Speaking of beer: Remember when I was complaining that they didn’t have the Pipeline Porter at the San Diego Brew Fest?

I suppose it’s a more appropriate time of the year now, and I was very pleased to find it in the grocery store recently (available by the six-pack).

It’s a great winter beer – brewed with Kona Coffee – and I like to sip it slow and let it warm up. The flavors round out as the chill fades off the beer and the coffee really comes through (something I appreciate), and a few of these will make you forget the impending cold weather.

It’s part mental, of course – my mind flashing back to my 2008 adventure to the Hawaiian Islands as I cracked one open – perhaps it’s the memories keeping me warm, the ones of the afternoon I spent relaxing on the patio of the Kona Brew Pub at the Koko Marina (Oahu).

I wish I had been more into writing about the world when I went, although I did make a novel out of my adventures (those islands are going to make one hell of a story when I go back with Wake and Wander).

Enjoy that pumpkin beer through the Thanksgiving holiday, then be sure to give the Pipeline a go in the weeks leading up to Christmas – a solid buy if you come across it while browsing the beer aisle.

Cheers!