Archive record · Brewery
Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co.
Honolulu, Hawaii, Hawaii, USA
- Founded
- 1898
- Closed
- Year unknown
- Archive ID
- TB-QWRV1PYK
- Last checked
- Not yet checked
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From the record
Summary
Founded in 1898 as Honolulu Brewing Co.; historical sources document Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co. In operation by 1906 and the Royal Brewery building designed in 1899. Primo production stopped during Prohibition and later resumed under a successor/renamed company. Prior Gemini close year 1933 was not defensible.
A summary written during research. The sourced facts are in the sections below.
Tally’s Take
Founded in 1898 as the Honolulu Brewing Co., with historical sources documenting Honolulu Brewing & Malting in operation by 1906 and the Royal Brewery building designed in 1899. It made Primo — Hawaii's own beer — until Prohibition stopped production, after which brewing resumed under a successor company. One detail in this record is worth more than the rest: a previously recorded closing year of 1933, generated by Gemini, was found not to be defensible and was removed. That is an archive declining to inherit an AI-supplied date, which is rarer than it should be.
The Museum
Timeline
- 1898Founded as Honolulu Brewing Co.
Maker of Primo.
- 1899Royal Brewery building designed
The plant that outlasts the company.
- 1906Honolulu Brewing & Malting in operation
Documented by historical sources.
The Beer Library
Beers
Primo Export Beer
Year-RoundMunich Helles
(REJECTED_EXCLUDE_FROM_IMPORT) [USA Pass 21]
Drank this? Add it to your passport →Surviving objects
1 object catalogued here so far, held by Loewenhardt private collection (1977). That is what the archive has recorded, not the extent of what the holder keeps — follow each link for the institution's own finding aid or catalogue. The archive links to each record rather than reproducing its photograph; the images belong to the holding institution and are licensed object by object.
- HI-OBJ-004documented 1977; object dates earlier
beer bottles / private collection evidence
Show your working
Sources
- recordProbable
Brewery record taken from Tally's Hawaii master, Pass 17, which cited https://historichawaii.org/historic-property-oa/the-royal-brewery/ for this entry. The cited page has not been opened by the archive.
Tally's Hawaii master, Pass 17 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026
CommercialMedium reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-19Claim last checked 2026-08-19 - historyProbable
Dated evidence as recorded in the source pass: 1898, 1899, 1906.
Tally's Hawaii master, Pass 17 (research workbook) · Tally's Beer Universe research workbook · 2026
CommercialMedium reliabilitySource accessed 2026-08-19Claim last checked 2026-08-19
Only the claims above are sourced. Everything else on this page is the archive's own research and has not yet been tied to a document — which is worth knowing rather than hiding.
Straight answers
Common questions about Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co.
- Is Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co. still open?
- No. Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co. has closed. The archive has not established the year it stopped. Founded in 1898 as Honolulu Brewing Co.; historical sources document Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co. In operation by 1906 and the Royal Brewery building designed in 1899. Primo production stopped during Prohibition and later resumed under a successor/renamed company. Prior Gemini close year 1933 was not defensible.
- When was Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co. founded?
- Honolulu Brewing & Malting Co. was founded in 1898 in Honolulu, Hawaii, USA.
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