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https://haliimailedistilling.com/

Hawaii Distributor:
Youngs Market Company of Hawaii

Las Vegas Distributor:
Breakthrough Beverages

Tasting Room Location:
883 Hali'imaile Rd, Makawao, HI 96768


 Store Hours/ Tasting Hours
Open Everyday 10:00a to 04:00p
closed on all major holidays

(808) 633-3609

Brand Approach

  • Founding Story
  • Hawaii's Influence
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Founding Story 
LeVecke Corporation was founded in 1949 by William and Reed LeVecke, Father & Son, in Los Angeles, CA.  In the early years, the company was focused solely on Southern California regional distribution of beer and wine.  Over the years, the company became focused on the manufacturing of distilled spirits for the largest retailers in the US.  The company has been family owned and led since its inception. After having focused a considerable amount of business in the Hawaiian Islands; in 2006, Tim & Neil LeVecke from the 3rd generation of family leadership, decided to actually create their own distillery on the island of Maui.
The LeVecke family has been in the alcohol and spirits business for a long time, but they never distilled anything from scratch. In California, LeVecke Corporation is known as a rectifier in the distilled spirits industry.  Rectifiers buy bulk high proof distilled spirits from throughout the world, then blend and bottle them in house. The LeVecke’s have relationships with scotch distilleries in Scotland, Irish whiskey distilleries in Ireland, cognac distilleries in France and so on. LeVecke Corporation can produce anything from small batch vodka to high volume worldwide brands.  Many of them, you may know.

Tim & Neil had a dream to make a genuine spirit in Hawaii.  Meanwhile, my dad, Mark, actually had a distillery in Colorado where he and I were making one of the only vodkas in the world out of glass stills.  Our distillery got a lot of press and recognition due to our process and purity level of vodka that we were creating at the time. The LeVecke’s saw that, came out and looked at our facility and everything that we were doing out there, really fell in love with the product. We meshed really well -- we were a family business, they're a family business – Tim & Neil were like, "Can we make a product out of anything that grows in Hawaii?"
Naturally, taro and pineapple were the two things that we wanted to start out with. We made a vodka out of both. We used fresh pineapple juice that was flown overnight to us in Colorado and we just filled the batch. We also did the same thing with taro and then we started to do blind taste tests around our local bars [in Colorado]. It tasted better than all the major brands including the one that we were currently making. We were like, "Okay. Now, we've got something. We actually made a better product than what we had." It was the pineapple juice that did it. 

Once we figured out that we had a good product, my dad and I moved out to Maui, 2007 and started out in the old Maui Land & Pineapple cannery in Kahului.  It took us till about the later part of 2008 to get our license.  

When Maui Land & Pineapple closed in 2009 former managers moved upcountry to reopen Haliimaile Pineapple company.  When this occurred, the distillery moved with them into their current production space. Then in 2015 the tasting room opened.


When creating the distillery, the Nigburs also wanted to integrate into the community instead of being “a company that moved here from the mainland to just do mainland things.” Nigbur’s further explained, “We really wanted to embrace the culture and come in and do something that, not only we and the LeVecke’s would be proud of, but that people that were born and raised here and knew the Hawaiian culture would also look and go, "Yes, these guys are doing it right, they're paying attention, they're doing the right things."  We did not want to just come in and slap a mainland feel on a local product. I mean my whole family moved out here. My wife's out here, my dad, my mom, my sisters, we came all in 2007 and we wanted to embrace the culture as much as possible, as much as everyone embraced us.”

