About the Brewery

• Founding Story
• Approach to Beer
• Hawaii's Influence

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Year Founded  2014

Geoff always had an interest in beer.  This interest grew when he discovered a show called “Brew Masters,” featuring Sam Calagione from Dogfish head, on the Discovery Channel.  His interest was furthered when his wife purchased him a home brewing kit. Geoff explained, “She bought me a home brewing kit for Christmas. I did about six to ten batches before I thought that this might be something I wanted to do. I started [by] volunteering at the old Aloha Brewing Company that was in Sam Choy’s [Breakfast Lunch and Crab] with the intent of opening my own [brewery].” Geoff also saw a void in the market.  During this time, while the craft beer scene had taken off on the West Coast, Sam Choy’s Breakfast Lunch and Crab had closed leaving only Gordon Biersch on Oahu, another three breweries on the Big Island, one on Maui, and two on Kauai.
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In 2011, Geoff started his island-wide search for a brewery location.  “We were looking around for probably a year and a half for space. We looked in Kalaeloa, in town, and in downtown; then, I saw an empty building in Kaka’ako (it's a car dealership now) and I tried to figure out who owned it-- Kamehameha Schools owns basically everything down here. I got in touch with them, and they said, “that's not available,” but they showed me our current location. At the time, there was nothing down here. No Salt. No Collection. It was a good opportunity to get in when the rent was very reasonable and we could have carte blanche of what we wanted to do with the space itself.”  Geoff started construction himself in 2013 and opened Honolulu Beerworks in April of 2014. Since then, they have expanded. “We acquired the back half [in] mid 2016. [We] then did our third expansion at the beginning of 2017. We [also] have another warehouse on the corner that [acts as] our cold storage, and offices too.”

Honolulu Beerworks’ approach to beer is, “1) Quality and 2) To have fun doing it.” Geoff said.  “Like cooking, recipes are your playground. We say, “We know where we want to get to, but is there something special we want to do in order to get there?” Your styles [like] Pale Ales or IPAs [are the] boundaries of what you can do, but you can push those boundaries. I take inspiration from life and from cooking. We [also] have a lot of talented brewers and are always open to listening to people's ideas and figuring out a way that might [lead to] something good.”

We asked Geoff about his culinary inspiration. Geoff enjoys experimentation and creating new products. He elaborated, “When I was working at a high-end French restaurant, it was good in the beginning, but my interest waned a little bit. I enjoy food, but I'm more of a comfort food person as opposed to real high-end dining.  I think beer aligns better with that. Geoff’s cooking experience lends him perspective. “I was exposed to a lot of local and non-local ingredients; by using them in the cooking field, you get different results. Beer is partially cooking [because you boil] the grains and stuff like that. I think it gave me insight into what [different] ingredients can potentially do and what happens if you do cook with them. I don't think [my cooking background] is an advantage or disadvantage. I just think it's another avenue to being able to mess around with the ingredients.” 
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As part of their regular product development, Honolulu Beerworks brews beers that benefit nonprofits.  For example, their Pussy Grabs Back Extra Pale Ale is a benefit for the Pink Boots Society. They also brew a beer that benefits pediatric cancer, and a tattoo series that rotates between featured artists with the proceeds benefiting art programs for children in Hawaii.   Geoff also mentioned a beer they brewed during Pride. “We had an orange saison with glitter in it. Again, it's just something fun to do. It does benefit the Hawai'i Health & Harm Reduction Center. That's what we like to do here.”

According to Geoff, “We try to [use] local ingredients as much as possible; and whenever things are in season, we try to use them. We have connections with local farmers, and we get their list of what's in season. One of our our main beers is Pia Mahi‘ai Honey Citrus Saison. I use all local citrus, honey, and lemongrass.”

