Five Craft Breweries and Beer Bars to Check out on Oahu

There's an old German song in which the singer laments that he cannot marry his sweetheart because she wants to honeymoon in Hawaii, where there's no beer.

The song, titled "There is No Beer in Hawaii," was written more than fifty years ago in 1963.

Here in 2017, things are substantially better. Hawaii Island's Kona Brewery and Maui's Maui Brewing Company are distributed nationally and Oahu, in particular, is booming, now closing in on ten craft breweries. Which makes it hard to believe that just four years ago in 2013, exactly fifty years after it was written, that song was still kinda-sorta true.

Though craft beer had reared its head several times before on Oahu-going all the way back to Alii brewing in 1993, for example-there were no functioning craft breweries on Oahu as recently as 2013.

It was a dark age of sorts-a transitional time when one wave of brewers was giving way to another. The lull came after an active period between 2005-2012, in which several craft breweries opened and closed, their demise attributed to a variety of factors, some combination of lacking quality and community disinterest.

What's perhaps most perplexing about Oahu's craft beer bust of 2013 is when you consider that the local beer scenes on the other islands-namely Hawaii Island and Maui-had been on their feet for nearly two decades.

"Hawaii is unique in that there's 150 miles and an ocean separating Kona from Honolulu, and you can't drive like you can between San Francisco and L.A.," said Village Bottle Shop & Tasting Room Co-Owner Tim Golden. "For a long time, none of the love for craft beer was spilling over to Oahu."

Craft beer began its present-day resurgence in late 2013. Golden attributes it to good timing: a changing attitude and demand on the island, notably from a market of people who had already experienced craft beer on the mainland, and who craved it here.

"The public was more aware," Golden said. "The dynamics and demographics of the island had changed. Places like Whole Foods were beginning to sell craft beer from the mainland."

Here are five local craft breweries and beer bars to check out on Oahu:

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Village Bottle Shop & Tasting Room

The concept here is cool. It's much more than a tasting room-It's a legit beer bar that offers full pours-and you are sure to find something good amongst the 500 beers offered to-go in the convenience-store style glass paned, in-wall refrigerators.

The thing to know is that it was opened by a guy named Tim Golden, who is often-credited as the beer buff of the island for drumming up interest in craft beer by way of his long-running blog, Beer in Hawaii. Last year, he himself invested in the growing industry by opening his own beer bar in budding Kakaako.

Grace in Growlers

A few things differentiate Grace in Growlers, a bring-your-own-food, pint-pouring, growler-filling, neighborhood-style beer hang out in Kailua, from other beer spots. The first is that all proceeds are donated directly to charity.

Proprietors Tim and Holly Veling came up with the concept as a way to fund their local nonprofit, the ONEninetynine Initiative, which among other things, does laundry for the homeless. Before Grace in Growlers opened, they raised money by cashing in large quantities of recycling from bars and restaurants. You can read their full story here.

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Home of the Brave Brewing

It is by far one of the most unusual marriages on the island, but it's perhaps the most interesting story-a brewery hinging its success on World War II history. Or perhaps it's the other way around?

A few years ago, owner Glen Tomlinson opened a small brewery and speakeasy inside his pre-existing World War II museum. What's more, he opened a military-history themed "Brewseum" next door, an effort to use beer as a bridge between generations. "We spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we can do to bring young people in, to interest them," he said. "If we're not bringing them in by saying, 'Hey, let's talk World War II stories,' then we have to get creative, adapt or die." You can read the full story here.

Kakaako Crawl

In addition to Village Bottle Shop & Tasting Room and Home of the Brave Brewing, Kakaako is home to many other beer establishments, including Waikiki Brewing's second location (just opened this month), Aloha Beer Co., Honolulu Beerworks, Bevy Bar and Moku Kitchen. Many of these locations are just a block or two from each other and all are within a 20-minute walk, max. It's an easy, doable bar crawl to give you a wide sense of the scene.

Beer Lab

If you're feeling like a high risk/high reward type of brewery, check out Beer Lab over by the University of Hawaii. It focuses on experimental beers with unique levels of malt, hops, and special ingredients, creating brews with profiles and flavor combinations not normally found. Its creed is that "the brewery was built on the idea of continual change, experimentation and small batch brews to provide beer lovers a unique experience with each visit."

In this way, you never know what you're going to get.

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