Koholā Brewery poised for another comeback after Lahaina wildfire

Koholā Brewery is set for a grand opening July 21 as a taproom and restaurant at the Wailea Village shopping center.

This marks the second comeback for the independent craft beer brewery founded in Lahaina in 2014. The first came after the COVID-19 pandemic shut down operations for three months in 2020 at its West Maui Center, located off of Honoapiʻilani Highway. Then, after investors came to its rescue, the Aug. 8-9 Lahaina wildfire reduced the Lahaina business to ash and rubble nearly a year ago.

“Business was actually very good before the fire,” said Koholā Brewery owner and President Mary Anderson. “We had generated enough demand. We had brought on more capacity, and the company was really looking forward to a stellar year.”

At the time, the brewery employed about 16 people to brew and package beer, with other employees serving customers beer in the taproom at the front of the house, she said.

And, there was entertainment provided by mostly local musicians, playing contemporary Hawaiian music. “That was one of the really special things about the Lahaina spot. We used to kind of call it Lahaina’s living room,” Anderson said.

On the day of the wildfire, strong winds were howling, and Anderson said management decided not to open the brewery or taproom that day. The Launiupoko resident said she had been losing power at home.

“The taproom was supposed to open at noon (on Aug. 8), but it was obvious that the weather was just gonna be questionable at best,” she said.

Three employees came to Anderson’s home to seek shelter with their pets. Then, Maui police came to Launiupoko the morning of Aug. 9 to tell everyone to evacuate, she said. They sought refuge in Central Maui. But there was a harrowing three to four days trying to locate everyone without cellphone service. Fortunately, “everyone was safe,” she said, although “about 75% of my folks lost their homes. We were a very Westside-oriented company.”

Since the wildfire, “it’s been a very long road,” Anderson said. “It seems like more than a year has passed.”

The first decision, after the magnitude of the Lahaina wildfire disaster was grasped, was whether it was even possible to keep the business alive, she said.

“We had nowhere to brew. We had nowhere to package our product, and without that, what are we?” she said.

For three months, “frankly, we didn’t know up from down… Do we want to walk away from this business, or can we keep this thing alive? … We all care so much. There’s so much passion around the company.”

The answer came in the form of support from competitors within the state’s craft beer community, which Anderson said is “ridiculously generous.”

“We started to have conversations with the craft brewing industry here in the state around what were our options? What could we do?” she recalled. “We got many offers to help, but really what we needed to do was find that partner that we could create a sustainable, long-term business relationship.”

From that search, Koholā Brewery formed a partnership with Kona Brewing Co., the state’s oldest craft brewing company, on the Big Island.

“We were able to do a contract brewing agreement with them pretty quickly, which was amazing,” she said. “We flew over there. We worked on our recipes with them, and we were able to get out Talk Story Pale Ale back in tanks.”

And, with the help of Kona Brewing Co., Koholā Brewery was able to get all five of its core brands back on the shelves of supermarkets and grocery stores statewide. The brands are: The Waterman IPA; Talk Story Pale Ale; Lahaina Haze; Red Sand Amber Ale; and Lokahi Pilsner.

Talk Story received the Gold Medal Hawaii Craft Beer in 2023. Lahaina Haze won that medal in 2021, 2022 and 2023; and Lokahi Pilsner received a Silver Medal Hawaii Craft Beer in 2023, and a Great American Beer Festival Bronze Medal in 2016.

The Kona Brewing Co. shares a passion for craft beer, and “they love brewing our beers,” she said, adding that her company brewer, Robert Burn, has been working closely with Kona’s brewmasters to produce Koholā beer on the Big Island. It’s challenging, she said, “it’s like trying to walk into a different kitchen and cooking that same exact recipe.”

While it may seem ironic that a business competitor is helping save Koholā Brewery, “we’ve created a business relationship that is absolutely win-win,” Anderson said. “Great businesses do create long-term relationships as you find win-win.”

A silver-lining in the wildfire’s aftermath has been discovering the aloha spirit in the islands, and “people just fundamentally love our company and wanted it to be successful, and so anything that they could do to help us was really important for them.”

As for reopening at at new location in Wailea, Anderson said expansion was part of Koholā’s business plan before the wildfires, and a lease had been signed for the Wailea Village location before the disaster.

“We were very lucky because we were expanding the company. We were expanding our wholesale side, and we wanted to expand into this,” she said, gesturing to the new taproom/restaurant with indoor-outdoor seating.

The new location aims to give customers a food and beer experience, she said. “This is something we’ve never done before, which is very exciting.”

The restaurant’s menu comes with the help of former Pacific’o Executive Chef Isaac Bancaco, born and raised on Maui, who joined the Koholā team in March as vice president of operations. “We partnered with him and said, ‘Hey, how about, you know, making this thing something special?”

The new restaurant/taproom has more than double the seating space as the Lahaina site, she said. “We love the indoor/outdoor feel we’ve always had,” she said. “I think it’s a nice, very welcoming environment but casual.”

There are plans to offer entertainment at the new Koholā Brewery site, but the new business is also working with its neighbors to provide entertainment in the nearby courtyard, she said.

Menu and craft beers have been priced to be affordable to residents and visitors alike, she said.

For example, a Korean corn dog with Portuguese sausage, mozzarella cheese, Talk Story beer batter and mustard-mayonnaise is $13. A pothole fern salad with butter lettuce, local tomatoes and ska is $14, and a backyard poke bowl with fresh ahi, sesame-soy, seaweed salad and sticky rice is $21. Servings of Koholā flagship draft beers cost $8.50.

Koholā is Hawaiian for humpback whale, and the business’s logo features a whale tail in its design.

For more information, visit Koholā Brewery’s website here.