Part of the way the Nigbur’s embraced the culture was to learn about the history of Haliimaile and other places.  Nigbur said, “We're in a lot of historical places. Haliimaile has a lot of history with the pineapple farm and the General Store. Everything here was for the farm and for pineapple workers…it was all in this neighborhood. They had their own currency. It was just kind of wild to be producing a product within so much history surrounding us as well. We try to put that out for everybody else with the product.  [Also], With Fid Street, not only are you getting a gin, but if you look into what Fid Street actually is, you'll get a little bit of a history lesson at the same time.
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The company also integrated into the community by hosting and sponsoring community events.  They do a benefit for the Cancer Institute in October, where pink labels adorn their bottles and proceeds are donated.  Nigbur noted, “I’m a cancer survivor myself, so for me, personally, it hits home. Then for the LeVecke’s and our company to do that, and then like I said, helping with beach cleanups and any fundraiser where we can help out our local community, we really try to jump on board with that.”
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  • MAUI GOLD® PINEAPPLE​
  • Water
  • Yeast
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According to Nigbur, “Pineapple [in general] is a good fruit for making spirits because it picks up enzymes and [elements] from the natural atmosphere, and ferment on its own. If you've ever cut a pineapple in half after it's been ripened on the counter for a while and you see bubbles coming up through it, that's alcohol being created within the fruit itself.”
Maui Gold®’s low-acid, high sugar pineapples in particular are crucial for Haliimaile’s distilling operation.  Nigbur noted, “Maui Gold® is, in my opinion, a superior pineapple that's just perfect for making the spirits that we make. When it comes to fermentation, the more acid that you have within the juice, the harder it is for the yeast to do its thing [because] it has to fight against that acid.”

The acquisition of Haliimaile pineapple has proven to be helpful to the Distillery.  Nigbur recanted, “Before, [The acquisition of Maui Gold] we had to plan our production around their farming schedule. Now, we're able to work together to let them know exactly what we need and what their capabilities are. It keeps a steady flow of production year-round and gives them a better schedule too, because they know how much they have to produce with that guarantee with us, the winery and Maui Brew Co.

Now, we can go into the fields and we know what fruit is what and exactly what we're getting. We work with the botanists over there, so we know we need this kind of sugar content with everything. It really helps keep the quality and consistency of our product year-round.
Every now and then we'll go out there with-- Mike Ross is one of the guys who judge the quality of the fruit at the Pineapple Company. We'll walk out there with him and we'll just pick a fruit right off, cut it up in the field and check it out, taste it, and see exactly what we're working with and just go from there.”
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[Pineapple is] not as perishable as sugarcane juice or other juices where it has to be, like once you juice it, you got a matter of an hour or so to work with it, so. By the time it gets back to us, we'll just pitch a little bit of sugar or a little bit of water and juice, and then we'll put our yeast in there and that's it. Let it do its thing. Yes, it's got a real high sugar content, so we have to cut it back with a little bit of water, otherwise it will ferment too much and overtake the yeast and the yeast won't be able to do its thing, it kind of burns out too fast. We just cut the fresh juice with a little bit of water and yeast. That's it.”
Reverse osmosis is used in multiple steps throughout the distillation process.
The water treatment process starts with Upcountry Maui Water which is then treated with reverse osmosis. According to Nigbur, “With the taste tests that we've done, the vodka tastes the best and you get the most of that pineapple flavor when using reverse osmosis or distilled water. [However], distilled water costs more to produce and it doesn't change the product. Reverse osmosis is more efficient and more cost-effective, and it works better in my opinion.”
Nigbur’s Father Mark, the former Master Distiller for Hali’imiale Distilling Co., worked with a Texas Laboratory to develop a proprietary yeast strain specifically to ferment pineapple. The development process entailed providing the yeast producer pineapple, which was then tested for microbes, sugar content, and other biological factors.  The utilization of this yeast strain is particularly important because pineapple enzymes can be difficult to work with. This yeast strain is also used to produce Mahina rum. According to Nigbur, “The yeast works with the sugar. Not all yeast will work with the pineapple, but all yeast that works with pineapple will definitely work with sugar.”

Distillation

  • The Stills
  • Distilling Approach
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Stripping Still
The stainless steel stripping still, designed by Mark Nigbur, is used in two ways.  It is used like a pot still in the production of Mahina rum, and it is used to separate the alcohol from the non-alcoholic components of the pineapple distillate.
Glass Stills

The Nigburs believe glass stills produces a more pure product as there are some impurities imparted by copper and stainless steel. The glass still was custom designed by Mark Nigbur in collaboration with the still manufacturer, and is similar to pharmaceutical stills. The stills combined different technologies from different distillation methods and utilized as much glass as possible. 

