Brewed Awakening
Maui’s craft beer scene has matured, driven by bold entrepreneurs, shaped by fire and brimming with a sense of place.
story by Todd A. Vines
photographs by Chris Archer
From radiant lagers to dusky stouts, local beer is stepping into the spotlight at home and beyond, carried by ingenuity and island spirit. Behind it all is a tour of breweries and brewers who turn the land’s stories into prized pours.
Maui is enjoying a golden age of craft beer. Fruity sours, crisp lagers and juicy IPAs pour daily across the Valley Isle, brewed with a confidence that didn’t exist here a generation ago.
Local craft beer – produced by small, independent breweries with an emphasis on quality, flavor and tradition – hasn’t always flowed so freely. Barely two decades ago, Maui had no brewers to speak of. Today, thanks to a handful of entrepreneurs who weathered economic headwinds, natural disasters and a global pandemic, the island is awash in award-winning beer that captures a distinct sense of place.
Maui Brewing Company, based in Kīhei, is the industry patriarch and Hawaiʻi’s largest craft brewer. Lāhainā Brewing Company, the West Maui survivor that until recently operated as Koholā Brewery, has proven itself the little brewery that could. And Mahalo Aleworks, which brewed independently in Makawao for four years before being acquired by Lāhainā Brewing Company in mid-2025, helped push the island’s beer culture in unexpected directions.
At Lāhainā Brewing Company Wailea, the taproom buzzes with conversation and laughter as each pour reflects a journey of rebuilding after the fire and pandemic. Despite changes, the heart of the brewery – the beer and its hometown spirit – remains intact.
Untapped Potential
When Garrett Marrero, co-founder of Maui Brewing Company, began visiting the Valley Isle in the early 2000s, there were fewer than a half-dozen breweries in the state, none of which were brewing on Maui.
Marrero recalls a pivotal afternoon in 2003, sitting at a Front Street restaurant, gazing at the Pacific and sipping what he assumed was a local beer. It wasn’t.
“I couldn’t believe there wasn’t a truly authentic beer here, in a place so proud of supporting local,” Marrero said. “I had already fallen in love with Maui. This felt like my calling.”
Marrero and his partner, Melanie Oxley, moved to Maui in 2005 and founded Maui Brewing Company on the island’s west side. From the beginning, experimentation was the point.
“We were always playing with local fruits, honey, cane, cacao, vanilla – whatever we could source from farmers,” Marrero said. “Coconut Hiwa Porter was inspired by coconut candy we’d buy in Keʻanae on the way to Hāna. Later we leaned into Maui Gold Pineapple. We wanted beer to connect local agriculture to local production – farm to brewery and brewery to farm.”
The company brewed just 320 barrels its first year. Demand quickly outpaced supply. Marrero expanded production in Lāhainā, then, in 2018, opened an 82,000-square-foot flagship facility in Kīhei. Today, Maui Brewing Company produces more than 85,000 barrels annually, making it the largest craft brewer in the state.
Growth came with growing pains. Early on, Hawaiʻi’s laws limited production, distribution and even packaging options. Marrero found himself lobbying lawmakers as often as he was brewing.
“We had to carve a path for the industry,” he said. “Back then, you couldn’t brew more than 5,000 barrels a year. We do that in a month now.”
In 2025, Maui Brewing Company marked 20 years in business. Its beers have earned national recognition, including a gold medal for Da Hawaiʻi Life Lite Lager at the 2024 U.S. Open Beer Competition. Core beers like Bikini Blonde Lager and Big Swell IPA now reach drinkers across the mainland, Canada and Japan.
“Our beers are about creating a sense of place,” Marrero said. “The same way a mai tai says ‘Hawaiʻi,’ a Coconut Hiwa Porter can, too.”
Across the gleaming brewery floor, through to-go fridges and into the hands of drinkers near and far, Maui Brewing Company channels decades of pioneering experimentation into every beer, raising Maui’s profile in the craft beer world.
Pivot and Keep Pouring
When Maui Brewing Company left West Maui for Kīhei, it created space – literally and figuratively – for the next generation.
