March 23, 2012
Had my wife and her family walk what seemed like three miles to get to this place...for me, it was well worth it. Probably can’t say the same for them! Just got some samples of what they had available. Nothing too aggressive or unique but all really polished. Beautiful location set in a tropical paradise. Playful and relaxed atmosphere. Wish we were at a hotel close...could have lived here during the trip!

January 13, 2012
This place is pretty awesome. I enjoyed trying all the brews here especially the Imperial Coffee stout. The service is pretty awesome and the food is utterly amazing. Overall, a really great place for a few brews.

July 7, 2011
(Visited 12/2010): Visited Kona during a stop on the big island on our cruise vacation. We walked to the brewpub from one of the stops on a bus tour. Kona is located at the crossroads of Kuakini Highway and Palani Rd. Parking looked to be ample around the facility. Kona’s atmosphere both inside and out is about all you could want in a Hawaiian brewpub. From the gigantic tank in the outdoor waiting area, gift booth, patio, and restaurant inside it is all welcoming and beer-centric. They also offer regular tours as long as you sign up in time at the host stand. The tour is informative and ends with samples. The color scheme inside can best be described as mustard ’n’ Tang and there are surfboards and fans. The beer selection at Kona is solid, from standard offerings to brewpub-exclusive beers. Some of the brews on tap when we visited included Bourbon Barrel Aged Black Sand Porter, Da Grind Buzz Kona Coffee Imperial Stout, Small Kine Bitter, Big Island Ginger Beer and Old Blowhole Barley Wine. All of Kona’s beers are well-made. They also sell bottles like the Oceanic Organic Ale. Service all around, from the hostess to the gift shop guy to the tour guide to the servers is very good. Food at Kona is good as well. My wife and I both enjoyed our dishes. Overall I would highly recommend anyone visiting the Big Island to find a way to visit this brewpub. It is a paradise within a paradise.

July 19, 2010
First off, the beer here is SO much better than their bottled stuff on the mainland. And they have so many more varieties! The whole setup is very tropical and beautiful, and their efforts to "go green" are impressive. The food is very good and they use their own beer in many of their recipes. The brewery tour was fun and informative, but i would have like a few more samples at the end. (wouldn’t we all?!) On the downside, the service was pretty bad. We were basically ignored once it became clear we were not ordering a full meal that day or lots of beer. It was a bit of a turnoff.

June 26, 2010
I love this place- very good beer, top notch pizzas, outdoor patio with a beer garden atmosphere. The only way it could be better is if it had an ocean view. The value is good for Hawaii where everything tends to be expensive, but seems expensive compared to mainland prices.

March 12, 2010
best restaurant on the big island. great atmosphere. it was a very nice surprise when we weren’t expecting superior bars/restaurants.

February 19, 2010
I mean this is located in Hawaii, near the water, how can the ambiance not be great? Also points for the ’small’ feel to it, and I liked the wood decor. Service was great, scheduled us for a tour later in the day, waiters, bartenders and tour guides were friendly, courteous and knowledgeable. Selection was awesome, 14 taps going with 4 specials that change regularly. The tap-only selections were outstanding. Food was decent. Everyone enjoyed their meal. Sandwich / burger type fare mainly. Value - well we are talking Hawaii here, no more expensive then anywhere else. Great place to visit, highly recommended.

December 8, 2009
Located in one of Hawaii’s few urban sprawls, you don’t come here for the outdoor ambiance. It’s nice, if not cheesy inside. The servers are friendly but not particularly knowledgable about their product.

They had a ton of beers on when I went, I believe 13, most of which are not bottled. Not a bad beer in the bunch, but at the same time not anything great, which made the experience a little boring. They had a wide range of American styles, from the standard brewpub fare all the way through coconut brown (the highlight), irish stout (not on nitro, sadly), and a bourbon barrel aged barleywine which was right on target. For the whole month of december they are releasing BBA beers, although a BBA amber ale does not sound particularly appealing..

The food sucked, and the place closes rather early, like everything in Hawaii. Flights are very pricey at $16/4x4oz, and the BBA barleywine was not available in the samplers so I was stuck with a $7 12oz 13% nightcap after 12x4oz samples. Damn.

November 29, 2009
This place was hard to fine after I forgot my map and the brewery address back at the hotel. I thought I’ll just ask the locals and they’ll point it out to me. They all said the same thing "Do you know where Firestone is?" Eventually found this dead end street in the industrial area. The wife did not want to wait for the tour, so it was right into the bar and getting the beer sampler tray plus acouple more. Sat at the nice little bar they have. Atmosphere was good, place decent. The beer was great. Warning - After drinking alot of beer and just wanting a Pipeline porter T-shirt, the pretty girl at the souvenir stand talked me into also buying a $9 bottle opener and a Kona glass I was not counting on.

September 20, 2009
Visited 3 times in 4 days on my vacation to the Big Island in Hawaii. On the whole, I like this palce - great beer selection, a few of them are excellent, and the food is above average. Their non-bottled offerings are far better than the bottled ones, which doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. Atmosphere is atrocious on the busier nights of the week - it feels like a fraternity party with the noisey people, loud music, and employees (including cooks) singing aloud to the music. There’s no room to sit, or even to order a pint at the pub while standing, and the wait commonly exceeds an hour. During quieter times I found the service to be about average, and the other features tend to stick out - this place is hard to find on your first visit, especially with regard to the parking. Once you figure out the warehouse-like back road entry it isn’t too bad, but it gives off a very "locals only" feel from the start. Given the paucity of beer selection in Hawaii this place is a must, but in any other context I can’t see it doing well with the location & atmosphere. It doesn’t help that their better beers are the rotating seasonals that aren’t bottled. Their chocolate stout and oceanic organic wheat simply eclipse their pale ale, but yet they bottle the pale ale and it doesn’t seem to do so well.