By JENNIFER GARDNER
Charleston Gazette-Mail
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia’s beer industry isn’t what it was 20 years ago. It’s not even what it was three years ago.
(Photo by Jennifer Gardner)
While some consumers may still regularly break into a Bud Light or PBR, many are increasingly eager to try something new — and the craft beer industry around the state has taken notice.
This week, the industry pauses to cheer — and maybe raise a frosty mug — in celebration of its giant strides during West Virginia Craft Beer Week, held from last Saturday to this Saturday.
“Brewing was a huge gamble back in the day,” said Chip Roedersheimer, vice president at Parkersburg’s North End Tavern, also known as “The NET” by locals.
The NET is the oldest continuously operating brewery in the state. It began as a pub in 1899 and started brewing almost 100 years later in 1997.
Since then, the industry has undergone many changes — not just in The NET, but statewide and nationwide in the craft beer industry as a whole.
“We definitely hit the right time on installing the brewery, finding a good brewer, putting out good product, and actually taking a bar where you look around and people are drinking mainstream stuff to most everybody drinking our draft beer,” Roedersheimer said.
The NET’s flagship beer, an American amber ale, is known around the state as “Roedy’s Red.”
Roedersheimer says timing had a lot to do with its success. West Virginia’s craft beer industry has grown from none, to a few, to 25 local breweries since the early 1990s.
Little Switzerland Brewing Company, the state’s last traditional brewery, closed its doors in Huntington in 1971. After that, local brewing ceased to exist in West Virginia, said Charles Bockway, a craft beer blogger who covers the industry in West Virginia.
“There were basically no local breweries left at that point,” Bockway said.
Mega brands like Budweiser and Pabst took over the market in the state and around the country. By 1978, only 89 breweries remained in business around the United States.
In the 1980s, the U.S. saw a “resurgence” of small breweries around the country, said Bockway. In the 1990s, with the adoption of new legislation, the state’s industry began to pick up pace, allowing for a new class of license — the brewpub — which permitted small breweries to sell their beer by the glass to consumers, not just by the case to wholesale distributors. It provided more potential for success for small, start-up breweries, explained Bockway.
The gap in the industry was seen as a business opportunity by investors, especially in the most populated parts of West Virginia, including Wheeling and Huntington.
In 1992, the first brewpub in the state, One Onion Brewery, opened in Morgantown, and the state’s local beer industry continued to grow with major brewpub investments in Wheeling and Huntington.
However, it was not long before the nation’s market became oversaturated and lost steam. Consumers couldn’t keep up with the latest trends, and the two major brewpubs, Nail City and Brew Bakers, went out of business.
Cardinal Brewing in Charleston, the state’s only non-brewpub microbrewery at the time, also went under.
Enter The NET — which then purchased Cardinal’s brewing equipment and began its own brewing business in 1997.
While One Onion has undergone various name changes, reorganizations, ownership changes and even bankruptcy, it is known today as Morgantown Brewing Company, or “Brewpub” by locals and West Virginia University students.
After the founding of Blackwater Brewing in Davis, growth for local breweries remained slow. By the late 2000s, only five local breweries were operating in the state.
Then, in 2009, West Virginia passed legislation to raise the alcohol cap on beer from 6 percent to 12 percent, attracting more investors.
By 2014, 11 breweries had opened, and only a year later, legislation was passed to allow the sales of 32- and 64-ounce growlers at retail locations other than breweries.
“The ABCA really reformed to recognize what was an emerging industry,” said Gig Robinson, a spokesperson for the West Virginia Alcohol Beverage Control Administration.
Today, 25 local breweries are licensed in West Virginia, including 17 brewpubs, according to ABCA.
In 2016, there were more than 5,000 craft breweries in the U.S. according to brewersassociation.org. West Virginia ranked 44th in breweries per capita.
Despite the rapid increase in breweries in the state, even West Virginia’s newest brewers say the market still has room to grow.
“Craft beer has not necessarily caught on yet,” said Dan Curtis, founder and head brewer of Parkersburg Brewing Company, one of West Virginia’s newest brewpubs. “There’s still a lot of education that goes on and that market continues to grow — which is a good thing.”
Even as a fairly new commercial brewer, Curtis said there is a very supportive community within the industry. Other brewers around the state agree, including Roedersheimer.
“I think it’s a friendly competition, in West Virginia especially,” he said. “I think the competition pushes everybody to do better.”
Roedersheimer said the hardest part right now is just the financial plunge into the brewing business — purchasing equipment, finding staff, the legalities and accounting.
To push legislation to continue to make it easier for brewers to start out and thrive in the state, brewers around the state are working to revive the West Virginia Craft Brewers Guild.
“It’s kind of been on the back burner but we’re trying to revive it,” said Matt Kwasniewski, founder and head brewer at Big Timber Brewing in Elkins. “We’re going to use that to work with the powers that make laws, to make them more favorable for the breweries.”
Kwasniewski said the guild would push for legislation to reduce fees and make the process of opening a brewery more streamlined, as well as find ways to make the average consumer more aware of local breweries.
West Virginia Craft Beer Week is one way the industry encourages consumers to support local breweries and try craft beer. Various events, including tap takeovers and festivals were planned in celebration.
The Wine and Cheese Shop at Capitol Market is offering a 10 percent discount on West Virginia craft beers and growler fills until 5 p.m. Saturday.
Tap Takeover
WHEN: Thursday 5-9 p.m.
WHERE: Recovery Sports Grill, 600 Virginia St. E.
INFO: All 20 taps at Recovery will be taken over by Craft Beers from seven different West Virginia breweries.
Mountaineer Brewfest in Wheeling
WHEN: Aug. 19 3-10 p.m.
WHERE: Heritage Port, 12th St. and Water St., Wheeling
COST: $35-75
INFO: WV craft beer samples, brewing competitions, artisan, food and merchant vendors, craft beer garden and live entertainment.
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