The still is comprised of two parts. The base is a German-made, borosilicate glass ball that can tolerate extreme temperature fluctuations without cracking.  The remainder of the still’s body is hand-blown glass and manufactured in Colorado. Nigbur explained, “We found a guy [in Colorado] when our original distillery was there. The whole thing is [created] by hand and they're very unique and one of a kind.”  Each still can only produce 12 to 24 gallons of pure pineapple distillate per run. This means that increased production output would require procurement of additional glass stills. Copper is still utilized as Nigbur noted, “There is a giant copper rod that vodka passes through on its way to the glass vessel that we store it in. The little bit of copper and stainless [steel] is involved because you have to have some copper to remove sulfites and certain compounds.” 
Approach to Distilling
Glass stills are implemented to produce the most pure product possible.  Nigbur provided the following insight: “We strive for purity in all of our products. That's why we use our glass distillation. That's probably the number one thing that the LeVecke family, my dad, and I had in Colorado and wanted to transfer to Maui. I think we've done that. [However] instead of [making] a vodka that's almost too odorless and tasteless, we wanted [patrons] to taste a little bit of that pineapple on the back end to differentiate it from grain vodkas and potato vodkas.”
The distillery also takes pride in their handcrafted approach.  Nigbur said, “The only hitch [with glass distillation] is the amount that you can distill, but we've always been a company that wants to do quality over quantity. We still want to maintain that handcrafted feel and we've done that from mash to bottling. We stir all our mash by hand. All of our stills are loaded [and operated] by hand. It's a mix of old world distilling and modern technology.”
Farm-to-table agriculture is also important to the distillery.  This commitment can be seen through the LeVecke family literally buying the farm; LeVecke Corp acquired Haliimaile Pineapple Company in 2018.  Nigbur commented, “We always try for that farm-table mentality of having something that was grown here, produced here, distilled, and bottled here.”

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The Product

  • PAU VODKA
  • Inspiration
  • Ingredients
  • Process
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Product Name
PAU’s name stems from LeVecke’s multi-year nationwide search for a distiller to make product in Hawaii.  According to Nigbur, ““The LeVecke’s and my father couldn't find anything that worked to produce a product that they were happy with.  They tried distilling other Hawaiian materials like taro root, but nothing offered the quality they were striving for. When they tried distilling pineapple and realized the quality, it was like, “We did it. We're done.”” The word PAU means finished, done, there is no more.” When it came time to naming the vodka, due to the company’s belief that it can’t get any better, Nigbur said it references PAU to say this is it. You found it. You're done. Drink it. That's all you got to worry about. You don't have to look for another vodka. You found it.”
Process
PAU takes 10 days from pineapple picking to bottling.  Juicing takes approximately a day. Then fermentation takes between four and seven days, depending on the weather. Distillation takes approximately a day. Then blending and bottling takes another day.

Juicing
The Maui Gold® pineapple is picked in Haliimaile and is trucked to Maui Wine for juicing in their bladder press.
 
Fermentation
Tanks used for fermentation are not temperature regulated because of Haliimaile’s consistent, temperate climate. Nigbur noted, “Being in Makawao and Haliimaile, we're very fortunate that we don't have temperature fluxes like some of the other pockets on the island, so our mash is pretty consistent year-round. It's right around 85-90 degrees. [When] you start to get to 95-100 degrees, the yeast starts to die off. If you get below into the 70s, then the yeast goes dormant. In Colorado, during the winter, we had to heat jacket our mash tanks because the yeast would just go dormant. We are very lucky being in Haliimaile because the temperatures are absolutely optimal for what we do.” To check if the mash is completely fermented, the distillers measure its specific gravity.  
Haliimaile’s fermentation process differs from other distilleries’ as many have a mash with an alcohol by volume in the single-digits.  For example, some whiskey distilleries ferment to as low as 4% or 5%. Haliimaile Distillery; however, gets up to 15% depending on the temperature.

