Charleston Brewing Company

 

Brewery and restaurant with large wine selection and full liquor bar. Separate bar area and large dining area. Good appetizers and helpful knowledgeable staff. Very good draft beers brewed on site. Good location downtown with off street parking. Fun place to hang out, or bring the family for lunch. Update 3/14/16 same vibe same average plus beers.

 

 

Not my cup of tea. It's basically a restaurant that serves CBC beer. You can see the brewery through the glass in the walls but there is very little brewery feel. I'm glad I visited but I was disappointed in the atmosphere and beer. Average at best. I'm glad I was only visiting.

 

 

 

It is located across the street from the Charleston Courthouse. Prepare to pay to park. We found good food, good service, and a fair beer selection. I had the Wobbly English Bitter which was great. The Raj IPA was good. It is reasonably close to I-64 and I would go back again when passing through Charleston.

 

 

 

My review is really for CBC although the food served by the restaurant isn't bad. The beers are Exceptional here. Raj is my favorite and I always fill a couple growlers that I bought previously on trips through WV and was upset to find they will just be gathering dust in the garage because they can't fill growlers anymore. Oh well. A stop I probably won't make on future trips via WV. Sad as I cross through here three or four times a year. I wish them the best.

 

This probably should be listed separately as Black Sheep Burritos and Brews. From what I understand, the Charleston Brewery sold or leased the restaurant space, but Charleston Brewing beers are the only ones on tap. Anywho, it is on the corner around the block from Pies and Pints. It has an outdoor patio on the sidewalk. As you walk in there is a table seating area. I marched right across the concrete floor to the bar at the far end. I had the same bartender each of my three visits while in the area. He was an affable man. Beyond the bar through a glass window was the brewing operation. There were about nine beers on tap.

There was a nice variety of beer. Malt liquor to wheatwine was covered. There were several quality beers. The wheatwine and foreign export stout stood out as well as the IPA and session IPA. Even the malt liquor was a delight.

I ate on one of my visits. They have a wide variety of burritos and tacos. The Flock of Tacos caught my eye. You get to choose three tacos from an entire page of choices. I picked the bulgogi (Korean bbq), smoked duck, and brisket (with blueberry bbq sauce). They were not filling, so I ordered a Hawaiian taco to fill me. The bulgogi was my favorite because of its spiciness. The brisket with the blueberry bbq sauce was the most interesting.

The bar service was not the fastest, but he had to pour for all the waitresses' orders. It seemed inefficient to me. The tacos came out quickly. There was one interesting development while I was in the area. I got a couple 32oz growlers on one visit. I stopped in on my last night in the area to refill my growlers to bring home and share with friends. I guess the West Virginia liquor board had come in that day and put a stop to the growler fills. West Virginia law dictates that only a brewery can dispense its own beer into to go containers. Since Black Sheep Burritos and Brews is not brewing through the window, they can no longer sell to go beer. That was a bummer. The bartender said they were immediately in the process of remedying the situation. I am unclear of the current status.

Overall, it was a nice place in the heart of Charleston. Between this place and Pies and Pints you are set for a night of drinking.

 

It appears this brewery merged with some sort of Mexican burrito chain restaurant but they only serve CBC beers on draft. The decor was very modern seeing as it's in downtown Charleston but the bar area seemed kind of small and stuffy.

IIRC, they had 11 beers on tap that ran the usual spectrum of styles. I'd say most brews were average to slightly above average with a few really great standouts. The Raj IPA was the star of the place as it was a tasty citra IPA and on par with a lot of the big boy IPAs.

The staff in the bar seemed a little behind on overall craft beer knowledge, but made up for that with their awesome attitudes and customer service. They listened intently when I tried to explain the differences I tasted in a lot of their brews. It definitely made me feel appreciated as maybe a bit more than just a paying customer. I will make this a regular stop when visiting family in Charleston and look forward to seeing what they do as their brewing experience grows.

 

 

 

 

 

Stop #422 on my world beer tour - first brewery in WV!

