Three years of planning. Countless hours of research, writing business plans, coming up with recipes and building out a dream. Then, with everything just about finished, the pandemic hit. For Chris Cook and Bill Sumrow, founders of Oahu’s Broken Boundary Brewery, the timing couldn’t have been worse.
Their original opening date was set for March 20. Then the state shut down. At that point they went into survival mode and threw their business plan out the window, but never lost focus on their main goals — making excellent beer and being a leader in their community.
Broken Boundary Brewery started with a simple conversation between Bill and Chris back in 2017 about adding a brewery to the Homebrew in Paradise space that Bill had just purchased. The location would be tough. They knew getting people to venture into the industrial area of Kalihi wouldn’t be easy, but they were committed to making it work. Plus they’d have a built-in audience of homebrewers, who regularly stop by for supplies.
Cook, the head brewer, says they are focused on a lot of styles and don’t want to get pigeonholed. He loves to explore, follow his curiosity and dive deep into styles, both traditional and experimental. He describes the brewery as always seeking and respecting tradition while breaking down boundaries to find new and exciting ideas.
I can attest to the amount of research he and his team put into each style of beer they make. When he wanted to craft a Belgian-style blonde, he’d visit me at Village Bottle Shop and ask for all the examples I had. He did this for dozens of styles, wanting to taste as many beers available within each.
The brewery finally opened in April, in the middle of a pandemic, a massive economic slowdown and pretty much zero tourists.
To turn the business to to-go sales, they’d scrambled to purchase a crowler machine to fill 32-ounce aluminum cans and encouraged people to bring in refillable growlers. It wasn’t an ideal opening, but they saw a silver lining: They were starting off small, in the worst of times, and could quickly adapt to the new reality.
The beer lineup has a little something for everyone. Of course there are a few IPAs, both West Coast style and hazy, and all very well made. But what has been a welcome surprise is the focus on clean, traditional styles that you don’t find too often anymore.
The Carry Your Own Bags Porter is just that, a porter with no added baggage. Dark chocolate, molasses, dark toasted bread that is warming and full, but finishes clean and rewarding. A dark beer you want to sip all night long.
Belgian styles are another bright spot in the lineup, so perfectly suited for our warm climate. The Jean Claude Van Blonde is bright, with a soft floral and citrusy aroma, and incredibly easy to drink. The Boomgaard Trippel, despite being 8.3% alcohol by volume, is deceptively light and full of ripe stone fruit notes.
In these classic styles you can really see the payoff for all of that research. While not complicated beers to make, these are incredibly difficult to do really well, and Broken Boundary is doing them really well.
Through all of the turmoil, this brewery is making a go of it. The owners know things won’t be back to normal for a long time but have kept a positive outlook and continue to push forward. It’s worth taking a trip to Kalihi to visit them and grab some beers to take home. Now more than ever, supporting our local businesses is so important.
BROKEN BOUNDARY BREWERY
740 Moowaa St.
Open noon to 7 p.m. Tuesdays to Sundays
Tim Golden, a certified cicerone, shares his obsession with all things craft beer on the third week of each month. He is part owner of Village Bottle Shop in Kakaako.