Distillation
Distillation starts with stripping alcohol out of the mash in a stainless steel stripper still.  Then it’s purified in the glass stills to 96% alcohol. 
The distillation process is similar to that of using a pot still.  That is, it requires the distiller to know when to make cuts to the heads, hearts, and tails. Nigbur noted, “Within distillation, you have different compounds and different alcohols that evaporate at different temperatures and different rates. It's up to me, as a distiller, to know what those taste like, to know when they're coming off, and to make sure they're not getting into the ethanol that we take. It's all a matter of temperature control, smell and taste. When you're drinking whiskey and rum, you get some heads and tails. That's what gives [rum and whiskey] that flavor profile. You [also] have a lot more sugars and [flavor compounds] within those alcohols.”

Filtering and Bottling
A carbon plate system is used for light filtration.  Then, a 0.5 micron membrane filter, which can be used to filter blood plasma, is utilized to ensure that there are no particulates in the spirit.
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When asked if any additional ingredients like sugar or glycol are added, Nigbur responded, “No. It's just ethanol and water.”
  • FID STREET GIN
  • Inspiration
  • Ingredients
  • Production
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The LeVecke’s knew that they wanted to expand into new spirit categories at the distillery.  Nigbur’s passion for gin stimulated an interest to develop a new brand.  Nigbur, along with their lead distiller at the time, developed the liquid.  And the LeVecke’s developed the brand.  It quickly became a passion project.  “I'm a gin drinker. [The gin] came to development from a dissatisfaction with the gins that are available on the market. When [the gin category] started to pick up speed on the mainland and the marketplace as a whole, that's when we decided that it is a good product. We need to come out with that." 

Product Name
The name of the gin references modern Hawaiian history. “Back in the old time, when sailors would [get a drink in Honolulu], they called it “drinking a fid.” When they would pull up to Honolulu Port and get off the boat, all the bars were right there [on Nuuanu Avenue], which they called Fid Street.”


Flavor Development
Flavor development was the result of fifty different test batches which referenced recipes ranging from London Dry to American Fusion. Nigbur commented on his approach to flavor development: “I studied all the different ways that gin can be made; there's steam infusion and there's bathtub gin where you soak the botanicals. Knowing there's three ways to extract flavor, smell, and oils from any compound (heat, water, and alcohol); I wanted to utilize all three. If you just use the alcohol, you're only going to get the oils, esters, terpenes and everything [else] that binds with that alcohol. If you only use water, you're only going to get the [flavor compounds] that resonate and bind with the water and heat. But, if you utilize all three, you're getting [every flavor compound] out of whatever material that you're trying to extract from. I didn't want to do vapor because I felt like it only produced a certain amount [of flavor] and I wanted everything. I like drinking old school cocktails, like Negronis, and I found that when certain gin brands are mixed with heavy herbal botanical liqueurs, the flavor of the gin is lost. I wanted a gin that could be drank straight as a Martini, or that could be mixed with some of the most potent mixers and still shine and retain its gin flavor profile.”

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Base Spirit
High Proof Pineapple Spirit

Botanicals
Lavender, Orange Rinds, Orris, Lemon Rinds, Fennel, Juniper, Grains of Paradise, Cardamon, Coriander, Cedar Leaf, Angelica

Botanicals are either sourced locally or from a purveyor which sources from all over the world.  Ali’i Kula Lavender Farm in Kula, Maui, for example, is the source of the lavender. Nigbur is also attempting to source local juniper.  He utilizes organic sources as much as possible, too.
Botanical Infusion and Distillation
Botanicals are infused into the high proof alcohol for 24 hours within the bowl of the glass stills.  When the alcohol is then heated for distillation, heat extraction occurs.

Blending and Bottling
The distilled gin is then brought to proof with reverse osmosis water before bottling.

