West Virginia Beer Roads

West Virginia Beer Roads

By Charles Bockway & Erin McCoySociety & CultureBusinessArtsPlaces & TravelFood
Download on the App Store

West Virginia Beer Roads episodes

  • Bullock Distillery project in Charleston enters final build-out phase

    Charleston will soon have a second distillery operating inside city limits. The Bullock Distillery, a project led by father and son team John and Tighe Bullock, looks forward to beginning distilling in early 2020. It promises be a place that… Continue Reading…

    The post Bullock Distillery project in Charleston enters final build-out phase appeared first on BrilliantStream.

    23 min
  • Wooden Robot and Weathered Ground brew collaboration farmhouse IPAs

    Sam Fonda of Weathered Ground Brewery is developing a nice little reputation for brewing collaborations with top-flight North Carolina breweries. The latest bi-location brew days were conducted at Charlotte’s Wooden Robot Brewery and then at Weathered Ground in Cool Ridge.… Continue Reading…

    The post Wooden Robot and Weathered Ground brew collaboration farmhouse IPAs appeared first on BrilliantStream.

    20 min
  • Short Story Brewing adding Maryland taproom

    Short Story Brewing Company hopes to open its new Maryland taproom by the end of the year, says Aaron Rote, brewery cofounder. In many respects the taproom will be similar the brewery’s current taproom in Rivesville. Located at McHenry, MD… Continue Reading…

    The post Short Story Brewing adding Maryland taproom appeared first on BrilliantStream.

    20 min
  • Sam Fonda has plans for year three

    Weathered Ground Brewery celebrated its second anniversary last weekend with a festive event on the brewery grounds in Cool Ridge, WV. Brilliant Stream took that opportunity to sit down with co-owner/head brewer Sam Fonda, Jr. and take a little look… Continue Reading…

    The post Sam Fonda has plans for year three appeared first on BrilliantStream.

    0 min
  • Canning day at Big Timber Brewing Company
    Visiting on a canning day at Big Timber Brewing Company in Elkins, WV, is an adventure even for an experienced brewery visitor.  Watching up-close as the amazing elixir moves from the big steel tank to fill all the little aluminum containers is a thrill. 
    When a small brewery commits to packaging its beer in cans, it requires a lot of equipment and a lot of labor. The whole brewing team gets involved. It’s a pretty choreographed process. Cans are loaded into the mechanism where they proceed one-by-one down the line. Cans are filled with beer, lids applied and sealed, cans rinsed, and finally grouped into four-packs with a plastic carrier.
    From this brewery’s inception, head brewer and brewery president Matt Kwasniewski always knew he wanted to put Big Timber beer in cans. Big Timber has now been canning for a couple of years.
    Kwasniewski provided these details about his canning process.
    “We can about two days a week. It’s a 30 can-per-minute line, but because we do 16 oz cans we net about 26 cans per minute.  We do almost 25 barrels a run. Right now, we can two varieties — our IPA and our Porter. We’ll add a third variety when we get into our new facility. That will be Logger Lager cans.”
    Canning a natural thing for Big Timber
    Kwasniewski thinks canning fits well with the Elkins area’s outdoor recreation culture. Compared to glass bottles, he says cans have several advantages.
    “As far as portability, it’s hard to beat a can. It’s less material for more product. Glass is hard to get rid of. It’s heavy. You’ve got to ship it in here and that’s expensive. So aluminum made sense. It’s easy to recycle, it’s light; it stores beer well.”
    Kwasniewski chose the 16 oz can over the 12 oz one for a couple of reasons.
    “You can hold it at the top and the beer stays cold at the bottom,” he says with a smile.
    It also likes that it gives a bigger billboard in shelf sets.
    “That’s a big thing,” he said.
    He explained that with all the craft beer in the market today, it is hard to get more than one shelf facing of a particular package. The 16 oz can is about 33% taller than the more common 12 oz can, making it stand out and giving more visibility to the product.
    New can labels: Bark out, treetops in
    Also on the visibility front, Big Timber has been redesigning the look of its can labels. Kwasniewski thought his original tree-bark imagery looked nice, but from a distance, it was confusing and too hard to read.  So the brewery is moving to a cleaner, more simple, bold typeface and new art that removes the bark and adds mountains and a tree line.
    “The whole idea is that in your hand we want it to be interesting and intricate, but on a shelf it will be bold and stand out.”



