E-Malt.com News article: USA, HI: Kona Brewing Co. to boost capacity to 100 thousand bbl through new Hawaii brewery

Kona Brewing Co. plans to invest in a new $15 mln Hawaii brewery that will boost its annual production capacity from 12,000 barrels to 100,000 barrels, Associated Press reports on April 23.

Much of the facility will produce beer packaged in cans for Hawaii distribution, the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reported on April 23. It will also make all of Kona Brewing's draft beer for local consumption.

The brewery is expected to come online in two years.

Kona Brewing currently produces all its draft beer sold in Hawaii at its Hawaii Island brewery. But it ships its bottled beer to the islands from the mainland because manufacturing and shipping costs make shipping bottled beer to Hawaii cheaper than shipping empty beer bottles.

Mattson Davis, chairman of the Kona Brewing advisory board, said the company is discussing where to put the facility. Sites on Hawaii, Oahu and Maui islands are being considered.

"We've been waiting a long time for technology to catch up with our vision for efficient and sustainably minded brewing and packaging in Hawaii," he said. "We're really excited."

Davis said bottled beer made by the company will still be distributed in Hawaii given the preference of some consumers. But an almost 20-year practice of Kona Brewing shipping all its nondraft beer to Hawaii will come to an end.

After the facility starts production, Kona Brewing's existing brewery will shut down and the space will be used to expand the company's restaurant next door.

Kona Brewing was established in 1994 by Cameron Healy - an Oregon entrepreneur who created Kettle Chips - and his son, Spoon Khalsa. They set up the brewery in a former newspaper printing press building in Kailua-Kona.

In 2010, the company was acquired by Oregon-based Craft Brew Alliance Inc., a publicly traded firm that owns Redhook and Widmer Brothers breweries in Oregon, Washington state and New Hampshire. The largest shareholder of Craft Brew is Anheuser-Busch InBev, the world's largest beer maker.


24 April, 2015