(Above picture taken from the website for REAL a Gastropub. Below pictures taken by my wife Tara.)
I'd stopped in at REAL a few times since arriving in Hawaii last year, but it wasn't until last month's tasting event that I finally realized what an incredible place this is. The tasting events happen once a month in the upstairs seating area, and they give REAL's beverage director Tony Raso a chance to pour five beers grouped around a key theme. Last month's event focused on beers that had been awarded the highest ratings at Ratebeer.com. The beer lineup included Trois Mousquetaires's "Porter Baltique," St. Bernardus's "Abt 12," Birra del Borgo's collaboration with Dogfish Head called "My Antonia," and North Coast's "Old Rasputin"--and amazingly, all of these beers were poured from draft.
Anyway, the beer was awesome, but what blew me away more than anything else was the sense of knowledge and passion for beer displayed by the presenters, especially by Tony. The guy has managed to bring an incredible variety of beers to Hawaii, in many cases for the first time ever. He's been working with breweries across the mainland, and with distributors supplying product from breweries worldwide, to give people on Oahu a chance to try some truly remarkable beers they'd probably never get a chance to try otherwise. The beers often come in one-time shipments, sometimes of just a few bottles or a single keg, and the fact that Tony is putting in the effort to secure beer in such limited quantities strikes me as incredible. Effort like that only comes from one place: a true passion for the endeavor.
Just take a look at the picture above (click the picture for a bigger version), which shows the beers on offer on the night of last month's event. The variety is impressive, but it's even more impressive when you consider what it takes to get these beers to Hawaii. For example, take the Moylan's beers listed in the lower right corner of the board. Moylan's is a relatively small brewpub in Northern California, so small that they didn't have enough kegs to spare for Hawaii shipments--the wait for the kegs to travel by boat to Hawaii, and then to return by boat to California, would have left the brewery without enough kegs for normal operation. But Moylan's produces some incredible beers--including the 100+ IBU "Hopsickle" Imperial IPA, and the multi-award-winning "Ryan Sullivan's" Imperial Stout--and Tony wanted to be able to serve those beers at REAL. He kept contacting Moylan's until the brewery agreed to purchase one-time use, plastic kegs to ship the beer to Hawaii. The effort was above and beyond normal business practices, but Moylan's beers made it to the taps at REAL, and it wouldn't have happened without Tony's efforts.
Alas, as indicated by the title of this post, Tony's time here in Oahu is coming to a close. He's recently become a father, and he and his wife have decided to return to their hometown so that their son can grow up near his extended family. This past Monday, August 5th, was Tony's last beer-tasting event. Tony set it up as a sort of "swan song," with an emphasis on beer's from his native state. The lineup included beers by Ballast Point, Moylan's, Coronado Brewing, and Sierra Nevada. My wife and I attended, and though the event was bittersweet, the beers were excellent.
Tony's duties as beverage director are being handed over to Anthony, and next month's tasting is an "Oktoberfest Pregame" scheduled for 6:30 p.m. on September 9th. REAL is having a farewell soiree for Tony on August 13, 2013, from 2:00 pm – 11:30 pm. If you live in Hawaii and you love craft beer, consider stopping by and expressing your thanks.
Mahalo, Tony.
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