following up on past posts

There's been a couple of interesting developments in the Oahu brew scene recently, and I figured I'd follow up on the ones that relate to things I've posted about here. If you want more comprehensive coverage of the happenings in Hawaii's beer scene, Beer in Hawaii is still the place to go. But if you're just following my blog and are curious about the places I've mentioned, here's what's new:



First of all, back in March I wrote up a pretty extensive post about a visit I'd made to the Aloha Beer brewery. Dave Campbell, Aloha Beer's brewmaster and partial owner, gave me a behind-the-scenes-tour and chatted with me about the brewery's planned expansion--including a massive increase of brewing area/capacity and the creation of a new "Beer Sanctum" space where Sam Choy's bar used to be. A few weeks later, while drinking a few beers at Aloha and chatting with the bartender on hand, I heard a different story: no "Beer Sanctum," no planned expansion, but the brewery would be shut down temporarily for upgrades. The brewery did indeed shut its doors about a month after that, but I haven't seen or heard of any work being done since then, and the doors are still closed almost three months later.

At the REAL tasting event in August I heard a rumor that Aloha Beer's extended closure might have legal reasons behind it--the guy I was talking to hinted that there'd been some kind of "serving to minors" violation--but considering the venue and circumstances(post-REAL-event/more than six beers deep), I didn't put too much stock in it. The most credible news to appear concerning the whole situation came just a little while back, in an online article posted by the Pacific Business News. The article sort of touches on the murkiness of it all--Campbell will neither confirm or deny permanent closure; James Lee (another Aloha Beer owner) claims he's withdrawn his ownership interest, but maintains the "only closed for upgrades" story; Steve Sombrero, the third owner, won't even return calls for comments--but it does provide one firm fact: "The state Department of Labor and Industrial Relations Unemployment Insurance Division in April filed a tax lien against Aloha Beer Co. for $105,740.65 in unpaid employment security tax." That's a pretty large amount of money, and I'm betting the rent owed for the past three (customer-less) months is pretty hefty too. In the end, I'm getting a very bad feeling about the chances of Aloha Beer re-opening ever again.

And speaking of closures, here's more bad news: this is officially Hawaiian Islands Brewing's last month of business. HIB was handling the brewing for VICE Inferno at Ward Center. I wrote about my visit to the place back in February, and I had my doubts about the company's chances of success even back then, though I did think their beer was pretty great. With Aloha Beer indefinitely closed, and Hawaiian Islands Brewing officially closing, Oahu currently has only one commercial business brewing its own beer: Gordon Biersch at Aloha Tower.

But on the bright side: REAL is having enough success to go ahead with expansion--they'll be opening up a smaller pub in Kaimuki called BREW'D pretty soon. And a new 7-barrel brewery called Honolulu Beerworks is in the works for the KaKa'ako.