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happening. But, I also don’t want be the old man shaking his fist at kids speeding through the neighborhood either. I think innovation is awesome. The things that we’re doing in the brewery right now, especially since we just bought a one-barrel pilot system, is geeking out on all kinds of stuff. We’re pushing limits, but we’re doing it in a way that we believe is at least paying tribute to the essence of craft beer and to the styles that we are brewing. We may be heavily tweaking recipes and ingredients, but ultimately, we’re just brewing beer and having fun. There’s no glitter involved and certainly none in our beers. We also don’t use any fruit extracts. That’s an important thing to us. I mean, we brew with fruit; with such a plethora of fruit available in Hawaii, we should be supporting the local agriculture rather than buying a jug of POG extract.
HBG: It looks like your goal is to increase transparency in production and we appreciate that. There’s a rum distillery out of Barbados called Foursquare Distillery and their master distiller, Richard Seale, is pushing open transparency because in rum, it is common to back sweeten with sugar.
Mr. Seale, like ourselves, believe that if people like something, that’s their prerogative; but, they shouldn’t be duped into thinking a product is something it’s not.
GM: Yeah. That’s why I’ve never say, “Don’t buy Kona.” I say, “Buy what you like, but don’t buy it for the wrong reasons.” Don’t buy it because you think you’re supporting a local business down the street. If you want to do that, there are several other breweries (especially now) that you can choose from. Buy it for the right reasons. If you like it, you like it. Great. There’s nothing wrong with that. Buy what drink you like; that is why there is such a wide variety of selection. But when it come to why you buy it, that’s different. A lot of people really believe in independence, local, authenticity, integrity, sustainability, or “one percent for the planet.” Whatever the marketing behind a product may be, so as long as it is true, that’s what matters. If the customer wants to support a cause, they are going to drink that product because it’s aligned with their belief system. But the moment someone finds out the product is falsely aligned with their belief system,
not only have you disenchanted that person, you’ve actually deceived them in a way that will cause them to never drink your product again. So, you owe respect and integrity to the people who are supporting your brand. A good friend of mine, Dan Kopman, the CEO over at Heavy Seas in Maryland says (I may misquote him) something along the lines of, “the real brand owners are the customers. We are just the stewards of the brand.” We created something that means something and we have to continue to stand by that. Our brand, at this point, is really in the hands of the people of Hawaii, and we have to make good on the promises that we’ve made about who we are. I think that’s really important. It’s why we’ve pushed so hard and spent more than $10 million to get to a point of grid-independence. It’s the right thing to do; it’s what people expect of us. It’s good for the company, no doubt, especially for the long-term, but imagine making 60,000 barrels of beer, all of these spirits, canned cocktails, and coffee with zero-grid energy. No fossil fuel. That is unparalleled in the industry, and I think that’s who we want to be. n