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The only beer supply store in Hawaiʻi, Hawaii Home Brew is closing at the end of the month. They're looking for a buyer to carry on the legacy, but just in case that doesn't happen seamlessly we decided it was time to get in another batch. This recipe, based loosely on tips from the owners of HHB, is just right for the winter: good body and seasonal spices.

Teaching brewing from the ground up is beyond the scope of today. If you've already brewed a batch or two, then this recipe is for you.

Christmas Wheat Ale

• 1 lb. Crystal Malt 10L
• 8 lbs. liquid wheat extract
• 1.5 oz German Hallertauer hops
• zest from 3 oranges
• 1 six inch cinnamon stick
• 1 T. whole coriander seeds
• 1 T. fresh ginger, grated
• 1/2 oz. German Hallertauer hops
• 1 lb. honey
• 2 pkgs. Muntons dry yeast
• 3/4 c. corn sugar

Crush the crystal malt and place in a big pot of cold water. Heat the mixture until just before it boils--don't let it boil yet--then remove the grain with a strainer. After the grains are out, boil the liquid then dump in the wheat extract. Bring to a boil again then start your timer. We want a sixty minute boil.

At the zero minute mark, add 1.5 oz of your hops. At 45 minutes, add all the spices. With five minutes remaining, add the final half ounce of hops. At sixty minutes, remove the mixture from the stove and add the honey. You now have wort.

Pour the wort into your fermenter and top with cold water to five gallons. Once the wort has cooled to 86 degrees, pitch the yeast. Original gravity should be 1.042, as measured by my trusty hydrometer. After the initial fermentation period of 2-3 days, rack to a glass carboy and allow secondary fermentation and settling to continue for another week. Rack back into the fermenter, stir in 3/4 cup corn sugar and bottle.

I may have started this batch too late. The hope is that it'll be fully matured in time to pass around as holiday cheer. We'll see.

Visiting the same coffeeshop two days in a row feels conspicuous. I never want to become one of those people you see at a coffeshop who never leave (and probably never tip either). But yesterday's attempt at buying a cup of Fair Trade coffee left me unsettled. Give me outright rejection, but don't leave me hanging like that, not knowing the answer.

October 21, 8:45 a.m. - Starbucks Coffee, 1000 Merchant St

I get a different cashier today, and lean in, conspiratorially, "Here's the deal. I'd like to get a cup of Fair Trade certified coffee. Is that possible?"

She turns partway around to see if maybe a big urn of Fair Trade had materialized while she had her back to it. Just as quick, she looks over my shoulder at the whole bean display. Turning to her barista, she asks, "Sarah, do we have Fair Trade?" Sarah hands her a cup tray. "Fair Trade," she repeats.

I jump into the exchange, already apologizing, "I just want a cup of Fair Trade coffee. I understand that you might have to use a French press and that it's kinda a hassle."

"We're all out of Fair Trade. It wasn't selling, so we stopped ordering it, " explains Sarah the barista. "I just placed our coffee order yesterday, but I can order some next week, so that two weeks from now if you come in you can have a cup."

"No, that's okay, you don't need to order it just for me."

"It isn't a problem. I can order it. What's your name?" And that started a conversation, first with Sarah, and then with Morgan the cashier, off on the side of the store. We talked about Fair Trade, and how mainland attitudes about it are so different. We talked briefly about Starbucks payscales and benefits. We talked a while about the care and maintenance of dreadlocks.. We talked about the positive (or negative!) impact a company of Starbucks' size can have on the massively complex process that brings a cup of coffee to downtown Honolulu.

In the end, I didn't get my Fair Trade today, but I'm glad I asked. There are two staff in the store who were eager to engage the ideas, who will greet me by name from here on, and who will start ordering Fair Trade again for future drinking.

Starbucks offers Fair Trade coffee for sale, but how hard is it to actually get a cup? That's the question asked by the people behind the Starbucks Challenge (found by way of Accidental Hedonist).

"According to its own policy, Starbucks will make Fair Trade coffee for you, any day of the week, in any of the 23 countries it is licensed to sell Fair Trade... But just how easy is it to get a Fair Trade coffee in a Starbucks in one of those countries?

Let's see how well a Honolulu Starbucks does. The rules are simple:

1. Simply visit your local Starbucks and ask: "Could I get a cup of fair trade coffee?"
2. Tell us what happened next. Was it hard or easy to get a cup?

I'm not the biggest Starbucks fan around, often prefering independent coffeeshop where they're available. Having said that, the Starbucks on the corner of Merchant and Bishop has the best reading couches in all of downtown and that counts for a lot.

