Whatever you heard, believe the hype. These guys are the real deal. Their beer is fresh, innovative, and constantly changing. And having been open for only a year, they’re only getting started.
Beer Lab HI // 1010 University Ave, Honolulu, HI 96826 // (808) 888-0913
Mural Painting at the Entrance to Beer Lab HI
Laboratory Housekeeping
Beer Lab HI is one of few true craft breweries in the state, and every batch they serve excites enthusiasts and experts alike. They brew aggressive beers that intrigue, surprise, and satisfy the senses, and they have yet to serve a beer that disappoints (we don’t think they can). Because of their constantly changing lineup of well-crafted beers, they’re continuing to solidify a dominant presence in the local craft beer scene. On tap today include, but is not limited to the The Truth, Yellowflash, Mud Slide, Minako, and From Ben, with Love.
A flight of beer on tap. Photo Credit: Tracy K.
There are many things the guys at Beer Lab HI do well, and many of those ingredients factor into their success. Some of those reasons include a meticulous brewing method (Darth Brewer Euler is responsible for counting yeast cells in every batch), crafting small batches using a 7 bbl system, and ultimately, by being “wildly passionate about making good beer”.
Wildly passionate doesn’t mean they have a no nonsense approach to making beer. Instead they remain inquisitive, curious, experimenting, and playful with their methods. They make beers that they want to drink, and pushing boundaries to achieve the perfect outcome they’re looking for. They’re mad scientists, constantly learning, applying, discovering, and refining their techniques.
Laboratory Tinkerers
Beer Lab HI tinkers often with their recipes, adhering mostly to the standard beer ingredients list of hops, malt, and yeast. Often times, however, they’ll add certain flavors, or change ingredient ratios to throw off the balance. They have experimented by fermenting in Kohana Rum barrels and adding aged honey. That particular beer, coupled with the wild yeast, Brettanomyces, resulted in a beer with sweet, woody flavors.
Craft beer is created in the same location it is served!
The three partners who own Beer Lab HI, Nicolas Wong, Kevin Teruya, and Derek Taguchi, have been developing and refining their palates over several years. And in turn, also refining ours. Nicolas Wong stated that they work together using flavors tasted from other breweries to determine worth pursuing.
Because we travel so much for work and whatnot, we taste beers in all of these different places, we find something that we love. We try beer everywhere. Every time we go, it’s brewery, brewery, brewery. And we hit those flavors that we like. “I like this beer, let’s do something like this, but I’d like it better if we did this.” So that’s where our flavor palate started to develop.
Although they work together on beers, they designate the main brewing responsibility to one partner. “Kevin is the emperor brewer, and we leave the beers that he’s gonna make up to him. We offer input when beers come out like, ‘How does this taste?’ or ‘I want it juicier. Can you not use this type of hop?’ Stuff like that.”
They’re always looking for something edgy yet tasteful, going after “quality, craziness, and all of these fun stuff that keeps things creative in Hawai‘i.”
Laboratory Innovators
It’s interesting to note that they never have a standard pub lineup on tap. And it’s not something they do purposefully. Whatever beer they want to brew, or whatever Nicolas knows will push through fast, is what they serve. “The standard line up is your porter, pale ale, IPA, your lighter beer, and maybe something seasonal. There will be times when we go half IPA’s, or no dark beer. People don’t even know what to expect from the beer. We really love to just try, try, try, push push push.”
You can see where they make their beer because it’s literally feet away from the bar!
One limit that has yet to be pushed is to create Hawaii’s go-to IPA. With few breweries in the state, there is a continual elevation of craft beer standards. Beer Lab HI has been methodical in their pursuit to craft the defining Hawai‘i IPA.
We don’t even know if Hawai‘i is ready for an IPA yet. Like a true, true “IPA” IPA. We’re almost using double the amount of hops. That’s just our flavor profile. We like it danky, oily, and sticky. It’s an east coast style. We keep a lot of proteins and solution to really get that hop oil that it can stick to. That’s what we’re trying to push. But people, even my mom, is like, this is too bitter. But it’s an IPA. We’re really trying to change the whole idea.
Laboratory Success
When asked why their beer has received so many accolades and recognition, Nicolas Wong explained that their philosophy isn’t about getting recognition. Nor is it about what the people want to drink. In the past year, they stayed true to themselves by brewing beer for themselves, and then sharing it with others.
I really learned that it’s best to do what we want to do, and if we believe in it, and if we love it, and if we enjoy it, other people, probably more so our customers, will feel the same way. Rather than try to cater to what we think they want, we’ll do what we want, and show how much we love it, and you can see the passion that we put into it. And the work we put into it. And the love we put into it. And that will translate to the customer. You got to drink your own,
He hesitates to think. It would be fitting for him to say, “craft beer”, but then he remembers the second part of that phrase:
“Kool-Aid. You gotta believe in what you’re selling. And hopefully it grows. We believe in what we’re doing, believe in what our idea is, and we cross our fingers, hoping everybody else does too.”
Window looking out to Univserity Ave. University of Hawai’i at Manoa is right up the street.
Besides being served fresh on tap at their University Avenue Location, their beers are on rotation at several places, such as Grace in Growlers, Brew’d Craft Pub, and Pint + Jigger.