Attached to a gourmet burrito place. Really crowded on a Friday night. A concert and some other event going on downtown. Lots of energy.

I passed over this place a few months back when I pulled into town pretty for business. I had low expectations given my less-than-desirable experiences in rural WV. Boy, did this place do wonders to change that perception.

The attached burrito joint is modern and serves great food (I had a beet salad of all things).

I had a cream ale, a session Citra IPA, and their standard IPA. I'm here to tell you the session Citra was a phenomenal beer. Zombie Dust from 3Floyds gets all the attention (uses lots of citra hops). I would argue this was just as good and if you're local to this place, I would drink it up as they were luck to get this batch of citra hops. The cream ale was very well done and the IPA was great but I would be drinking the citra beer instead. I also had a the Belgain triple and would say it's a style that usually scares me at brewpubs because it's tough to get it to dry out. This was among the best I've had.

I look forward to a return visit.

 

Tap beers still the only option for beer but the in-house selection is very good. 8 taps carry a variety of beers sure to please any palate. The MAJOR news for this location is the transition of the kitchen to Black Sheep Burritos from Huntington. The English pub food just didn't sit well and was overpriced. Black Sheep is the PERFECT match for this location. Prices are reasonable and the food is outstanding. Some sound dampening has been added as well but still gets pretty loud when crowded.

If you were turned off by the first try at kitchen fair and you haven't been since Black Sheep entered the picture, you must give another shot to Charleston Brewing Company.

 

 

After four visits I have a decent handle and the place but expect improvements over the upcoming months.

The space is fine, clean, local art, a bit noisy, no tvs, seating is mostly table. My biggest beef is that the bar is a bit small with seating for maybe 10. Nice view of their brewing system from behind the bar and from the streetside. The corner location of the brewery is great realestate and parking is no trouble.

The beers are above average thus far in my estimation. The best bitter, pilsner, and IPA were the standouts for me though the others have room for improvement with some tiny tweaks to the recipes. At this time they have ran out of all but 3 beers and are running some Bridge Brew beers and GL C. Perry. The plan is to have 8 CBC beers on tap. Growlers are okay for filling, I haven't tried this yet.

Service is great though many of the staff need educated on their beers and difference in styles and other beer basics but hopefully this will get better with time as well. On two occassions a friend's order was wrong or forgotten.

Eight beers would be a nice selection. The three inbetween this brew schedule is dissappointing.

The food is fantastic though pricey. I have tried the bangers, fish and chips, veggie burger and all were very well done.

Overall this place has the potential to be one of the better beer locales in the desert that is West Virginia. Here is to the hoping the owners and brewer, who are both super nice, and open to feedback and keep moving forward in a positive direction.

This is a quickie review following three trips to CBC during the opening weekend. It will be adjusted after future visits.

The beer is very good. As of now there are five house beers pouring, including a mild dry stout (very nice), a big-ish best bitter (very enjoyable), an American IPA (quite good) and a blonde "palesner" that is my personal favorite. All are served in beer-clean shaker pints at appropriate temperatures, or odd little half-pints. A sample tray is available as well. As of now though, that's it. No guest taps, no bottles. This is going to change, I understand, but as of now it's an issue.

The atmosphere is a bit stark: painted concrete floors and walls with a high, unfinished ceiling lead to awful acoustics. It's difficult to carry a conversation when capacity hits >50%. There's local art on the walls: nice. And the bar is a custom job that does it's primary purpose. There is no tv whatsoever in the place, so bring your phone or pad if you want to keep up with the game or breaking news.

Food is good, just painfully overpriced. There are a couple of values on the menu though. I enjoyed the Bangers and Mash, and at $12 it's one of the cheaper entrees.

Service is attentive and knowledgeable but hamstrung by some asinine rules - no cashing out at the table, e.g. - and some poor design choices - not enough service stations and data entry points.

Overall, it's a welcome addition to the West Virginia beer scene. Definitely worth a stop if you're in town. And, with some adjustments, this could become an actual destination establishment.

I'll report back as necessary.