October 20, 10:15 a.m. - Starbucks Coffee, 1000 Merchant Street

"Can I have cup of Fair Trade please?"

The woman behind the cash register stalled, "Uhhh." I'd spoken clearly and there wasn't much background noise. Her pause came not because she couldn't hear me clearly, but because it wasn't making a mental connection.

"A Fair Trade coffee, please." I repeated, clearly and firmly.

"Oh. What size?" Okay, we're back on track.

"A tall should be good."

She then turns and fills a cup from the coffee of the day, clearly labeled Yukon, and not one of Starbuck's Fair Trade coffees.

Stop. Rewind. This Starbucks had a training failure right at that moment. Do they actually offer Fair Trade as an option at this location? If they don't then she should have been able to tell me so, rather than bluff her way through by pouring Yukon. She works at Starbucks, for goodness sake, and doesn't know what I'm talking about when I say the words, "Fair Trade coffee." Stunning!

"That'll be $1.56." Notice she didn't repeat by rote, "Room for cream?" She was thrown her off her game, and just as confused as I was. I felt a little sorry for her just then.

I could have pushed the subject more by explaining Fair Trade and insisting she brew a cup-- me a customer, explaining coffee to her, the barista. But a line was building behind me and I didn't have the energy for a scene with the poor woman. As in over your head put it, "no one wants to be that asshole." Besides, I shouldn't have to be put in an awkward position just to get the cup of coffee I want.

Starbucks stores in Hawaii stand alone as the only franchise Starbucks locations in the country. As a result, it's possible they don't have the same policy that Fair Trade coffee be brewed upon request in any store at any time. Does Starbucks Hawaii offer Fair Trade coffee even when it's not the brew of the day? I still don't know.

Starbucks Challenge result: failure.

[Update: a second visit to the same location turned out somewhat better.]

O`ahu, Hawai`i. We've got world class beaches, sunsets so beautiful as to make grown men cry and more tropical fruit varieties than you can imagine. But wineries? Not a single one. Lenn explains this month's Wine Blogging Wednesday theme, Drink Local, Real Local,

This time around...there's only one rule: Drink a wine from the winery nearest to your apartment/house/shack/bungalow/flat/tent. Wine is being made in every state and just about every country so it's time that the "eat local" movement be extended to vino for WBW.

Lacking any truly local options on O`ahu, I expanded my search to include the neighboring island of Maui. Tedeschi Vineyards sits on the slopes of Mount Haleakala, deep upcountry. When the vineyard was first planted in 1977 on a portion of historic Ulupalakua Ranch, the winemakers had to wait several years before their vines would mature to fruition. In the intervening time, they experimented with other types of wine, and developed their popular Maui Blanc wine from pineapples!

To the eye: Crystal clear and a very pale yellow. If it were any more pale, it would be clear. The bottle indicates that caramel coloring has been added, so perhaps in unaltered form it looks like water.

To the nose: Ripe, almost overripe pineapple is dominant. Have you ever picked through a pile of pineapples, where one or two had leaked juice and that juice had fermented in the sun? It smells like that. Underneath, we could detect pear and caramel notes. It made me think of a warm pear dessert drizzled with caramel. Normally I'm not able to get this specific with my notes, but the smells connected directly to specific sense memories.

To the mouth: The wine assaults the front of the tongue with sweet pineapple, and then finishes crisper and medium dry. Imagine, if you will, an average dry table wine, into which someone has poured a good splash of canned pineapple concentrate.

To the wallet: About $10.

I have no idea how pineapple wine ages--I suspect you want it as fresh as possible. The bottle we purchased gave no indication of date, but didn't seem to have aged (for better or for worse). Overall, I wasn't impressed with this wine. It gets points for the novelty factor, but that novelty wears thin after a few sips. Serve it with a spicy Hawaiian Fusion meal to complete an island themed dinner.

Tedeschi Vineyards does produce several drinkable, although not exceptional, red, white and sparkling wines. I've tried samples of most of them, and would drink them again if the price were right. If Tedeschi isn't your style, there's a second commercial vineyard in Hawai`i. Volcano Winery is located on the Big Island.

[This post arrives several days early because I'm heading out on a short trip to the island of Moloka`i. There are no vineyards to be found on Moloka`i either.]

Brian, Maui Blanc and I surfing local.

Ward Rafters is the kind of place that attracts stories around itself, some of them strange enough to be true. The version I heard is that Dr. Ward had left medical practice to pursue his dream of being a professional professional jazz musician, touring the country. He'd also always dreamed of having a jazz club of his own, and so he and his wife Jackie remodeled the attic of their Diamond Head home into a cozy venue for friends and friends of friends. The day they finished remodeling, Dr. Ward died. Hey, I said some of this is strange. I'm just repeating what I've been told.

