Kona Brewing Co. kegs its 1,000th batch

By Derek Paiva
Advertiser Staff Writer

Tack on another batch and you get the milestone 1,000th batch of Big Island-based Kona Brewing Company beer, recently brewed by the company and set aside for fermenting and maturation on Nov. 20.

A batch of beer, said Kona Brewing Company managing partner Mattson Davis, equals about 25 barrels, 50 kegs or 775 gallons.

That means the company has produced more than 775,000 gallons of suds since opening in 1994.

"That's 6 million pints," Davis said. "Which is pretty cool in itself."

Kona Brewing Company kegged the landmark batch — appropriately enough, a batch of the company's first, and still top-selling brew, Pacific Golden Ale — Thursday, which should place it in bar taps statewide late this week.

The company brews about a dozen types of ales and lagers.

Kona Brewing Company's next milestone will be its one millionth gallon of beer, which Davis expected to roll out of his brewery with much accompanying hoopla sometime next October.

"We're now brewing somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 to 275 batches of beer a year, so I think that's about right," Davis said. "Brewers and breweries are always looking for reasons to party."