    They are still working on the artistic transition. The original bark-background can is pictured above on left. The current IPA can, shown in center above, is an intermediary step and will transition to a look more like their new Porter can. The bark background gives way to a line of treetops and mountains.
    “We wanted a transition where the customer wouldn’t have to think twice,” he said.
    Big Timber to add centrifuge
    When Big Timber’s new facility becomes operational later this summer, the brewery will add a centrifuge to its production line. Kwasniewski believes the centrifuge will help them add even more quality to the beer.
    “We filter our IPA for shelf stability and consistency,
    0 min
  • Canning day at Big Timber Brewing Company
    Visiting on a canning day at Big Timber Brewing Company in Elkins, WV, is an adventure even for an experienced brewery visitor.  Watching up-close as the amazing elixir moves from the big steel tank to fill all the little aluminum containers is a thrill. 
    When a small brewery commits to packaging its beer in cans, it requires a lot of equipment and a lot of labor. The whole brewing team gets involved. It’s a pretty choreographed process. Cans are loaded into the mechanism where they proceed one-by-one down the line. Cans are filled with beer, lids applied and sealed, cans rinsed, and finally grouped into four-packs with a plastic carrier.
    From this brewery’s inception, head brewer and brewery president Matt Kwasniewski always knew he wanted to put Big Timber beer in cans. Big Timber has now been canning for a couple of years.
    Kwasniewski provided these details about his canning process.
    “We can about two days a week. It’s a 30 can-per-minute line, but because we do 16 oz cans we net about 26 cans per minute.  We do almost 25 barrels a run. Right now, we can two varieties — our IPA and our Porter. We’ll add a third variety when we get into our new facility. That will be Logger Lager cans.”
    Canning a natural thing for Big Timber
    Kwasniewski thinks canning fits well with the Elkins area’s outdoor recreation culture. Compared to glass bottles, he says cans have several advantages.
    “As far as portability, it’s hard to beat a can. It’s less material for more product. Glass is hard to get rid of. It’s heavy. You’ve got to ship it in here and that’s expensive. So aluminum made sense. It’s easy to recycle, it’s light; it stores beer well.”
    Kwasniewski chose the 16 oz can over the 12 oz one for a couple of reasons.
    “You can hold it at the top and the beer stays cold at the bottom,” he says with a smile.
    It also likes that it gives a bigger billboard in shelf sets.
    “That’s a big thing,” he said.
    He explained that with all the craft beer in the market today, it is hard to get more than one shelf facing of a particular package. The 16 oz can is about 33% taller than the more common 12 oz can, making it stand out and giving more visibility to the product.
    New can labels: Bark out, treetops in
    Also on the visibility front, Big Timber has been redesigning the look of its can labels. Kwasniewski thought his original tree-bark imagery looked nice, but from a distance, it was confusing and too hard to read.  So the brewery is moving to a cleaner, more simple, bold typeface and new art that removes the bark and adds mountains and a tree line.
    “The whole idea is that in your hand we want it to be interesting and intricate, but on a shelf it will be bold and stand out.”



    They are still working on the artistic transition. The original bark-background can is pictured above on left. The current IPA can, shown in center above, is an intermediary step and will transition to a look more like their new Porter can. The bark background gives way to a line of treetops and mountains.
    “We wanted a transition where the customer wouldn’t have to think twice,” he said.
    Big Timber to add centrifuge
    When Big Timber’s new facility becomes operational later this summer, the brewery will add a centrifuge to its production line. Kwasniewski believes the centrifuge will help them add even mor...
    0 min
  • Art Walk becoming known for beer events
    Charleston’s Art Walk evenings are becoming beer event evenings. And they’re drawing a crowd for the brewers’ art.
    April’s third Thursday Art Walk saw two super beer events downtown: Bridge Brew Works “The Blunt” release and tap-takeover at Boulevard Tavern and the “WV Road Trippin’ Beer Adventure” at Timothy’s at the Quarrier Diner.
    4-20 brings out the Blunt
    At 4:20 P.M. on 4/20/17, the first Boulevard Tavern tap opened and out streamed this year’s version of The Blunt. Bridge Brew Work’s brewing brothers Nathan and Adam Herrold were on hand to greet beer fans and explain all eight of their beers on tap.
    According to the official release notes The Blunt is an English-style ale using Scottish malt and English hops (Fuggle and EKG). It is aged on Spanish cedar and American oak. They used a hopback on this one to provide a nice English tea flavor.
    The brewery says a “Blunt” is the name of a cool kayak move. I guess they would know. We found no dankness in this blunt, just a richly malty and well-balanced English-style ale.
    The brewery says a “Blunt” is the name of a cool kayak move. I guess they would know. We found no dankness in this blunt, just a richly malty and well-balanced English-style ale.