image provided by Honolulu Beerworks

Ingredients

• Malts
• Hops
• Yeast
• Water

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Country Malt Group is the primary supplier for their base or wheat malt. For specialty malts, the whole gamut is used.  According to Geoff, “If we're aiming for our pales, we will go the traditional route to at least get us close to [what we had in mind]. Whether we change up the hops in it or not, or even alter the yeast profile, that's up to us. To me, that's what's nice about the American style --you can use whatever you want, and it's up to you how you want to do it. For traditional styles, we'll try to stick to the traditional ingredients that go with the [particular] malt and hop.”
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Geoff also explained the sourcing of malts.  “We've been with Y. Hata for our kitchen side from the beginning because of their reputation, and because I've worked with them before.  We used to have to bring in twelve to fourteen pallets of grain at a time just to make sure we have enough before our next order. What's really nice is that Y. Hata stores the pallets for us in their warehouse. We order once a week and they always have it in stock for our base malts. For any of our specialty malts or stuff we don't use as often, we will buy our own palate; but, now that HFM had come in, it's definitely advantageous for us because there's competition, especially in pricing. Hawaii being what it is, getting stuff to the island is not only time-consuming, but it's expensive. Any bit [of help] that we can get is good. On the other hand, if there's a recipe that calls for a specific malt, we’ll experiment by substituting the original malt with other available malts; for the end product, we’ll go with the [substitute] malt that we like the most. It’s not necessarily great in all cases. It's more a matter of “Oh, this is a better price. I'm just going to switch out.” I have my favorites that I like to use at least as our base malts and stuff like that.”

​Honolulu Beerworks has a hops contract with Yakama Chief.  This allows the company to plan a year or two in advance and allows the recipes to stay as consistent as possible.  They also source from other distributors in both hemispheres, depending on what they are trying to achieve with their hop profile.  Geoff explained that most of their IPAs and core styles have American hops in them, but Green Stone IPA (beer) is all New Zealand hops. It's an IPA they’ve done [for] a couple of years now. Every year, a new hop with different characteristics is introduced, which Geoff and his team try to doctor and elevate. They regularly produce hop-driven beers, including the Surf Session, which does not include bittering hops, but rather hops that are added in after the boil.  This increases the flavor and aroma without giving a harsh bitterness. Every year, a wet hop beer is also produced. Geoff explained that the hops are picked and shipped overnight to his team within 30 hours, which they then use to create a batch of beer. “It's something that we've done since year one, and we usually use Mosaic. “This year's Mosaic is really nice; it’s also one of my favorite hops that we use.” (Steidman) The wet hops come from the Northern Hemisphere as it is difficult to get Southern Hemisphere hops shipped overnight.

White Labs and Wyeast are the primary sources of yeast and vary depending on the recipe and the strain the recipe calls for.  They also have done their own yeast cultivation in a collaboration with Upland Brewing. Geoff explained, “We did a Meyer Lemon Sour. We sent local fruit to their labs to cultivate. Right now, we don't particularly have the time to do that, which sucks, but it will come.”

Honolulu Beerworks does not use any water treatment or filtration except for in one of their Stouts.

Production

• Barrel Program
• Filtration
• Cold Storage

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Honolulu Beerworks doesn’t use a particular barrel type but rather takes a very experimental approach to their aging program.  Geoff elaborated, “We've used everything. We used Chardonnay, red wine, white wine, Tequila, Mezcal. We did a hot sauce beer. We’re trying to get some gin barrels right now. [There’s] just a lot of different variations. Sometimes, it doesn't work. We'll put a beer in and it's like, “Oh well.” A lot of times, it comes out really nice.”
To source barrels, they utilize barrel brokers as many breweries (and distilleries) want to use barrels for something.  Geoff explained, “Where the [broker’s] barrels come from is almost anonymous sometimes. The [brokers] won't tell us because of confidentiality agreements. On the mainland, [barrels] still have [residual] liquor in them, and you fill it right back up. By the time they get here a week later, [the barrels have] dried out on the boat, but are still very high quality. That's just a playground for us.”

Honolulu Beerworks filters only two beers. They used to filter everything, but later made the decision to stop. According to Geoff, “We do filter our cream ale for approachability and style. I'll drink it unfiltered.  [On the contrary], Heineken and Bud Light drinkers want to see something clear and easy to drink; it's easier for them to [stylistically] look at it and go, “Okay, I get what I'm about to drink.” However, we put so much time and effort into the ingredients and the filtering process does pull some of that flavor profile and aroma out of them, so we avoid [filtering] as much as possible. I think six or seven years ago, people would have said, “Oh, no. You can't have an unfiltered beer.” Now, some of these hazy beers look like milkshakes.”

