After four long years, downtown Honolulu’s Stewbum & Stonewall Brewing Co. is making beer again. They become Hawaii’s newest, yet not-quite-brand-new brewery.
You may remember the brewery from its tiny original location in Kaneohe, now home to Inu Island Ales. The move to King Street was meant to give the brewery a better venue, but construction and COVID-19 delays stalled the opening for almost two years.
The downtown location opened its doors in late 2019, serving a large selection of craft beers and mixed drinks, while waiting for the proper power to be installed into the building to run the brewing and kitchen equipment. Then, pandemic lockdowns happened, which stalled the installation and completely dried up downtown business. Despite one setback after another, the brewery powered on and never gave up.
Owner and brewer Darren Garvey stuck through all of the turmoil and is excited to finally have four house-brewed beers on tap. His brand-new 10-barrel brewhouse is a huge step up from the tiny system he started with in Kaneohe. The freshly brewed beers pair up great with the hand-tossed pizzas on the menu and the warm pub environment. This is a much-needed bright spot in Chinatown.
But let’s get down to the house-brewed beers. With four on tap now and plans to add more, I was impressed with the first batches.
Hurry Up and Wait
This pale ale was my favorite of the four. Sadly, pale ales have been disappearing from breweries (they’re being replaced by IPAs of dizzying quantities), but here we have a solid, drinkable pale ale that is just the type of pint you want when you walk into a brewery.
It’s well balanced with touches of toasted bread and toffee to work with the bright citrus flavors from the hops. Not too bitter, not too sweet and at only 6.2% alcohol by volume, you can have a few.
Wackeldackel
I have to admit, I was impressed and pleased to see a lagered beer on the menu. They are not easy to make and you can’t hide any flaws or mistakes in them. This marzen style is light and drinkable, yet not watery and bland. Touches of freshly baked bread and just enough bitterness to keep things bright and thirst quenching. My only hope is that they keep brewing more lager-style beers because this is a great start.
Makeshift
This is the light, won’t-really-offend-anyone beer on the list. Every brewery has one and this golden wheat ale is pretty good. It’s not the most flavor-packed beer, but that’s the point. Soft, with a well-rounded body and just a hint of citrus and tropical fruit notes, this is easy to drink and refreshing. At only 4.5% abv, it is meant to be crushable, and it is.
The Fun Stuff
Just like lagers, hazy IPAs are not easy to make trying to find the perfect balance between soft mouthfeel and vibrant hop flavors/aromas, all while avoiding any astringent notes.
This is a great first attempt with bright grapefruit, melon and pineapple notes and a very low bitterness. The body was a tad thin and light, which prevented some of those hop flavors from really sticking around in our pallet.
If the past year has shown us anything, it’s that supporting locally owned business is vital. After a long hard road, it is great to see Stewbum & Stonewall brewing beer in Chinatown, and I can’t wait to see what lies ahead.
Tim Golden, a certified cicerone, is part owner of Village Bottle Shop & Tasting Room in Kakaako. Check out beerinhawaii.com and follow him on Instagram (@beerinhawaii). Tim’s column appears every third Wednesday in Crave.