    Besides the Blunt, BBW intro’d this year’s version of Iapetus Gose. This project of brewer Adam Herrold is slightly tweaked from last year. This lightly tart and fruity brew was drinking beautifully well on Thursday. This year, we loved the light hopping that accentuated but did not conflict with the lemony/citrus character produced by the lactobacillus fermentation. The J.Q. Dickinson salt was definitely there in the background doing its thing to brighten all the other flavor components. The market is going to enjoy this BBW spring seasonal.
    All in all, Bridge Brew Works produced a superb line up for the season.
    Brent Ligon travels to bring us beer
    At Timothy’s, bar manager Brent Ligon told me he put over 2,000 miles on his vehicle to drive around the state collecting beer for his WV Road Trippin’ Beer Adventure. What a trooper he is.
    Thursday evening his masterpiece debuted when 24 beers from West Virginia breweries hit Timothy’s taps. Many of these brews had never previously been served in Charleston. Several others made rare appearances.
    The place was packed with beer enthusiasts and Art Walkers who all seemed to find something they enjoyed. Some highlights for beer geeks included the new Berliner Weisse from Parkersburg Brewing and two Stumptown IPAs. The Berliner was so masterfully light, but so absolutely delicious. Stumptown’s Bewildered Hippie IPA and Big Boy Pants Triple IPA didn’t disappoint. In their first appearance in Charleston, they delivered the luscious hop aroma and flavors today’s hop heads desire. Another good one new to the area was Brewstel’s Big Peter Porter. Honestly, there was a lot of good beer there.
    Here is the event tap list. Most of these beers should be available through the weekend.
    Parkersburg Brewing Hip Hef
    Parkersburg Brewing Berliner Weisse
    Bad Shepherd How Ewe Doin’ Blonde
    Bad Shepherd LOUD! IPA
    Chestnut Brew Works Class II Wheat Ale
    Chestnut Brew Works Halleck Pale Ale
    Screech Owl Buckwheat Porter
    Screech Owl Whoo’s You Daddy IPA
    Blackwater 3200 Altbier
    Blackwater Wood Hick Porter
    Big Timber Logger Lager
    Big Timber Sluice Dry Stout
    Morgantown Jesco White IPA
    Morgantown Farmhouse Saison
    Berkeley Springs Berkeley Brown Ale
    Berkeley Springs Warm Springs Pale Ale
    Stumptown Bewildered Hippie IPA
    Stumptown Big Boy Pants Triple IPA
    1 min
  • Big Timber expanding in a big way

    Recently touring a well-worn, 1920s-vintage brick building in Elkins, WV,  it was fun imagining the brewery it will become.
    “We already put a new roof on it,” said Matt Kwasniewski, head brewer and partner at Big Timber Brewing Company. “We insulated the ceiling and stripped a lot of paint off the walls. Now, we’re going to bust out the floor.”
    The floor they are removing in the main room of the building encompasses 5,400 square feet, says brewery partner Sam Mauzy.
    A lot of work lies ahead as the Big Timber owners conduct a head-to-toe renovation of the facility that will become their new brewery. Big Timber is currently located in a much smaller building a few blocks away.
    Once the old concrete floor is removed, they’ll put in new water and sewerage lines, install trench drains, spread crushed stone, insulate the floor and install radiant floor heating pipes. Then, a fresh concrete floor will be poured.
    It gets cold in Elkins in the winter and Kwasniewski says the radiant heat should keep them comfortable on even the coldest of days.
    Once the new floor is complete, overhead raceways will be installed that will contain electric lines. A cold storage room and glycol chillier unit will be built in.
    Upon completion, the main production room will contain the brewhouse, fermenters, cold storage room, and packaging equipment.
    Mauzy says the total square footage of the building is about 7,200 sq. ft. With 5,400 sq. ft. used for production space, the rest will become storage, office, lab, milling room, and boiler room.  All that space is being completely renovated as well.