  • MAHINA RUM
  • Inspiration
  • Ingredients
  • Process
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According to Nigbur, Mahina Rum was developed when they saw how some of the rums were being made. “A lot of them were Agricole style. No one was really utilizing the turbinado sugar and molasses combined. We [also] wanted to enhance [the rum] with flavor profiles like vanilla, kola nut, black pepper, and similar [ingredients] to round off [the rum] and create something unique. It's not spiced rum and it's not a traditional dark rum. It's just kind of like a hybrid of rums.” (Nigbur)
Base Fermentable
Turbanado sugar from the Mainland

The benefit of turbinado sugar is that it has both the sucrose and molasses components of the sugar, unlike molasses which is stripped of sucrose.  Also, unlike fresh pressed sugarcane juice which has one hour to get into fermentation, turbinado sugar is shelf stable. From a flavor perspective, Nigbur noted, “Turbanado sugar also gives a nice, rounded out, earthy flavor, but still creates a pretty pure-tasting product without a lot of congeners.”

Flavors 
Kona coffee distillate, Madagascar vanilla, cocoa essence, clove, cinnamon, and citrus oils.
Flavors are all-natural extracts developed at a California flavor house.
To develop the flavors, there are multiple techniques.  These include: freeze extractions, carbon dioxide extractions, cold distillation extractions, and hot extractions.

Fermentation
The fermentation of turbinado sugar is similar to the fermentation of pineapple. It starts with the same reverse osmosis water and the same yeast that is then combined with sugar in non-temperature controlled fermentation tanks.  Similarly, the fermentation time is also four to six days. This results in a mash with 12% alcohol by volume. According to Nigbur, “It is a little lower brix than the pineapple juice.”

Distillation
The mash is distilled only in the stainless steel stripper stills.  Nigbur noted, “It's not run through the glass stills because you don't want to distill rum to purity. You want to distill it to about 60-70% in order to maintain that flavor profile. The more pure [and high proof] you [distill to], the less flavor and smell you get from the product. Most whiskeys, tequilas, rum, Scotch, ect. are distilled anywhere from 60-70%.”

Blending, Proofing, Bottling
After coming off the still, natural extracts and sugar are added during the blending and proofing process.  After proofing, Mahina Rum is then bottled without aging.
  • PANIOLO WHISKEY
  • Inspiration
  • Ingredients
  • Process
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The team wanted to develop a whiskey; however, in an effort to be sustainable, they decided against importing the raw materials.  Nigbur noted, “It didn't make sense for us to ship in the malted barley, corn, rye, and everything that's necessary to make quality whiskey. There are [already] distilleries on the mainland producing high-quality whiskey with all of those ingredients right in their backyard.”

Product Name
The Paniolo pre-date the American Cowboy by decades.  They, however, didn’t receive national acclaim until the 1908 Frontier Day Rodeo in Cheyenne, Wyoming.  There, competing amongst some of the best cowboys in the world, Paniolos Ikua Purdy, Archie Ka‘au‘a, and Jack Low finished first, third, and sixth respectively, with Purdy being crowned the champion steer roper of the world. This paniolo culture ran strong through the pasture lands of Hawaii, including those in Haliimaile.  Until this day, Paniolo culture permeates Upcountry Maui. 

Paniolo Whiskey is an ode to these legendary Paniolo, and is reflected through the blend of pineapple distillate from Hawaii; American whiskey is done to reflect the Paniolo culture that blended European, Hispanic, and Asian influences with Hawaiian roots.
Base Whiskey
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Instead, three-year-old Kentucky Straight Bourbon is sourced because, according to Nigbur, “[this particular bourbon] is one of the best bourbons you could get in the world, in my opinion.”

Blending and Aging
The pineapple distillate and Kentucky Straight Bourbon is blended and then aged in-house.  The aging process is in constant evolution. Nigbur noted, “We're always tinkering and messing around with different ways to enhance and make Paniolo Whiskey better.  [The duration of aging is also] something that is environmentally determined, depending on the time of year and the temperature. We have a window of time that we want to hit, but it's never consistent. You always have to taste [test] because if you're aging a barrel fifteen feet in the air versus at ground level, it's going to age completely different. If [the temperature] is just cold, it's going to age a certain way and if it's just hot, it's going to age a certain way. If you can get that fluctuation from both, you're loving life. That's why [when] you go to the whiskey houses that are in Ireland and Kentucky, they're always shifting the barrels around. But Makawao [is] hot during the day, and cold at night, so it's nice.”

