Born and raised along the rugged Oregon coast, Steve carries a coastal sensibility that has traveled thousands of miles south to Kona, where he now serves as the Master Brewer at Kohanaiki. Spanning 450 oceanfront acres, the private residential community is rooted in a deep connection to land, water, and the people who gather there, making it an ideal setting for a brewer whose work is as personal as it is precise. 

Balzer is a one-man brewing operation, crafting small-batch beers tailored to the tastes of Kohanaiki’s members and the moments they celebrate. From casual afternoons to milestone events, his beers are built with intention, flexibility, and a deep understanding of his audience. What began as a college pastime has evolved into a full-fledged calling where Balzer blends technical skill with creativity.

When did your interest in brewing beer first begin?
I had a friend in college who had started homebrewing, and he convinced me to help him one day. It sparked an interest in me. I lived in Eugene, Oregon, and would brew beer here and there, but the problem was that I did not have much space in my apartment, so brewing was a rare hobby. Once I moved to Portland in 2010, and I had a garage and more space, I started homebrewing a lot. After graduating from college, I found my passion in brewing and thought I would make my career out of it. 

Turning a hobby into a career is a feat that few can attain. How did you turn your hobby of making beer at home into a profession?
After graduating from the University of Oregon, I attended brewing school at the Siebel Institute of Technology, graduating in 2013. After that, I got a job at a brewery in Portland, starting as a keg washer and working my way up to their head brewer. Then I had the opportunity to start a brewery in Portland and worked on it for about two years. I was still looking for jobs when an opportunity came up in Hawai‘i at the Big Island Brewhaus in Waimea. I would come here once a year, and I really liked their beers. Their brewer was from Oregon, and I met him a couple of times. I decided to apply out of the blue, and after a few phone interviews, they offered me a job. I accepted the job, and six weeks later, my family and I moved to Hawai‘i. 

What are some unique challenges of brewing beer in Hawai‘i? 
The logistics are number one — there is a big part of my budget that is just shipping costs. Aside from fruit or things like hibiscus, the main ingredients of beer, barley, hops, and yeast, all come from the mainland or other countries. Shipping costs were something I had to get used to.

What do your day-to-day tasks as the Master Brewer of Kohanaiki look like? For normal operations, you would have your brew master and a crew of a brewer, cellarman, keg washer, and so on. Here, it is just me. So, I am bouncing around quite a bit —whether I am writing recipes, coming up with new stuff, figuring out what ingredients are available, or forecasting for events. For example, if there is a golf tournament, I want to make sure I have enough beer. As a department of one, I am the keg washer, cellarman, brewer, budget person, and tour guide. For me, every day is a little different, which is nice. 

How much beer are you producing in a year?
Last year, we put out 93 barrels of beer. The brewing space itself is only about 625 square feet, and I have a taproom on the other side of the brewery, which is about 500 square feet. When I first started working at Kohanaiki in 2020, the person before me did 12 barrels of beer that year, so we have grown over 600% in the last five years. 

What types of beer are you creating? 
We have three flagship beers. One is a Japanese-style lager, which is our best seller. Since it is about 85 degrees here and the golf course is the focal point of our community, something like that lager — easy-drinking, light and refreshing — does well with our members. We also brew ales like IPAs and something called Island Ale, a cross between a pale ale and a golden ale, with lots of hop character but not the bitterness associated with it, and nice tropical liliko‘i (passionfruit) flavors. We also create Belgian, farmhouse ale and dark beers occasionally, and I always like to have a sour beer on tap.

How do local flavors or ingredients play a role in your brewing?
When I create sours, I like to incorporate things like dragon fruit, different citrus or hibiscus. It is nice to have some beers with local fruits. The great thing about Hawai‘i is that there is good produce year-round, and while something like soursop might not be in season now, there will be other produce that is ripe for anything you want to make. We also use a local company that partners with a bunch of farms from across the island. I can see everything that they have available and place an order. For example, I have a Beer 101 class coming up for members, and I can use fruit from different farms to show them how to use fruit in beer making. 

What beers do you personally enjoy drinking?
I think that there is a time and place for every beer, and it really depends on the environment that I am in, who I am with or what I am doing. My go-to beer is Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, since it is the beer that got me into brewing. A Trumer Pils beer is my stuck-on-an-island forever beer, and if I had to drink one beer for the rest of my life, it would be that. 

If you had to describe your brewing style in a few words, what would they be? 
Balanced with nuance. If I am making an IPA with stone-fruit flavors, I am not going straight for stone fruit; I want some nuance. Same with ginger beer: I do not want it to be over-the-top with ginger. Drinkability is important with what I create. One of the best things about Kohanaiki is the freedom to create. 

What is a unique experience that has happened during your brewing career?
A couple of brewers from Big Island Brewhaus in Waimea and Lanikai [Brewing Company] on O‘ahu, and I, brewed and fermented beer on Mauna Kea. It was a cool experience to go up to Mauna Kea, set up shop, let the beer spontaneously ferment, and then bring it back down to the brewery before putting it in a tank. That is how old-school beer was made. We fermented the beer out, and it tasted like eucalyptus. 

If you could share a beer with someone, who would that be?
There are so many people who come to mind, but I think of my grandfather, who passed away when I was just sixteen years old. I still have his glassware that he used to drink beer from, and it’s now up in my cupboard. I have a beer out of that glass on the same day he passed away, and it would be nice to have a beer with him since I never got to do that. 

What would you do on your perfect day off from work? 
I would probably be at an outdoor concert, in the sun, drinking beer, and listening to live music. 

From a college curiosity to a career defined by craft, creativity, and care, Steve Balzer’s journey reflects the rare intersections of passion and place. As Kohanaiki’s Master Brewer, he brings balance and nuance into every batch, creating beers as thoughtful as the community they serve. In a place defined by land, ocean, and connection, Balzer has found a way to turn passion into purpose, one pour at a time. 

kohanaiki.com