Q&A with Nicolas Wong
Rap or reggae?
Rap. We leave all the music to the bartenders. It keeps them happy. If one person gets grumpy, they change the music.
If you could have three items in a zombie apocalypse, what would they be?
Oh, I thought of this. Okay, baseball bat, a yacht—that counts right? It’s one object. A yacht-house boat, that’s what I’m going for! And then what’s the last one? I just had a conversation with one of the guys earlier. Baseball bat because it doesn’t run out of bullets, and it’s solid, it’s not gonna break on a zombie.
Aluminum or wood?
Aluminum man, guarantee. A house boat, because zombies can’t swim. And I guess I’ll bring my dog.
Best decision you ever made?
Going to Colorado to play baseball for college. And we drank a lot of beer, and I learned what fresh beer was. I went to school where Coors is. And we’d go and take the short tour every day. Every day you get three free beers. So after class, you tell ‘em, “We’re going to the short tour.” Free beer.
Do you guys have that here?
I wish. Someday! Someday.
Hiking or scuba diving?
Hiking. I hate both.
Dark or light beer?
Light beer. If I had to choose any type of beer to drink, my go-to is still sierra Nevada Pale Ale. For me, after trying so many beers–we drink because we enjoy it, but we’re always thinking about it thinking about it, tasting it, breaking it down–now I want something balanced. Something that hits every single note that I want to taste. It does have hops to it, but I don’t want it to blow my palate off. Balanced. That’s really really what I’m starting to enjoy.
Some pretty important ingredients to making beer
Do you have a role model?
I think I have a lot of, what I see, as mentors. I try to go in with the mindset that nobody is ever gonna be everything. But there are a lot of aspects of different people that I want to emulate, that I appreciate, and I try to perpetuate in myself. You know how some people compose themselves, and how some people have passions. That’s really I what I try to grab from different people and make that into my role model.
Any coffee shops we might bump into you at?
Honolulu Coffee Experience Center. I mean, we’re living in Palolo now, so we try to get out to The Curb when we can. We actually try to get to Morning Glass.
What is Beer Lab HI?
A comfortable, no pressure, easy drinking place where you can easily make friends. Everybody just sits and hangs out. If you want to sit or if you want to drink real fast. We’re not trying to take over the world. We’re just going. We’re enjoying the ride. We’re having a good time. We made a whole bunch of friends along the way.
I was born and raised here. I grew up in that valley, right there. Derek graduated Pearl City, the brewer from Mililani…you know Kevin. We grew up drinking beer here. All these beers and these crazy things that we end up doing, still brings us back to what we grew up tasting here.
Just looking at ourselves, we’re just glad that other people are enjoying this. And we’re happy we get the mix of people that we’re getting. Drink if you want to drink. Stay if you want to stay. Hang out. We’re just happy we got to create our dream. It really feels like a garage, but inside with an AC. That’s where we end up drinking right? Chill, relax. It has some paint.
Who is Nicolas?
Who is Nicolas? A local guy who drinks beer. That’s it. I’ll have to ponder that for a long time. Who is that? This is Kenny by the way. He makes the Kombucha.
