Kona Brewing

Two weekends ago my wife and I went to visit my mom and step-dad in Kona on the Big Island. We were there for three days, and visited two breweries during that time. Last week I wrote about our trip to the Big Island Brewhaus; this week I'm posting about our visit to Kona Brewery.



This isn't the first time I've been to the Kona Brewery Brewpub--my wife and I stopped by once around six years ago. This is, however, the first time I've been to the brewery since it was acquired by Craft Brew Alliance, which also owns Red Hook in Seattle and Widmer in Portland. The brewpub has undergone some serious changes since that acquisition, but in all honesty (and despite my anti-big business, commie-pinko leanings) the changes I noticed during this recent visit seemed positive.

First of all, and perhaps most-importantly, the Kona brewpub offers more beers than ever before. I've had their bottled offerings, and I stopped by the Koko Marina pub on Oahu earlier this year, but the Kona location offered another half-dozen "seasonal" beers beyond that, and the server mentioned them as if they were all on tap and available right then (instead of seasonally). I'm guessing that there are more than 15 beers to choose from. I tried three beers--a Marzen, a Steam, and a Red--that I'd never had before.

Secondly, the seating area is largely expanded--and very nice. Last time I stopped by you had the choice of sitting inside--which was a bit dim and dank--or sitting on the outside, covered porch--which was also a bit dim and dank. Now they've significantly increased the outside seating: dozens of sunshade-covered tables running along miniature palm planters that are crawling with green geckos. It's a very nice place to drink yourself mellow, and the food was good too.

And thirdly, the money-flood that seems to be hitting Kona Brewing is being used in some cool projects. They've installed a ton of PV solar panels to offset their energy use, and they've made some other environmentally-oriented decisions. They commissioned a huge mural on the side of the warehouse. They've turned their brewing facility into a pretty massive operation (you can see the keg yard in the picture below) and both the brewery and restaurant seem to be hopping with staff--so lots of good jobs for people in Kona.