Barrel Sourcing
Ex-Bourbon American oak, medium char barrels.  Also, oak wood chips. 
When the whiskey program was first developed, the whiskey was shipped in the barrels they were being aged in.  Haliimaile Distillery would then empty the barrels, blend the whiskey and pineapple spirit, then put the blended spirit back into the barrels.  These days, however, due to the inefficiency of shipping bourbon in barrels, bourbon now arrives in plastic totes. The original barrels that were sent to Hawaii are then reused.  Wood chips are also used to impart additional oak flavoring to the whiskey and decrease extraction time since they contain more surface area.

Maui Gold Pineapple

1/29/2020

2 Comments

 
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https://pineapplemaui.com/
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Product Inquiries
Email:  [email protected]

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The Maui Gold® Pineapple is an edible hybrid variety of fruit, and not associated with #goldpineapple which is a #millennial #homedecor with 7.5K posts on instagram.  In 2018, as Maui’s Pineapple industry was on the verge of closing, LeVecke purchased Haliimaile Company.  Hawaii Beverage Guide had the opportunity to chat with Maui Gold Pineapple Company Assistant General Manager Michael Ross to learn more about their operation.
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  • Maui’s Pineapple History
  • Development of Maui Gold
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Maui’s Pineapple History
The history of Pineapple on Maui is directly connected to the history of Maui Land & Pineapple.  According to the company's website: 



  • Mid-1830s: Missionaries Reverend Dr. Dwight Baldwin and his wife Charlotte moved to Lahaina and live in what remains today as the Baldwin Home Museum. 


  • Late 1800s: Reverend Dr. Dwight Baldwin and his wife Charlotte sons, Henry Perrine Baldwin and David Dwight Baldwin, lay the foundation for the company through the acquisition of land.


  • 1890: The Baldwin family’s experimentation with hala kahiki (pineapple), begins with the first fruit planting in Ha‘iku. 


  • 1903: the Baldwin brothers formed Ha‘iku Fruit & Packing Company. launching the pineapple industry on Maui.


  • 1909: Keahua Ranch Company was established. The company’s name was later changed to Haleakala Pineapple Company and eventually to Maui Pineapple Company, Ltd. in 1932. In West Maui, the Baldwin Family holdings dedicated to raising cattle and food crops was called Honolua Ranch. Manager David T. Fleming added pineapple to the operations in 1912 and by 1920 the name was changed to Baldwin Packers, which canned and sold pineapple under its own labels, while growing it at Honolua Plantation.

  • 1923, Baldwin Packers owned and managed over 22,000 acres of agricultural land in West Maui. The Baldwins’ east and west Maui holdings and pineapple operations were united in 1962, when Baldwin Packers merged with Maui Pineapple Company. 

  • In 1969, Maui Land & Pineapple Company, Inc. (ML&P) was created from assets acquired from  Alexander & Baldwin Inc. Company President Colin Cameron expanded the firm's operations and founded the Kapalua Resort and Kapalua Land Co.

  • 1999: Steve Case, who was then America Online's board chairman, obtained controlling interest in the firm in 1999. 

  • 2007: Maui Pineapple halted canning in 2007, refocusing on its fresh-fruit operations and building a new $20 million fresh-fruit packing facility. 1

  • December 23, 2009: Maui Land & Pineapple ceased pineapple operations after reporting a $12.6 million for the first nine months of 2009.  1

