Garrett Marrero never set out to build the biggest brewery in Hawaii, but that’s what he did. Maui Brewing Company, the 10-year-old Hawaii-based craft brewery, is the state’s largest. Its production surpasses other Hawaiian brewers four-fold and could push 40,000 barrels by the end of 2015.
How? Well, its recently completed 50-barrel brew house, brewpub and restaurant in Kihei for one. Marrero and company broke ground on the 42,000-square-foot,5.5-acre site in August 2013 and started brewing in October 2014.
Photo credit: Brian Lauer
A view of Maui Brewing Company’s new brewpub.
But the shiny new craft beer palace isn’t the only reason Marrero and Maui Brewing Company are enjoying so much success. To learn that, we have to go back to the beginning and understand what makes Marrero, his team and their brewery so special.
Marrero left his job in the financial services field in 2003 after he realized there was an opportunity to pursue the production of authentic Hawaiian craft beer. He had just discovered that the “local Hawaiian beer,” Kona, wasn’t even made in Hawaii. He set out to fix it.
“I almost kind of needed it spiritually,” Marrero says while in town visiting his good friend Captain Keith at the Addison, Texas, Flying Saucer.
Two years later, in 2005, Maui Brewing Company began brewing. Production reached 320 barrels that year. Not bad. Fast forward to 2007, when he opened a production facility in Lahaina Maui and started canning using an automated system featuring a five-head filler. It could fill 27 cans a minute, generating almost 1,700 barrels that year.
In 2014, Maui Brewing Company closed out close to 21,000 barrels, and its 11,000-square-foot facility just couldn’t accommodate the demand. And not just on the islands. Demand had reached the mainland, from California to Texas.
“Orders would come in and we’d send beer out … and we couldn’t get reorders out because we didn’t have beer!” Marrero says.
But despite the constraints placed on Marrero by brewing on an island (read: finite available space), he was committed to keeping his product bred and brewed in the Aloha State.
Captain Keith, Andrea Smith (Addison Flying Saucer Manager), Maui Brewing Company’s Garrett Marrero
“We’ve always been committed to authentic local production. That’s really important to us. Can’t just be Hawaiian. Can’t just be great beer. It has to be locally produced Hawaiian. There’s a difference,” Marrero says. “There are brands out there that look like something they’re not, and it’s important to us to be authentic. Beer has an amazing sense of pride and a huge sense of integrity, as well. A sense of place. For us to brew elsewhere wouldn’t be doable. My commitment is to always remain independent and always brew in Hawaii.”
The Maui Brewing Company team found and acquired the land they needed in Kehai in South Maui. Brewing began in late October 2014, and the tasting room opened to the public on Christmas Eve, but not without complications.
“Open by Christmas was my goal, and Christmas Eve I was on the phone with state senators and house reps … not to pull strings, but definitely to get people to do their jobs over that week,” Marrero says, smiling. “They were already checking out, if you will, but they came through!”
To say that it has been well received is an understatement and a testament to the dedication of Marrero and his team, which includes his wife. “Going to try and push 40,000 by end of the year, so that will be a really good clip of basically 100 percent growth over last year,” he says.
Marrero estimates they could push out 100,000 to 120,000 barrels if they were to build out and expand to an extra acre of space in the back of the property.
Maui Brewing Company’s impressive new facility and efforts to further craft beer are also steps toward improving the economy of Hawaii. Marrero employs almost 90 locals in sales, sales support, brewery staff, brewpub staff, etc. By the end of 2016, he expects to employ twice that. They source everything they can from Hawaiian manufacturers and farmers. The Maui Brewing Company team is even helping a brand-new Hawaiian brewer set up shop in its old Lahaina brewery in West Maui.
“We want to see beer grow. Bring on a local beer. We want to support you, too. Grain goes to local farmers to grow cattle. In turn, we only sell Maui Cattle Co. beef in our restaurant. It’s great quality, a very nice beef and it’s supporting local agriculture,” Marerro says. “The same with our cans. If you notice our cans are a little wider at the top. They’re about an 1/8 of an inch wider than the mainland cans. Those cans are made by a family in Oahu at Ball Corporation, so we’re supporting that local labor. Even our cardboard for our trays comes from Hawaii. … We could save money by shipping it in, but the right thing to do, we feel, is to spend that extra money. It’s the right way to do business.”
Marrero takes time to personally thank fans for visiting him at the Addison Flying Saucer.
Marrero’s advocacy for craft beer has helped pave the way for fledgling craft brewers, and not just in Hawaii, but the entire United States. He serves on the Government Affairs Committee for the Brewers Association, where he’s a part of the fight to reset the Federal Excise Tax. He’s written legislation that increased and then removed barrel limits for breweries operating under a brewpub license. He’s created an entire new class of license, a Class 18 License, that allows small craft producers (breweries, wineries, distilleries, etc.) to sell their products directly to retail shops and operate tasting rooms (previously, producers could neither sell nor sample their products to the public). This kind of leadership is why Maui Brewing Company is the largest regional brewer.
Marrero’s generosity, humility and sense of camaraderie are key. Should a distribution situation not be a good fit for Maui Brewing Company, he is quick to suggest another local option such as Big Island Brewhouse or Honolulu Beer Works to help ensure visitors are provided an authentic representation of what Hawaii offers. He’s a team player and adamant about assigning his team credit in his venture.
“I’ve got the best team around me that I’ve had ever. Everybody’s ‘drinking the juice,’ if you will. In this case it’s easy to do. We all have a common vision and a common goal,” he says. “I think we’ve created a family that all supports it. It’s all of us together.”
Despite all the success and the continuing upward trajectory, Marrero is insistent on Maui Brewing Company remaining an independent company. There’s no private equity. He and his wife control 80 percent of the company. His mom, Anita Lum, serves as the Mainland Operations Manager (M.O.M.). He doesn’t have to worry about making decisions and getting outvoted. He can continue to do what’s best for the future of Maui Brewing Company, the state of Hawaii and craft beer.
So, what does the future hold for Garrett Marrero and Maui Brewing Company?
Well, for starters, brewpubs will start appearing on other islands in the next several years. He created a joint distribution company along with Stone Brewing, Maui Stone Craft Beverages, which allows for better distribution and the ability to distribute 21 craft brands, many of which Hawaii has never seen before. And remember that Class 18 License? Look for Maui Brewing Company’s push to become more of a craft beverage company. Think all-local, fake-free craft sodas. Think spirits distilled from local high-sugar crops. Think craft brews aged in the barrels used to make those spirits. The possibilities are endless.
Photo credit: Brian Lauer
Maui Brewing Company’s Bikini Blonde Lager in paradise
At the end of the day, however, Garrett Marrero and Maui Brewing Company will do what they do best: brew great, authentic Hawaiian craft beer. And they’ll do it in an amazing new facility, which should be a no-brainer on every Beerknurd’s bucket list of breweries to visit.
Whether it’s the bold, hoppy Big Swell IPA or the Mana Wheat, infused with Maui Gold Pineapples, Marrero and team will continue to do what others didn’t.
“We do the things for the reasons that we do, and it’s not for profit over anything else,” he says. “We brew beer because it’s what we want to do, and it’s who we are.”
