By Jason Genegabus

Don’t mind the Joey Fatone bobble-head doll. It’s all about the beer! (Jason Genegabus photo)

One of the best perks of my job covering the bar scene means coming to work and having big bottles of beer waiting for me.

Sorry. Make that Bombucha-sized bottles, thanks to the folks at Primo.

Although the brand is now owned by Illinois-based Pabst Brewing Co., the brewers frequently pay homage to Primo’s Hawaii roots, from the labels placed on each bottle to the involvement of prominent Hawaii-based watermen to help boost Primo’s street cred. Primo will also sponsor a renamed “Bombucha Division” for those weighing more than 250 pounds during the 33rd annual Buffalo’s Big Board Surfing Classic later this year.

And this isn’t the first time in history that Primo is being bottled in glass this big, according to Antique Alley owner Pake Zane. Nearly a century ago, local residents could buy the beer in bottles that ranged between 22 and 24 ounces in size.

“Primo was sold in big bottles because it was more economically feasible back then,” Zane said in a press release. “People would share the large bottles with each other.”

Starting this weekend, select bars will offer the new 22-ounce Bombucha bottles, followed by a gradual rollout to the rest of the state. You should be able to buy the bigger bottle wherever 12-ounce bottles of Primo are available by the end of February.

Even though I’m a fan of the Primo brand and actually like the taste of the beer itself, I don’t think I’ll be buying too many of these in the future.

As a bigger fan of fresh, locally-produced beer, I’m going to stick with Primo on tap, since it’s produced by Keoki Brewing on Kauai and shipped a much shorter distance to Oahu than bottles sent on a boat from a Pabst brewery in California.

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Update (2/13/09): To clarify, the annual Buffalo’s Big Board Surfing Classic has had a 250-and-up division for years. Primo’s new sponsorship this year resulted in the name change.

This entry was posted on Thursday, February 12th, 2009 at 5:23 pm and is filed under Food & Drink, Outside The Club. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.