Oahu's "TED Talk" For Beer Lovers

Honolulu Beerworks' South Pacific IPA with the brewery's founder Geoff Siedeman being interviewed by Village Beer's Tim Golden.

Way back in 2013 the island of Oahu was as far as it could possibly be from having a real craft beer scene. Other than the Gordon Biesrchs and Yardhouses of the world, there wasn't really any craft beer to speak of. A lot has changed since those sad, sad, beerless days of old and Kakaako's Village Beer wants to tell you all about it.

Once I knew I was moving to Oahu, one of my first orders of business was to find and follow as many breweries, tap houses, brew pubs and beer bars as I could on social media. I would anxiously watch Aloha Brewing Co.'s posts from my comfy bar stool at San Antonio's Freetail Brewing, hoping my new beer home would serve me as well as my past favorite residences (Seoul, Portland, San Antonio) had.

Luckily for me, there are people like Tim Golden and Geoff Siedeman, of Honolulu Beerworks, around to make sure local craft beer is plentiful on Oahu. Tim Golden is the co-owner of Village Beer, an intimate and inviting bottle shop & tasting room in Kakaako's SALT complex. The "beer-cafe, as it calls itself, boasts 16 rotating taps, 8 wines on draft and an entire wall fully stocked with a wide variety of cans, bottles and 6-packs available for takeaway or onsite drinking. It's basically heaven and I'm bummed it took me so long to make a visit.

Living in Kapolei though, I really have to be motivated to get myself into town, what finally drew me in was an Instagram post from Village Beer informing me of a sort of "TED Talk" for beer taking place at the tasting room, featuring Honolulu Beerworks' founder Geoff Siedman. For free. Count me in! Village Beer hopes to make this type of series a monthly occurrence, featuring in-depth conversations with the big wigs in beer all over the state. I'm going to do my best not to miss any!

I showed up a bit early to scope out the joint and make sure I got a good seat. I'm glad I did. It was a crowded bar on a Wednesday evening. A large group of friends clamored around a long table in the middle of the small tasting room and there wasn't one empty stool at the bar. I managed to find myself a spot at the opposite facing window bar and got the night started ordering up Waikiki Brewing's Aumoe, intrigued by the prospect of a black rye IPA. If you've never had this brew, do it. It's dark in color and a tiny bit roasty in smell but everything else about it is IPA. 67 IBU and a manageable 6.3 ABV, it's a good one. One of my new favorites from Waikiki Brewing.

Village Beer Co-Founder, Tim Golden talks beer and business with Honolulu Beerworks founder Geoff Siedeman.

As 6:30 rolled around, folks started to get settled and it was time for a conversation with Honolulu Beerworks founder, Geoff Siedeman. Tim Golden hosted, asking great questions and trading the single microphone back and fourth with his guest. Geoff talked about how he got his start in brewing thanks to a home brew kit gifted to him one Christmas by his wife, Charmayne, who also handles a lot of the operations of Honolulu Beerworks, the trials and tribulations of opening a brewpub in a place like Oahu that seemed to be so far behind the Portlands and San Diegos on the mainland, the headaches of building and zoning permits and the brewery's strong commitment to providing quality over quantity.

Village Beer patrons listen in to the first of, hopefully, many "TED Talks" for beer lovers.

After about an hour of interview time, which surprisingly saw very little chatter from bar patrons who didn't come from across the island to hear this talk, Tim opened the conversation to audience questions. The people there were very engaged and asked great questions like, "What was it like the first time you had to dump a batch?" and "Did you immediately choose to can over bottling?", the answer to the former inquiry surprised me. In almost 4 years of brewing, Honolulu Beerworks only just recently had to throw out a couple of its batches. This really speaks to how great of a job these guys are doing over there, to go that long without making a big enough mistake to have to toss something -that's a feat! As for the canning decision, Siedeman said that cans just make more sense -for beaches, for hikes they're just easier to crush and carry out. Which I can personally attest to.

From hearing this conversation and speaking briefly with Tim afterword, both beer men seem a little more than excited about the future of Oahu's, and Hawaii as a whole's, future in craft beer. And I've gotta say, I can't help but agree. I'm so glad I landed on Oahu when I did, there are many a beer to be had here and I can't wait to try 'em all.

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Here it is @irreverent-dan, a little different than a beer review but I think there's one in there somewhere.

Thanks for stoppin' by!