses.  The beach was beautiful and full of very fine dark black sand as you can see from the picture. On a sunny day, this place would be ideal to spend some time.  The Ka’u district of the Big Island is near the southern most point on the island and is also the southern most point of the entire United States.  We ate lunch at a restaurant that claimed to be the southern most restaurant in the U.S. Although, I do think there was another restaurant just down the road. The turtles on this beach were some of the biggest that I’ve ever seen and I was amazed at how gentle and calm these creatures are.  They only occasionally moved parts of their bodies and couldn’t have cared less that there were about 50 people taking pictures at any given time.   So after lunch, we thought about driving to Kona, but the weather was calling for some scattered showers.  Rather than take a chance, we figured we’d just head home and relax.   However, by the time we got back into the Puna District, the sun was shining and we figured that we’d try to find Kehena Beach, a black sand beach that is pretty popular on the east side of the island.  After a quick consultation with a map, we were headed in the

  right direction.   We found the beach and as we were heading down the trail to the beach, we noticed something…….. Most everyone was naked.  Oh yeah, full on naked – running, swimming, bodysurfing, hanging upside down from trees.   There were a few people with clothes on, so we headed down to what is easily the nicest beach on the east side of the island.  It was actually one of the nicest beaches I’ve ever seen in my life and not because of the naked people.  In fact, the naked people made it a bit awkward at first, but after awhile, you just get used to it.   The waves were huge, 5-6 foot shore breaks.   I ventured out a little bit and got my ass handed to me and have some cuts and scrapes as a memory  of our first trip to what we now know is a sweet nude beach.  Hope all is well with all of you.  Aloha

Sunday, May 10

Hi Everyone.  Howzit? It’s been more than two months since we’ve written anything.  We’ve been busy and honestly haven’t had much time to write.  Keeping up a blog is far harder than I thought it was and it always was the thing that got cut from the list at the end of day.    I’ll try harder to get more up. 

Wednesday, March 11

Hi there. Howzit? Doing good here. The past week has been INSANE in terms of weather. We got 19 inches of rain in a three day period. I have never seen this kind of precipitation in my life. It was conducive to doing absolutely nothing but staring at the rain. We also had an earthquake on Monday. It was a 5.2 magnitude quake, moderate according to earthquake officals. No damages were reported and thankfully a Tsunami wasn't generated. The quake happened about 6.5 miles north of downtown Hilo on the Hamakua Coast. I didn't feel a thing, however Jess said the house shook. The sun is making it's first appearance in several days this morning, which is a welcome sight for me. The clear skies also allowed for a nice view of the Mauna Kea Volcano, whose top is covered in snow. Mauna Kea (white mountain) is presently a dormant volcano, having last erupted about 4,500 years ago. The volcano is estimated to be 1 million years old. The rest of the work week looks to be busy. I am brewing Primo tomorrow with the brewers from Pabst and then Jess and I are headed to Kona for the Kona Brewer's Festival. We've got a brewer's dinner to attend on Friday night and then the actual festival on Saturday. It should be a fun time. I found us a nice little vacation rental that allows animals, so Berkley can come with us. Alright, time to get moving. Hope everyone is well. Aloha.

Tuesday, March 3

Hey Everyone. We're still here!! Both us have colds right now and are not feeling too well at all. I am super busy right now with work, brewing every day this week. It's going to be tough, considering the cold I have. Oh well, I haven't been sick in three years. I guess I was due. Otherwise, things are fine here. We've had a few decent storms which have dumped some rain on us in the past 10 days. It is kind of strange going from living in Arizona, which gets six inches of rain a year -- to living in a place which can get six inches of rain in one week during the winter. A lot of the rain seems to happen at night, which is just fine by me. Despite my cold, we went to Kona on Saturday to spend some time on the beach, but the 30 mph trade winds had other plans for us. So, instead of the beach, we checked out Kona and had some lunch. The picture above is from the pier in downtown Kona. Will post more soon. Aloha.

Monday, Feb. 23

Hey there. Howzit? Doing good here. I am back in Kauai for a few days. I got here yesterday and spent the day on the beach enjoying some good-sized waves. My true reason for being here is work. We're doing the second-phase of shut-down, so I will be here until tomorrow night. We put in a pretty good sized day today and are loading up a 20-foot shipping container to send back to Hilo. We'll load a second 20 foot container tomorrow as well and they send them off to the port for the voyage to Hilo. Although I love the Big Island, being back in Kauai is great. I really wish Jess could have come over with me. This island will always be special to me for many reasons. I feel very at home in Kauai and it was nice when people recognized me when I got back here. Alright, enough Kauai gushing. I am headed back tomorrow on the late flight and should get back to Hilo around 8:40 p.m. and then back to work early on Thursday. I will post again after I get back. Sorry for the sparse posts lately, I've been busy. Take care. Aloha.

Sunday, Feb. 14

Hi everyone. Happy Valentine's Day, if you're celebrating it. It's been raining here pretty much all day, with the exception of a few hours early this morning when I was at the gym. I also worked today, bringing my total hours for the week well above 60. I had a somewhat relaxed day though. I cleaned a few service tanks and then did a bunch of paperwork. The picture of me is up on my perch above the brewery floor, where my desk is located. It's a perfect spot to keep an eye on things that are going on. It also keeps people from slacking off if they know I'm up there. I can also see into my boss' office from here, so all in all it's a pretty stellar vantage point. This week was really busy and pretty productive. We had some equipment failures and one struggling fermentation, but things are good and everything is working as it should be. There's only so much you can control as a brewer and then you have to let science happen. My patience was tested far too many times this week. Next week looks to be pretty busy as well, but I am hopeful it will go a bit smoother than this one did. Anyhow, I get a day off tomorrow, which is cool. We were planning on going to the beach, but it looks like it's supposed to be cloudy with some scattered showers -- so, maybe not. Jess is doing good also. She hit the farmer's market today and picked up a bunch of great stuff. I think we're going to take it easy tonight. Hope everyone is well. Aloha.

Wednesday, Feb. 11

Hi there. Howzit? Doing good here. I am really tired. Had a huge start to my work week and am now just catching my breath. On Monday, I picked up our Head brewer, Dave Campbell, who flew in from Oahu. We spent the day going over procedures in the brewery and getting things ready for our brew day on Tuesday. We brewed the first batch of Hawai'i Nui beer at the Hilo facility. The brew went well and fermentation should hopefully start by tomorrow morning. Dave stayed the night with us on Monday and I took him to the airport last night at about 8 p.m. During our brew on Tuesday, we were visited by several members of the Pabst Brewing Company. They came to evaluate The facility and give us the OK to start brewing Primo, which is a beer that originated in Hawai'i. Things went really well and at one point, I had two brewmasters with more than 30 years experience apiece standing on my brewhouse complimenting me on the vigorous nature of my boil. It was an honor, to say the least. The rest of the week will be busy and unfortunatley include a full day of work on Saturday. Jess is doing good and says she'll post a blog very soon. I've heard that before :)... Aloha.