SAN DIEGO — California’s craft breweries are uniting to support Maui wildfire victims.
Canning days are always exciting for everyone at Seek Beer Company, but owner Dave Ohmer said there’s something more beautiful about beer that tastes good and helps a community.
He created his version of the Kokua Relief Beer, a collaborative beer created by Maui Brewing Company to support victims of the devastating Maui wildfires.
“That’s always been one of the great things about the craft beer industry,” Ohmer said. “We all work together, help each other out.”
The idea of the Kokua Project is for each participating brewery to brew the same Session IPA from a recipe provided by Maui Brewing Company.
Hundreds of other breweries across California and the United States are now brewing and selling the beer, donating most of the money to Maui Brewing Fire Fund and other nonprofits who will help victims rebuild.
“For all of us to do something together, you know, we all have roughly the same beer here, roughly the same artwork and you know it branches across all the breweries that we’ve all done something together that is going to really help some people,” Ohmer said.
James Newman is the creative force behind the recipe. He’s the head Brewer at Maui Brewing Company and said when he created this session IPA recipe, he tried to capture the essence of his community.
“It’s been emotional, but the community coming together is really awesome to see,” Newman said. “Kokua means to extend help or offer help to others. Like sacrificial help without expecting anything in return.”
Newman said their tasting room became a drop off point for supplies and donations to help when the fires first broke out. He hopes his recipe will be able to generate funds for long-term relief to help the community come back stronger. He is touched that hundreds of breweries across America are using his recipe to help his island.
“It was kind of a no-brainer. What can we do to help? What are our skill sets and what’s the easiest way for us to contribute,” he said. “I never thought when I started 10 years ago that beer would be able to do something like this. It’s really cool.”
Ohmer said so far they have raised about $750 from their small back of Kokua and he hopes it can make a difference in Maui lives.
“We didn’t have to step out of our box and do something that we’re not great at or something totally different for us that might not turn out as good,” he said. “No, we make beer. All of us brewers do and we’ll just do that and use that tool to help benefit the people affected.”
Ohmer said a lot of their suppliers donated materials like yeast or hops to help lower the cost of production and allow them to donate even more money.