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.

August 21, 2009
Visited the Kona brewpub while on vacation in Hawaii as a part of a day trip off of a 10 day Hawaiian cruise. The ambiance was great, though locals might say somewhat touristy. A lot of the tour was outside, there are goofy surfing things all over, a big canoe outside, and other fun things. The service was fine - the tour was great and the waiter was attentive and knowledgeable about the beers. The selection was alright - basically just their beers and a few others, but I was only interested in theirs anyway. The food my group had was really good. I had some pizza made with spent grains that knocked me over - really good stuff. The value was average - beers were typically priced and the food was a touuuuch on the high side, but nothing ridiculous. Overall, this was a really fun place and a must-visit for beer dudes visiting Hawaii!

February 22, 2009
Beers are great. I truly love the castaway IPA that they only serve in their pubs, but the service and atmosphere in this establishment was really poor. I went on the brewery tour, and as a homebrewer maybe I expect too much, but they had some newly appointed waiter who was not a brewer giving the tour. He could not answer questions, and knew nothing more about brewing than what was on the pamphlet they gave us. The location of the brewery is the pits too. Of all the beautiful places in and around Kona, they stuck the brewery in an industrial area, and have done little to hide the industrial area with trees or plants.

April 1, 2008 [ Updated September 7, 2008 ]
Stayed a week on the big island during honeymoon and went here 5 times. It is suposed to have the best pizza on the island but did not think it was that great being from Chicago. However, the sandwiches and appetizers were good. The hummas platter was awesome as it comes loaded with pita bread, olices, feta cheese and other veggies. Great patio and bar but place is always packed. Thought their beer was good. Really like the blacksand porter, Fire Rock Pale Ale and Cast Away IPA. Cool place and by far the best I found on islands.

August 23, 2007
Good food, good portions, good service and a nice selection of beers. I enjoyed it. The only ’gotcha’ was that you do Not enter on Kuakini Hwy, but the street behind (and parallel to it) Pawai

August 11, 2007 [ Updated September 29, 2008 ]
Good food and a good selection of their beers in the brewpub. Pipeline porter was my favorite. The humus app was great and their pizzas are very good as well. The cocnut ice cream was the best part, with porter. Great stop while on vacation.