  • January 1, 2010: “A small group of former Maui Land & Pine executives and managers, along with Ulupalakua Ranch owner C. Pardee Erdman, chose to defy the odds and formed the Hali‘imaile Pineapple Company. They leased more than 1,500 acres of Maui Land & Pine’s fields in upcountry Hali‘imaile, purchased equipment from the company, and retained sixty-five employees who would have otherwise lost their livelihood.” 1
    ​
  • March 1, 2018: LeVecke Acquires Hali’imaile Pineapple Co.  The acquisition includes Maui Gold’s baseyard in Hali’imaile and 800 acres of fields.  This comes after Haliimaile Pineapple Co ran into financial difficulties and it looked like pineapple would become lost on Maui.  In a conversation with Haliimaile Distilleries’ Cory Nigbur, “The LeVeck’s desired to keep pineapple alive for both their distilleries usage as well as for other companies as well.  [With the acquisition], they wanted to merge the two companies together and have a true farm-to-table product and ensure that pineapple is still going to be here not only for what we do, but for the winery, and for Maui Brewing Company. There are also a lot of companies that still rely on pineapple from a culinary standpoint. It was important for not only ourselves, but also to sustain everybody that needs pineapple.”
Development of Maui Gold
Hawaii's largest Pineapple Companies, Maui Pineapple Company, Dole, and Del Monte jointly funded the Pineapple Research Institute (PRI) at the University of Hawai‘i.  In 1932, a PRI research expedition was sent to Africa and South America to search for wild varieties with attributes beneficial to a canning program. These attributes included disease resistance to increase yield and high acidity to help extend shelf life.  The samples of the expedition became the basis of the pineapple breeding program. For fifty years, pineapples were cross-bread at different research stations throughout Hawai‘i. The cross-breeding resulted in a multitude of different varietals which were then evaluated and selected for further development. As a result, it took several years to find and develop new varieties suitable for large scale farming.
 Although the Pineapple Research Institute’s objective was to produce the optimal canning variety, researcher Dr. David Williams decided that if he ever found a plant that was suitable for fresh fruit, he would save it. In 1973, Dr. Williams noted the 50th and 114th cross of two parents had unusually favorable fresh characteristics: low acidity, extra sweet flavor, and 3 times the daily USDA requirements for vitamin C. This cross was known as PRI (Pineapple Research Institute) variety 73-50. Maui Pineapple Co. began growing variety 73-50 in 1988 and named it Maui Gold®.
Picture
  • Pineapple Farming Practice
  • Terroir of Maui Gold
<
>
​Pineapple Farming Practice
Kary Hisashima and his family were subcontracted growers of Maui Land and Pineapple Co.  According to Ross, “He has recently brought this experience to Maui Gold and the current farming practices resemble both a very scaled down version of the former Maui Land and Pineapple Co. operation and also a family style of boutique farming. New types of sustainable practices have also been integrated into the operation; like the use of biodegradable mulch film and dedicated areas for promoting bee populations via bee sanctuaries.”
Terroir of Maui Gold
Maui Gold noted, “Although all the Gold pineapples on the market are some variation of 73-50 and 73-114, they don't all taste the same. These particular varieties are very difficult to grow in a way that maximizes the fruit's naturally sweet flavor. Their genetic makeup makes them unusually susceptible to stresses such as drought, soil pathogens, and fluctuations in nutrition and temperature. Any sort of stress can trigger the plant to fruit out of cycle before it's fully ripe and ready to eat. In addition, because the pineapple genotype is so large, the environment affects the flavor profile of each successive generation of seed. As a result, it's important to grow Gold pineapples in a location that enhances the natural qualities of the fruit and maintains its superior taste.”
According to Ross, “The Maui Gold pineapple, for the most part, tends to have a high sugar/ low acid content from the hot days and cool nights of the Haliimaile region. Haliimaile’s elevation also plays a key role in the cool nights that aide the flavor profile of the Maui Gold Pineapple. The soils in Haliimaile is mainly composed of the Haliimaile soil series which exhibits a more acidic profile than your average soil series. Pineapple is a perfectly suited crop for this type of an environment, as most crops have a difficult time growing in this region due to the acidic nature of the soil unless an abundance of soil amendments are applied to help balance the pH.”
Selecting Pineapple for Juice
Each pineapple plant will grow approximately three fruits in its life cycle. According to Nigbur, “The first growth is the best pineapple for the consumer [because they] want to buy fruit and take it home to the mainland or have it sit at their house for a week and not have to worry about it spoiling. The second growth is perfect for the fresh cut, already [made] stuff, because it's a little sweeter. Then, those third ones, they didn't really have a market for, and that's where us and the winery and the brewery comes into play. We're able to gobble up all that fruit. Nothing really goes to waste. It really minimizes the amount of waste the Pineapple Company has.”
Companies differ in their desired ripeness of the fruit. Ross explained, “During the spring to early fall, an ideally mature Maui Gold variety produces more sugar and less acid. In contrast, the acidity of the fruit will tend to rise during the cooler parts of the year (winter to early spring).  That being said, we harvest the fruit at certain ripeness levels reflective on the seasonality of the fruit and the needs of the customers. Maui Wine, for example, prefers a more acidic profile for their wine. During the summer periods, they’ll typically end up with fruit being more so on the greener side in order to express the acidic nature of the fruit. During the winter/early spring, the fruit is naturally high in acidity where 50%-70% ripeness can suffice the desired acidity for wine production. In contrast, Maui Brew and Pau prefer higher sugar content and lower acidity levels which is ideal during the summer months. During the cooler parts of the year, harvesting at peak ripeness (higher sugar content) will maximize the sugar content in the fruit to help combat the seasonal rise in acidity.”
 