    Big Timber expansion completion set for year end
    Prior to Big Timber purchasing the building, it had been used as a WV Department of Transportation shop. The building was originally constructed in the 1920s as a steam laundry. Big Timber will reuse the old boiler room for their boiler equipment.
    “We decided to go with a stream system because its safer and more efficient,” Kwasniewski says.
    When the new facility opens, the tankage capacity will be 450 barrels. That still leaves them plenty of room to grow, the owners say. They estimate that the production space could hold fermentation tanks totaling up to around 2,000 barrels. At their current brewery they have 180.
    As brewery production increases, having a laboratory for quality assurance becomes increasingly important. Big Timber will have that in their new building.
    For a completion date, they say they would love to have the project done by the end of this year.
    When the new facility opens, the fermentation tankage capacity will be 450 barrels. That still leaves them plenty of room to grow, the owners say. They estimate that the production space could hold fermentation tanks totaling up to around 2,000 barrels. At their current brewery they have 180.
    Initially, they will move their current 15-barrel brewhouse to the new facility. As sales grow, they would likely purchase and install a larger-capacity brewhouse. Down the road, they could also require additional tank space in the main production room. To free up space, they would build a separate packaging and cold storage building adjacent to the main building and move the kegs and cans over there.

    New taproom in Phase 2
    In a second phase of development scheduled for next year, the Big Timber owners will construct a large taproom at the new brewery. This will likely take the form of an expansion attached to the brewery building. They will also renovate a large concrete pad and a small green s...
    0 min
  • Big Timber expanding in a big way

    Recently touring a well-worn, 1920s-vintage brick building in Elkins, WV,  it was fun imagining the brewery it will become.
    “We already put a new roof on it,” said Matt Kwasniewski, head brewer and partner at Big Timber Brewing Company. “We insulated the ceiling and stripped a lot of paint off the walls. Now, we’re going to bust out the floor.”
    The floor they are removing in the main room of the building encompasses 5,400 square feet, says brewery partner Sam Mauzy.
    A lot of work lies ahead as the Big Timber owners conduct a head-to-toe renovation of the facility that will become their new brewery. Big Timber is currently located in a much smaller building a few blocks away.
    Once the old concrete floor is removed, they’ll put in new water and sewerage lines, install trench drains, spread crushed stone, insulate the floor and install radiant floor heating pipes. Then, a fresh concrete floor will be poured.
    It gets cold in Elkins in the winter and Kwasniewski says the radiant heat should keep them comfortable on even the coldest of days.
    Once the new floor is complete, overhead raceways will be installed that will contain electric lines. A cold storage room and glycol chillier unit will be built in.
    Upon completion, the main production room will contain the brewhouse, fermenters, cold storage room, and packaging equipment.
    Mauzy says the total square footage of the building is about 7,200 sq. ft. With 5,400 sq. ft. used for production space, the rest will become storage, office, lab, milling room, and boiler room.  All that space is being completely renovated as well.

    Big Timber expansion completion set for year end
    Prior to Big Timber purchasing the building, it had been used as a WV Department of Transportation shop. The building was originally constructed in the 1920s as a steam laundry. Big Timber will reuse the old boiler room for their boiler equipment.
    “We decided to go with a stream system because its safer and more efficient,” Kwasniewski says.
    When the new facility opens, the tankage capacity will be 450 barrels. That still leaves them plenty of room to grow, the owners say. They estimate that the production space could hold fermentation tanks totaling up to around 2,000 barrels. At their current brewery they have 180.
    As brewery production increases, having a laboratory for quality assurance becomes increasingly important. Big Timber will have that in their new building.
    For a completion date, they say they would love to have the project done by the end of this year.
    When the new facility opens, the fermentation tankage capacity will be 450 barrels. That still leaves them plenty of room to grow, the owners say. They estimate that the production space could hold fermentation tanks totaling up to around 2,000 barrels. At their current brewery they have 180.
    Initially, they will move their current 15-barrel brewhouse to the new facility. As sales grow, they would likely purchase and install a larger-capacity brewhouse. Down the road, they could also require additional tank space in the main production room. To free up space, they would build a separate packaging and cold storage building adjacent to the main building and move the kegs and cans over there.

    New taproom in Phase 2
    In a second phase of development scheduled for next year, the Big Timber owners will construct a large taproom at the new brewery. This will likely take the form of an expansion attached to the brewery building. They will also renovate a large concrete pad and a small green s...
    1 min

About West Virginia Beer Roads

From the publisher's feed

All about craft beer from a West Virginia perspective