As Maui residents are still rummaging through the rubble of the wildfires that incinerated the town of Lahaina in August, the scene is an all too familiar visage, just in a place no one expected. After all, Hawaii is a lush paradise. So how is the community of craft brewers responding? Just like they did when there was a devastating blaze that leveled Paradise, California five years ago.
Back in 2018, the large, beloved brewery near that town of Paradise, Sierra Nevada Brewing Co., organized the industry's largest fundraising campaign ever, creating a beer called Resilience IPA. Some 1,400 craft breweries from coast to coast brewed Resilience and raised over $8 million for the Camp Fire Relief fund. Today, roughly half as many breweries, more than 700 from nearly every state (plus a handful of countries), are tapping Kkua Project, a session-strength IPA, created and organized by the large, beloved Maui Brewing Co.
Maui Brewing describes its initiative as, "One beer, brewed by many, to support our Maui 'Ohana' who have been affected by this tragedy," with the brewing company's founder and CEO, Garret Marrero, saying, "Before, Kkua beer was unique to Maui Brewing Co. This time it'll be open worldwide." It's worth noting that two Lahaina-based breweries perished in the fire: Kohol Brewery and the Waikiki Brewing's Lahaina-based brewery.
The beer is a session-strength (meaning lower than usual alcohol by volume, in this case 4.5% ABV) IPA with hop varietals that truly convey pineapple flavor. Nearly two dozen Oregon breweries are participating in the Kkua Project, including six from Central Oregon: Bend Brewing, Cascade Lakes Brewing, Crux Fermentation Project, Deschutes Brewery, Oblivion Brewing and 10 Barrel Brewing. Other notable Oregon participants include pFriem Family Brewers, Fort George Brewery, and, although it's been sold and will close the brick'n'mortar brewery soon, Portland's Ecliptic Brewing.
Cascade Lakes put Kkua session IPA on tap at all three of its area pubs and already donated the proceeds—$1,000—to the initiative's beneficiary, the Global Empowerment Mission. Crux brewer Grant McFarren said the brewery, "fast tracked the brew day so we could get the beer on tap while the need was still fresh in people's minds." Crux's marketing director, Ashley Picerno, added that they are estimating being able to cut a check for $1,200 to the fund with the beer currently on tap in Bend as well as its Portland pub.
The craft beer industry has virtually always doubled as the craft beer community, with fundraising projects built around communal brews ever since the Resilience Project — including the Black is Beautiful campaign created by Black-owned brewery Weathered Souls in Houston. That initial campaign, created in the wake of the highly visible killings of people including George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, resulted in a stout recipe, communally brewed, that raised some $6 million for organizations like the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund. The Black is Beautiful campaign was followed up with a collaborative hazy IPA version earlier this year. On a more local level, 17 Oregon brewers united to brew various beers all named Cheers to the Land — not conceived to promote social justice nor to fundraise for disaster relief — but with Oregon Agricultural Trust as the beneficiary, as a measure to raise funds and awareness for environmental purposes.
Anyone wishing to make a financial donation to the Maui Brewing Fire Fund, beyond ordering pints of Kkua, can contribute at MauiBrewingCo.com/mbcfire.
