Making my first trip back to the Big Island next month. Any good places to find a wide selection of beer to purchase in the Kona area?
If you do a search in this forum for Kona or Big Island, you'll find a lot of recommendations. Most of them are from DCGunman, since he goes there often.
Copy that. Easy search. https://www.beeradvocate.com/community/threads/big-island-of-hawaii.668532/#post-7597962
But seriously, big island is big island, same as always. It depends on which side you are going to. Best beer selection is usually Foodland. Couple wine/beer shop in Hilo and Kona but never been. Kona, BIB, and Ola are go to's. Heard good things about Wailuku but have not been, think they are making mead as well. Again depends on what side of the island you are on. Cheers.
Kona has Kona brew and Ola, been to both, recommended, Ola known more for seltzers but good beers, Kona is a must. Go to foodland for beer and poke. ABC is way overpriced so i never go. BIB is worth it just to go to Waimea which is one of the most amazing places in the entire state in my opinion, also original merrimans and fish and the hog for amazing food. if you go take the road up through the cloud forest for the scenery. if you have time go to Kohala area north of waimea, drive and views are amazing. Cowboy country. Also a ton of coffee farms outside of kona, some are more touristy but plenty are mom and pop places. Mauka Meadows is one of the coolest places ever. I would stick to that area of the island and don't try to do to much. It's called big island for a reason so the drives can be much longer than it looks. Have fun. Be Pono. Cheers.
I’ll second BIB, Kona (more for their pizza and one off beers) and Ola. Looks like BIB has cans know. That’s new to me. They use to have bombers and specials when you ordered online to go. In Waimea there’s Hawaiian Style Cafe (closes at 1 or 130pm). Some of the best Hawaiian plates on the island and cheap with great portions. There’s also one in Hilo. In between BIB and HSC is Sandwich Isle Bread Company with some of the finest fresh bread and other goodies. You can find their fresh bread at Kona Wine Mart every Friday around noon. Yes they deliver to the mart from their main store but get there at noon. They sell out very quick. Kona Wine Mart has a good selection of beers. Nearby KWM is Costco. We buy our pineapples there ($4ea) to bring back to the mainland. The best juiciest pineapples. If you buy at the airport it’ll cost you $35-40 for 3 pineapples. Rip off. Find a box at Costco for your pineapples, but don’t seal the box until after inspection at the airport. You’ll thank me later. That’s if your into pineapples. lol. Like @PatKorn said it’s a big island. Of the dozen plus times on the island we drove around it once. Never again. It’s an all day and I mean all day trip. We almost always stay on the Hilo side so we hit Kona and Waimea after we land and pick up our rental. We hit Costco and all the above mentioned before going to Hilo. Going to Hilo? Take Volcano Hwy. 1 1/2 hour drive. The best farmers market on the island is in Hilo. Cheap and fresh fruits and vegetables. Have fun. I need to get back there soon. Our last time there was 2022.
Thanks for the great input PatKorn & dcgunman. I plan on doing Saddle Road which I believe is the Volcano Hwy. PatKorn, any mom & pop coffee farms you can recommend?
The 2 dudes have the beer covered. I’ll add Humpy’s Ale House in Kona. Are you doing Saddle Road to do it or is it to get to Hilo? If it’s to get to Hilo & coffee is your jam, I’ll recommend going south, the LONG way. Still a great drive. It’s Hawaii. See pic. Kona, Saddle Road, Hilo highlighted. A ton of great coffee places south. picture sharing
I have no idea how it compares to other shops on the Big Island, but we found a good selection of beers at Kona Wine Market just on the edge of town.
Looks like a trip to the Big Island is in the works. Planning in less than 2 weeks for 3 nights. It’s been 2 years since our last visit. Need our BI fix. To be continued…
Agree with DC about Hilo farmers market, some days more farmers there than others, but always find great stuff there, and that area of hilo has shops and restaurants that are cool. If you are going Hilo highly recommend Hawaii tropical botanical garden about 15 minutes from the airport. Amazing place. Coffee places I like are Mountain Thunder, greenwell, mauka meadows(super cool place). The mom and pops I have been to i cannot remember names, they usually just have sign up if they happen to be open that day and sell what they have until they run out or decide to close. Along the main road up in the cloud forest there are a ton of places. Cheers.
I have seen BIB cans for a couple years on Oahu (Safeway, etc.). I second buying your pineapples at Costco. Also, you can get Honolulu Cookies and other chocolates at Costco. Good for friends and family!
If you do check out Hilo for a day, I’d recommend Pineapples or Hawaiian Style Cafe for lunch or dinner. Pineapples has a full bar with some good local beer selections. HSC only has Kona bottles. If you’re looking for fresh poke, KTX stores throughout the island. Oh and there’s a Ola Brewing in Hilo.
Our last visit back in April of 2022 BIB only had bombers so they must of changed over soon after. They had a great deal on 12 bombers for $64.
I was going to do Saddle Road because I've heard it's a fantastic drive. I've been to Hilo last year and can recommend the Poke bowls from Suisan Fish Market.
Sadly, the last day of my 5 night trip to Kona on the Big Island is ticking away. Big Island Brewhaus probably has the best beer on the island, followed by Ole. Kona Brewing only had one beer on their Backyard Batch, I think they usually have about 3. I was the Lokahi Pilsner by Kohola from Lahaina. Kona is contract brewing it and some of their other beers since their brewery in Lahaina burned down in the Maui fires. Waimea and the surrounding area is beautiful and worth the drive from Kona or Hilo. Hit the Sandwich Isle Bread Co for some treats which were amazing. Didn't try any of their breads but they looked real good. Staying in a hotel limits what you can buy. Foodland is the bomb for poke, really tasty and cheap, I wish Kona had one. I drove 250 north out of Waimea to the Popolu Valley Overlook. The drive and views were amazing. Is that the area you were talking about @PatKorn (Kohala area north of waimea)? Also, where is the cloud forest? Couple of observations I'll add to the conversation. SUSHI COCORO & UDON NOODLE (it's one place, not sure why it's all in caps), is a hole in the wall Sushi place in a back alley off of the heavily tourist-ed All'i Dr. Had the poke bowl last night and it was great, going there tonight to try their sushi. They are only open a couple hours for lunch and a couple hours for dinner. Puna Chocolate which is right down the stairs from Kona Brewing (the stairs by the hostess desk), is a great coffee, chocolate & cocktail place. Humpy's was solid for dinner and beer selection. They are under new ownership, not sure if that's for the better worse. The beer list they had on the tables was dated from a month ago and the bartender said the online list was completely wrong. I just had to tell her what I wanted from the list but they mostly had what I tried to order. Maybe they're cleaning up the mess from the previous owner or maybe they are creating a new mess, not sure. Other than that the experience was very positive. Got a tip from the guy working at the Hawaiian Macadamia Nut Company. He said to check out the Punalu'u Bake Shop in Naalehu for their Malasadas, breads and sandwiches. I did not get a chance to do that, but maybe on my next trip to the Big Island...
I was on the Big Island for three days, but only made it to BIB (was going to hit Ola's prior to heading off to Oahu, but it wasn't meant to be). BIB didn't disappoint and the food actually seemed to be better. I had their Red Sea of Cacao (probably my favorite) and my first Odin's Sword (baltic porter) - good, but I was expecting a little more...