Dr. Ward is gone, but the club lives on. Between Jackie's socialite connections and her husband's old friends in The Scene, she has a steady stream of musicians passing through town who make time in their schedules to come play. Zoning laws prohibit any advertisement, admission charges or the serving of food--this place is strictly word of mouth. (When neighbors filed a lawsuit, lawyer patrons of the club defended Jackie pro bono, and won.) It's the kind of place where regulars know each other by name, and most everyone brings a bottle of wine.

We decided to pass on the Mother's Day crowds at every restaurant in the city and instead spend our afternoon at Ward Rafters with a bottle of 2004 Crios de Susana Balbo Rosé of Malbec ($14). The Rosé of Malbec has a rich garnet color, like a White Zin that has grown up, moved out and spent a few years in the real world. It has both sparkle and depth. Lifting glasses to our noses, we smelled "fruit." That's helpful, eh? Maybe with practice we could wax rhapsodic about a nose of cloves and fresh bing cherries, but for today it was just fruit. We did better on taste, identifying both strawberries and watermelon, with a hint of carbonation dancing on our tongues. The wine has sweetness to it, but tempered by mild tartness and acidity. It has weight on the tongue, with a clean, dry finish.

This rosé is produced in Argentina by seasoned winemaker Susana Balbo from 100% malbec grapes. Did you know that red and white wines can be made from the same grapes? The difference is in when they remove the grape skins. For this rosé they use the saignée method to find a happy medium between red and white: some of the free run juice from the pressing is reintroduced at later stages of fermentation to boost the skins-to-juice ratio and increase color, tannin and flavor. The word crios from the wine's name means "offspring," a tribute to her children and a reflection that these wines haven't "grown up" as much as the others she produces. Don't be fooled though, this rosé is nothing to be ashamed about.

Maybe my critical palate was softened by the whole experience: the music, the strange stories, the hanging with friends and sipping wine. People and place can make even mediocre wine taste wonderful. Is that what happened here? I don't think so. I'd expressed earlier reservations at the Think Pink! Wine Blogging Wednesday theme, and I'm happy to report that my fears were unfounded. This was a refreshing and complex wine for sipping on a hot Mother's Day afternoon at the Rafters.

After missing most recent Wine Blogging Wednesday due to a computer crash, I'm doubly intent on getting back on the wagon for the coming one. Hosted by Becks and Posh, the theme for this go around is "Think Pink!". Find a rosé wine, taste it and write about the experience on May 11th.

This one will be a challenge for me. The only pink variety with which I have any experience is White Zinfandel, described to me long ago by only-God-remembers-who as a gateway wine. Sweet, light and lacking substance, it's the wine for people who don't drink wine. It gets people their first taste, sucks them in and gets them hooked on real wine drinking. When you grow up, you move to more substantial wines--wines that are moody, complex and that can hold their own in a barroom brawl.

My goal is to find a pink wine that I like well enough to break my (unfair?) stereotypes about pink wines; a wine I can throw back at my friends when they snicker. I want a really good pink wine.

The best part about Wine Blogging Wednesdays is trying new and unfamiliar wines and varietals. My normal wine buying rut is from the bargain bin, and some of the selections to be found in there are, to be gracious, questionable. WBW forces me to do my research, usually pay a small but reasonable amount more, and taste something completely new and often superior.

This month, for the theme of Obscure Red Wines, I caught a wine distributer in the aisles and we talked through options. Tempranillo? Not allowed by the rules. Pinotage? South Africa was pretty well covered last month. Malbec? What's that? I departed with a bottle of Terrazas de Los Andes Reserva Malbec 2002 in hand.

I'll assume that you're in the same boat as me and have little prior knowledge of Malbec grapes. Obscurity was the point. I've found a great article singing the praises of Argentinian Malbecs from the Mendoza region, but if you don't want to read the whole thing it can be summed up as this: the climate on the slopes of the Andes is so well-suited to growing Malbec grapes that France, once the main producer of Malbec, barely bothers any longer.

No place is perfect. But for Malbec, this region is very close indeed. The wines are big, rich and deeply flavored, yet rounded and luxurious in texture. Their softness permits early enjoyment, but they also age well. Similarly, the wines are sufficiently rich to stand up to red meat dishes, but soft enough to work with pork, veal or grilled fish steaks.

My own tasting notes...

Appearance: Deep plum red, going to cranberry at the edges.

Smell: The first thing to hit the nose was lots of oak, followed by paper and a hint of sawdust. As the wine was allowed to breath, the oak aromas faded, giving way to rich berries.