Ross also noted the following:
 
In essence:
Late Spring – Early Fall (Lower acidity)
  • Pau – 50-70% ripe
  • Maui Brew - 50-70% ripe
  • Maui Wine – 25% ripe
 
Late Fall – Early Spring (Higher acidity)
  • Pau – 75-100% ripe
  • Maui Brew - 75-100% ripe
  • Maui Wine – 50-70% ripe
 
Turing Pineapple into Juice at Maui Wine
The fresh fruit is trucked up to Maui Wine in Ulupalakua. There the fruit is mechanically sliced into 3-4 pieces, crushed with pine-namatic and then axial feed into the five tonne bladder press.  This yields approximately 150 gallons of juice (approximately 1,251.8 lbs of juice) per ton. The juice is then pumped into tanks for cold settling for Maui Wine or into 250-gallon totes for the distillery. 

Companies using Maui Gold include
  • Maui Wine
  • Haliimaile Distllery
  • Maui Brewing Company
2 Comments

Pau Vodka

6/25/2018

1 Comment

 
Picture
paumaui.com
Location:
883 Haliimaile Rd,  Makawao, HI 96768  
(Open for Tours)
​

Hawaii Distributor: Young’s Market of Hawaii
​Production Process
Pau vodka is made by Hali'imaile Distilling Company of the LeVecke’s Private Label Program.  The vodka is distilled from Pineapple, specifically Maui Gold pineapples.  To produce the distillate, the pineapples are fermented and the mash is run through proprietary glass stills personally designed by Master Distiller Mark Nigbur. Nigbur has chosen to forgo use of traditional copper stills, as he believes copper can impart flavor during the distillation process.  This single distillation still is similar to that of a continuous still. As a “filter,” the column contains volcanic rock. After one pass, the spirit is at 96.5% alcohol before going through gravity filtration via activated carbon.

Tasting Notes
Bouquet:
Pau has a slight nose of pineapple leaf.

Pallet:
On the palate, it’s more astringent than the other two Hawaii Vodka’s we tried but still not harsh. On the rocks, the palate becomes noticeably softer as the fats coagulate and the astringency mellows.  It has a top note of bright pineapple and a medium finish that is slightly vegetal. 

Cocktail Approach
  • Method: Muddle ingredients and Shake
  • Flavors: Due to its robust flavor profile, we feel Pau would work well in fruit-heavy cocktails such as our POG - Pau cocktail.
  • Avoid: Adding water

Hawaii Beverage Guide Commentary
 It should be noted that Pau’s retail price runs $5 to $10 less per bottle than Ocean Vodka or Hapa Vodka.

Flavor Pairings

Tasting Notes

Cocktails

1 Comment

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