Try These Tiki-Inspired Beers At This Local Brewery
From Club 33 bartender to cellarman at Bottle Logic: Bayani Hilo. Photo by Greg Nagel
If you've ever stood in a long line on a hot day for a Dole Whip at the Tiki Room, or perhaps snuck over to Trader Sam's Enchanted Tiki Bar for a wee drink, you've no doubt experienced the tropical vibes of Disneyland-inspired Polynesia. Bottle Logic Brewing in Anaheim has taken their years of pushing the envelope of what beer can be and asked cellarman Bayani Hilo, who also happened to be a long-time Club 33 bartender, to riff on a classic tiki cocktail using one of their big and boozy old ales. What he created is perhaps the best cocktail-inspired beer ever created.
"One of the coolest things about working here coming from bartending at Club 33 is that Bottle Logic fully allows us to be so creative and they're so open-minded with new concepts," notes Bayani, enjoying a sip of his creation.
Hafalearnum, a tiki-cocktail's close cousin. Photo by Greg Nagel
His beer creation, "HafALearnUm," blurs the lines between beer and cocktail. The only way to tell it's a beer for sure is the boring clear beer glass it's served in...the ingredients yearn for a frightening-looking tiki mug, complete with a palm frond and festive umbrella garnished on top. It's pineapple and coconut upfront with all the bits of a complex tiki cocktail on the back.
"We pulled a few barrels of the base beer for him to play around with," says Lindsay Langton, Bottle Logic's creative director. "Bayani's had a lot of success in our smoothie beers as well, such as Tropical Hideaway, our beer take on a Dole Whip," she continued.
Bottle Logic's Dole Whip inspired beer: Tropical Hideaway, Photo courtesy Bottle Logic
When creating the beer Bayani leaned into his bartending experience quite a bit. "I knew ginger plays especially well with coconut and pineapple, and was like, how about falernum, and why not lime, and cloves. I wanted to keep them subtle," Bayani says with a grin.
Hafalearnum is on draft only in the tasting room for now, but as Bottle Logic recently expanded brewhouse operations, expect to see a steady flow of the beers you know and love, and many more fun staff creations like these in the future.
Bottle Logic is at 1072 N. Armando St, Anaheim // bottlelogic.com
