Carpinteria, CA – There is a steady hum of activity among the towering stainless steel fermenters in the open wood beam and sunlit warehouse in Carpinteria that is home to Island Brewing Company. Amidst the steady clanking of kegs and bottles, the brewers here are in constant movement, making a last push to prepare for the biggest weekend of the year for this seaside brewery, the California Avocado Festival. “Last year over 100,000 converged on our two-stoplight beach town, and this year should be more,” says owner and brewer Paul Wright. “We’ve been going strong here to stock up on our Avocado Honey Ale, brewing and bottling extra shifts to make sure we don’t run out this year.”
Island Brewing Company’s Avocado Honey Ale is one of its most sought after offerings. “It shows up and before you know it, we’re down to the last couple of cases. It literally flies off the shelf every year.” The Avocado Honey Ale is an amber ale with 60 lbs of avocado blossom honey added to the boil in the brewing process. No Avocados were harmed while brewing this beer’” – it’s something we say about a hundred times a day to the people that come through our tasting room – it’s the honey that the bees collect which is then added to the boil for a subtle sweetness to the finish.”
In anticipation of the record crowd, this year the brewery brewed the most Avocado Honey Ale in its 11-year history, four 15.5 barrel batches or 1,900 gallons from which they will bottle 2,800 bottles. “In so many ways the Avocado Honey Ale truly represents a connection from consumer to the natural world quite literally in our back yard. Aside from the malted barley, hops, yeast and water, there is the honey which represents a staggering amount of work from the bees side of the equation. It requires 10,000 worker bees to gather a single pound of honey and the combined mileage of these bees is the equivilant of flying more than twice around the world. The average life of a honey bee is about six weeks and over two million flowers have to be tapped to make a pound of honey. It’s something to think about the next time you lift a pint to your lips.”
For more information call 805-745-8272 or email paul@islandbrewingcompany.com