If you don’t know this about me already, I’ll tell you that I have this cardinal rule about specialty beers. If you’re going to feature an ingredient outside the normal barley malt, wheat, hops and yeast, then I better be able to taste it in the beer. Brewing up a chili beer? I want it spicy! Making one with coconuts? I better taste them then! And so on and so forth.

I happen to love coconuts, you see, so the latter is something I really want to taste. In the few coconut beers I’ve run across, I didn’t get as much coconut flavor as I wanted. Happily, that wasn’t the case with Big Rod Coconut Ale from the Miami Brewing Company of Homestead, Florida. Finally, a coconut beer that tastes like coconut!

This beer isn’t sold in Georgia, at least not yet, but when my fine friends at Stout’s Growlers here in Canton vacationed recently in Florida they brought me back a can. From the label of that can:

Our craft beers are inspired by the electric flavors and diverse cultures found in Miami and the Florida Keys.

Big Rod: A crisp blonde ale with notes of coconut, caramel and vanilla hints on the nose. Finishes dry with subtle sweetness in your mouth. This delicious golden ale has a smooth mouth feel and is perfect for fishing or a hot day on the beach. 

Big Rod Coconut Ale has an alcohol content of 5.3% by volume. My can has some interesting slogans worth repeating: “Vacation in a Beer!” and “For a reel good time, all you need is a Big Rod!”.

Big Rod Coconut Ale pours to a hazy yellow orange color with a medium very creamy head formation and a nose of....yes! Delicious toasty coconut. Taking a sip, the beer has a light biscuity maltiness underneath with just a hint of caramel followed by more of the big, fleshy coconut the nose promised. The beer is nicely balanced by an aggressive herbal hoppiness in the finish, just enough to keep it from being cloying. Still, the coconut is the star here, as well it should be.

I’m rating this one highly because I really enjoyed it and it features the coconut theme ingredient so prominently. Some beer geeks will I am sure eschew it, but to that I can only respond why the hell are you drinking a coconut ale if not because you love coconut? I do, and this beer hit the spot for me. It was even more delightful in that the exotic coconut flavors paired extremely well with the Chili Blackened Cod with Epazote, Avocado & Red Rice Salad my wife prepared for dinner.



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