Koholā Brewery launched in the vacated Lāhainā facility in 2016, brewing about 500 barrels a year to serve taproom regulars. By 2020, production had tripled, and medals followed from the Great American Beer Festival and Hawaiʻi Craft Beer Awards.
Then the pandemic hit. The brewery closed. In August 2020, Mary Anderson purchased the struggling company and restarted production.
“We were a small, industrial little brewery, hyper-focused on the beer,” Anderson said. “That’s still our core.”
By 2023, Koholā was expanding and on pace to brew 5,000 barrels annually. Then, in August, wildfire erased everything – equipment, taproom, years of work.
“It became the art of the pivot,” Anderson said. “What are our options?”
She found a partner in Kona Brewing Hawaiʻi. Within weeks, Koholā beers were being brewed again on Hawaiʻi Island.
“We needed someone who respected our recipes and our craft – and could help us get back on our feet,” Anderson said.
The beers returned to shelves. In 2024, the company opened a Wailea taproom and restaurant twice the size of its Lāhainā predecessor. West Maui, Anderson said, remains part of the brand’s DNA.
In September 2025, the company reintroduced itself as Lāhainā Brewing Company, Koholā Brewery’s DBA name since its inception in 2014.
“That name brought us back to our sense of place,” Anderson said. “It honors who we are and where we came from. We believe in rebuilding – our company and Lāhainā together.”
Punk Rock Pints
If Marrero was the pioneer and Anderson the rebuilder, Ben Kopf was the nonconformist. Kopf opened Mahalo Aleworks, a 3,500 square-foot brewery and taproom in Makawao in September 2021.
“We brewed a different beer every couple of days,” Kopf said. “Eighty to ninety percent of what we made were one-offs you’d never see again.”
Ingredients followed the seasons: mango, pineapple and tangerine alongside ginger, vanilla, persimmon and pink peppercorns.
“No mainland extracts. No purée,” Kopf said. “If it was growing Upcountry, we wanted it in the beer.”
Mahalo became known for its sour program, including a lilikoʻi sour made with more than four pounds of local passion fruit juice per keg. The tap list ranged from English browns to imperial stouts to hibiscus ales, tinted fuchsia by real flowers.
In May 2025, Lāhainā Brewing Company acquired Mahalo Aleworks, which now operates as Lāhainā Brewing Company – Upcountry, restoring brewing operations to Maui after the fire.
“Getting back to brewing on the island was always the goal,” Anderson said.
She insists Mahalo’s experimental spirit remains intact. Those Makawao-brewed beers now reach a wider audience through Lāhainā Brewing Company’s Wailea Craft Kitchen.
“We’re building on Ben’s vision, not replacing it,” Anderson said. “There’s room for all of it.”
Atop Lāhainā Brewing Company – Upcountry, the balcony frames a vision of the future, where local flavors evolve on a strong foundation of community and craft.
Yet More Brewing
And still, there’s more Maui beer on tap.
Jonathan “JD” Hessemer, a longtime island brewer, and his wife, Melissa, are opening Koa Brewing Company across from Kama‘ole Beach Park II in Kīhei. The space will pair a small brewery and taproom with desserts from Melissa’s business, The Frosted Mermaid.
A former brewmaster for both Maui Brewing Company and Koholā Brewery, Hessemer knows the risks. Brewing on Maui has never been simple, and after the Lāhainā fire, nothing about starting over felt guaranteed. Still, the decision came naturally.
“After losing my job in the Lāhainā fire, my wife and I thought, let’s build the place that we had always dreamed of,” Hessemer said.
Koa Brewing Company, set to open in early 2026, will be small by design – a handful of core beers, a pilot system built for experimentation and a space meant to feel lived in rather than scaled up. It’s a return to fundamentals for a brewer who has already helped shape Maui’s modern beer identity.
Maui’s brewers have tapped into something special. The local beer landscape isn’t just growing, it’s maturing and diversifying. Once a local craft desert, Maui has become a bona fide beer destination for those who demand an authentic taste of paradise.