Flavor: If the flavor were as intense as the intial oak smell, it'd be like chewing on a tree branch, but instead the oak taste recedes. The wine feels round and smooth on the tongue, with both the tannins and flavors I associate with nearly ripe plums.

Food pairing: I had a glass of this all by itself at the end of a long day, and it stands up nicely on it's own. I could imagine serving this with pasta or alongside a spicier chicken.

Price: $14

I'd definitely buy this one again.

Wine Blogging Wednesday #7 was announced last week, but I've had family in town from the mainland, prying me far from my keyboard. Duties as tour guide, cook and guest house proprietor all took precedence over writing. Now that the family is safely back on a plane, normal life can resume. Enough about me, let's talk wine.

Hosted by Andrew at Spittoon.biz, the Wine Blogging Wednesday theme this go around is Obscure Red Grape Varieties. Think of it as your chance to pass over the Pinot, to skip the Syrah, to miss the Merlot. (Okay, that's getting silly.) Step out and try something totally new. Andrew provides a list of specific wine varieties too mainstream for consideration, as well as pointers to a number of other good options. Go out, find your obscure red and write about it by March 9th.

Today is Wine Blogging Wednesday again, and for the sixth iteration of WBW we were instructed by Cook Sister to pick a red wine from her mother country, South Africa. I confess great ignorance about South African wines, so I found Jeanne's extensive orientations to be helpful.

Several friends have asked me to give notice when I learned of the next Wine Blogging Wednesday. It has just been announced that Jeanne is hosting the next edition Wednesday, February 16th on South African Reds. Sometime between now and then, find yourself a bottle of red wine from South Africa, write about it and post your thoughts on WBW. That's less than two weeks away, so don't waste any time. Jeanne's announcement is packed with information about the history of the SA wine industry, along with tips to help you pick something drinkable. Enjoy!

Once very month, wine lovers and bloggers taste and then write on an common theme for Wine Blogging Wednesdays. This month's slightly irreverent but thoroughly enjoyable theme is "wacky wine names" hosted by Chez Pim.

To shop for this WBW, I spent a solid half hour wandering the aisles at Tamura's Fine Wines on Waialae, with one of their staff pointing out the wackiest names. "That sounds like lots of fun!" she gushed. After passing by several names that tried to be wacky through simple puns or names about animals (Cardinal Zin and Fat Bastard [Pig], respectively) we came across a Goats Do Roam White 2003 ($9.99), one that manages to do both! The name is a playful twist on the C�tes du Rh�ne region of France and, um, a goat. The back label explains the latter,

One afternoon, at harvest time, my mischievious son Jason and his friend Justin let the goats out of their tower and sent them for a walkabout amongst the vines. As in the legend of the Yemeni goat header, whose roaming flock first discovered the joys of coffee beans, our goats picked out the best and tastiest fruit. Their choice serves as our inspiration for this wine. To Life!

Research on the wine revealed a few things:

• People are either charmed by the name, or annoyed by it. The French INAO (Institut National des Appellations d'Origine) was so annoyed that they filed a lawsuit over similarites to the C�tes du Rh�ne appellation.
• Although the bottle gives no indication, the wine contains a blend of Crouchen, Clairette, white Grenache and Muscat grapes.
• Earlier vintages of this wine were pretty skunky, often apparently due to poor corks. The 2003 has received better reviews, especially for the price.

Here are thoughts from "people on the street," also known as cooperative and longsuffering friends within arms reach:

Mel, thinker Fresh and lively, with peach, anise and floral flavors, and a round, juicy texture. Wine Spectator told me to say that.	Yours Truly, consultant I give my thoughts in the next paragraph and would hate to ruin the surprise.	Brenda, counselor See my big smile? I don't drink much wine, but this was fun!
Makana, university professor Wine, and this wine in particular, signifies a systemic reshaping of our values by forces from outside our community.	Junko, animator I liked the wine, but if you use this picture I'll kill you.	Toshi, toddler How much is 21 minus 1? Is that how long I have to wait? The Wine Buyer says, "Drink now."

I served the wine alongside a French onion soup and poached snapper salad with honey and lime vinaigrette. My first impression was that I didn't have any impression. Nothing stood out. The wine was very light bodied, with such balanced flavors that I, for the first time I can remember, had a terrible time isolating specific flavors. After considerable furrowing of my brow, I thought I could maybe pick out generic fruitiness and a hint of licorice. The wine has a clean finish, with no offensive aftertastes. The color was a light, crystal clear yellow. Overall, the Goats Do Roam White 2003 was fine without being memorable.