Hawai’i has a long history of beer making. Honolulu Brewery, established in 1854 (now closed), was the first commercial brewery on Oʻahu, followed by Primo Beer in 1901. After a long lull, the craft beer movement made its way back to the Islands in 1994 slowly growing over the years. Oʻahu has a tight craft beer community. From Kalihi to Kāneʻohe, brewers share their support for one another, as well as for local farms and restaurants, by creating collaboration beers. Besides having highly skilled, passionate brewers and a love for connecting with their community, these breweries are also all self-distributors, meaning the only place you will find their beer is on O’ahu.

Here are five to try.

Hana Koa Brewing Co.

“I like to cultivate memories with beers,” said Josh Kopp, head brewer at Hana Koa Brewing Co. His Midnight Pretender—a porter made with koshihikari rice from The Rice Factory in Kakaʻako—takes him back to his street racing days when he was underage, drinking coffee and smoking cigarettes in an Oʻahu parking lot until two in the morning. Once that tap runs dry Kopp will replace it with cortado, a coffee-infused stout he made in collaboration with TRY Coffee. The beer smells and tastes just like its namesake espresso drink with a hit of dark chocolate. My current favorite is Earth To Beer, a sour beer fermented with fragrant basil, lemongrass and lime that is so pure and bright it drinks like a muddled cocktail. Kopp’s go-to is the Rooftop, named after a time in his life when he and now-wife girlfriend and brewery co-founder would hang out on the roof of her apartment and drink Ballast Point Grunion pale ale.

Since expanding his business, Kopp has acquired a number of tools for quality control and offers lab services for other brewers on island. He has also offered to sell his hops to other brewers at cost and invites them to Washington to visit farms, so they can select the hops together to ship back to O’ahu.

“It’s kinda like if you were the kid in the neighborhood that got the Nintendo first you shouldn’t be a jerk and not let the other kids come over and play,” Kopp explains.

hanakoabrewing.com, @hanakoabrewing

Howzit Brewing

Inside Howzit Brewing.
Photo: Sarah Burchard

After a good surf sesh, owner Justin Heikkinen said he likes to pour himself a refreshing Put the Rad in Radler, Howzit’s lemonade slush infused delight. “It’s the gateway to beer,” he said. If the slushie radler is the gateway to beer, the Solar Journey is the gateway to IPA. Its fruity notes and lack of bitterness make it so easy to crush. Heikkinen, born in Seattle where the craft beer scene exploded, spent a good portion of his life in Portland where he became a home brewer. When Phil Pesheck, formerly of Burke-Gilman Brewing Co. in Seattle, became available he quickly snagged him to open Howzit. Beers here are ever-rotating. Heikkinen isn’t interested in having flagship beers. He wants customers to always have a new reason to visit. It will be a sad day for me when the Bonfire Baja runs out. The dark Mexican-style lager reminds me of my beer drinking days in my hometown San Diego. Still excited about the novelty of having a slush machine in a brewery I ordered the Kakaʻako Cold Brew, a coffee-vanilla cream ale, in slush form. Thick like soft serve, I could have eaten it with a spoon, but just like Heikkinen promised, as it began to melt the frozen golden ale turned into a frappuccino-like treat.

@howzitbrewing

Inu Island Ales

Inu Island Ales presents a unique, modern approach to brewing beer. Head brewer John “Magic” Montes De Oca makes beers that people will crave and keep reaching for, such as the Mango Colada, a coconut hard seltzer that is thick and fruity like a smoothie. The Mo-Waka, a West Coast-style IPA made with Mosaic and Riwaka hops, is another stand-out. The modern techniques and lager yeast he uses amplify the tropical notes in the hops and make it so smooth and well-balanced it tastes like it is in a category all on its own. Montes De Oca champions West Coast-style IPAs believing they have gotten a bad rap for being overly bitter. “The way people make them now with modern hops and techniques lends to a much better drinking experience,” he said. The Coco Fumes stout is akin to a Mexican hot chocolate dessert drink and is meant to be shared as such.

Collaborations happen organically. Tradition Coffee Roasters in Kailua is one of Montes De Oca’s favorite local roasters. After sharing with the owner that he wanted to make a blonde stout with pandan (a herbaceous tropical plant that grows in Southeast Asia) and coffee he invited Montes De Oca to the roastery and taught him how coffee is made and how he selects and roasts beans. They tasted several coffees together to decide which would work best resulting in a beer that smelled of vanilla cappuccino and grassy, nutty pandan.

inuislandales.com, @inuislandales

Beer Lab HI

Photo: Courtesy of Beer Lab HI

Co-founder Nicolas Wong believes that living on an island means we need to support one another. Beer Lab HI does its part by constantly highlighting local businesses and sourcing Hawai’i-grown ingredients. For a chill beer garden experience visit Beer Lab’s newest location on Beretania Street in Honolulu, which offers 12 picnic tables covered by umbrellas are surrounded by two walls of murals, a modest walk-up bar (which also includes whiskey and wine) and a poke counter with smoked marlin dip, fruit tarts and dog treats. On a warm evening I sampled some new and old brews while music by Red Hot Chili Peppers played in the background: Omakase, seemingly everyone’s go-to, including mine, is a hazy IPA with low bitterness and citrus notes; Chasing Sunrises is a bright and refreshing sour made with passion fruit and the newest release, Green Rivah, is a collaboration with the iconic Rainbow Drive-In that tastes just like the local favorite lemon-lime soda.

beerlabhi.com, @beerlabhi

Kalihi Beer

Originally Broken Boundaries Brewery, founder and head brewer Chris Cook changed the name to Kalihi Beer to better reflect what was most important to him. “We took on the name Kalihi because we are proud of our community,” he said.  “Kalihi is the blue-collar lifeblood of this city, and while Kalihi, like any other community, has its challenges, you’ll find people here with extraordinary determination and ambition who are making a way to succeed despite lacking the resources that some others may have. We are proud to be a part of this, and we wanted our name to reflect that pride.” To connect with Kalihi the brewery hosts events and collaborates with a number of Kalihi nonprofits such as Hoʻoulu ʻĀina, the Kalihi Watershed Management Partnership, Fire Station 31 and The Pōpolo Project. On any given night you can experience live music, local art and conversations about conservation in Kalihi and Kāpalama.

Beers range from the most bitter of IPAs, such as the Hi-Fi, to Cook’s “desert island beer,” Bierfurdeinkin Hefeweizen, which is refreshing and pairs well with food. Cook takes what he knows about traditional brewing and applies them to an audience who is looking for something modern and new. His wildly popular Pop Top Kolsch can be found on draft in some of Oʻahu’s best restaurants, such as Peter Merriman’s Monkeypod Kitchen and natuRe Waikīkī.

kalihibeer.com, @kalihibeer