Everything is held cold. That is one of Honolulu Beerworks’ main priorities when finding a distributor or partner.   According to Geoff, “We wouldn't partner with anybody that wouldn't hold our beer cold. I think Young’s Market is the only distributor that ship cold as well; their trucks are refrigerated.” I don't think the other distributors follow [similar protocol]. Obviously, we can't help what happens [to our beer] once it gets to Safeway or Foodland or Whole Foods. We advise them to keep the beer cold; it's a local product, but you're already one step outside by that point.”

The Beer

The initial core beers were the four most popular beers: Hop Island IPA,  Kewalo Cream Ale, Coconut Hefeweizen, Pia Mahi’ai Saison. Honolulu Beerworks tested the market with those beers to see how they would do and ended up sticking with them.

• Kewalo Cream Ale
• Cocoweizen
• Pia Mahiai Saison
• Pussy Grabs Back

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5.0% ABV  20 IBU

​This light-bodied, straw-colored ale is both light and refreshing with a very mild hop aroma and flavor.

According to Geoff, “The Kewalo Cream Ale is basically our introductory beer to people who come in and don't know craft beer, especially in Hawaii. When we first opened, a lot of people came in and were timid about what to do and what to drink. We've started a lot of people off with that and it was important. It's also a nice light beer for this weather.“

According to Honolulu Beerworks "Kewalos Cream Ale is our lightest and most refreshing beer. The light malt flavors are balanced by a touch of herbal hops to provide a clean and crisp finish. The soft nose of pears and apples follows through in the taste. We brew this ale to be extremely drinkable, yet full of flavor."

5.5% ABV 14 IBU​

This German-style ale is brewed with hand-toasted coconut, and has light tropical aromas and flavor.  According to Geoff, “We hand process all the coconut in-house. It’s a real pain in the ass to make. A lot of people tend to put coconut into the darker beers. I wanted to go the opposite way and put it in a lighter style and try to balance it where you don't get that suntan lotion taste. Instead, you actually get real coconut flavor.”

According to Honolulu Beerworks "We started by brewing a classic Bavarian Hefeweizen and threw a local twist on it. Hand toasted coconut gives this hazy wheat beer an wonderfully light tropical aroma and flavor. Traditional Hefeweizen yeast creates a mix of banana, pineapple and clove flavors that are gently complemented by the addition of coconut."

5.7% ABV 25 IBU
Other:  local orange, tangerine, lemon, lime, lemongrass and Big Island honey.

This Belgian-style ale uses all local citrus, local lemongrass and local honey was created before the brewery officially opened.  It was developed for Kamehameha School’s Mahi'ai match-up, a program that grants five-year agricultural land leases on different islands.

According to the Honolulu Beerworks, "Pia Mahi’ai (Farmers Beer) is a tribute to the farmers of Hawaii and our take on the classic Belgian farmhouse ale style. Brewed with locally grown oranges, tangerines, lemons, limes, lemongrass and Big Island Honey, Pia Mahi’ai explodes with fresh pungent citrus and spice aromas that follow through in the taste. Our house saison yeast creates complex flavors of allspice, clove and a slight peppery finish."

6.0% ABV 13 IBU
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A hazy, mellow malt body balances out hop characteristics of stone fruit, citrus and pine. Proceeds benefit Pink Boots Society.

Every year, Yakima Chief Hops does a hop blend in which for every pound of the blend purchased, they donate two dollars to the National Pink Boots Society.  This society funds scholarships and educational opportunities for women in the brewing industry, whether it's working in a brewery or a taproom, or in administration.  So as long as their interest falls within brewery, any woman is eligible to apply. In 2018, the women of Honolulu Beerworks created a recipe that was specifically designed for that hop blend. According to Geoff, “That was supposed to be a one-time beer, but the response was so great that we produced it sporadically. It was selling at places you didn’t expect them to because of the name, which is great. Now, it's a year-round beer as well.   Now, we actually have to make the blend in-house because Yakima Chief no longer makes it.”

Core Seasonals
Beerworks seasonally produces: Surf Session IPA, zero IBU, no bitterness IPA; Pali Pilsner; El Guapo, which is a golden ale with agave, lime, and cilantro; Sunshine Wit Haze which is done in the winter and has local pineapple and grapefruit witbier.