West Virginia Beer Advocate's

Hey Guys. My name is David Kucera and i am one of the owners of Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company. I know this isn't the perfect place to put this but we will be doing growler fills so maybe you'll stop by in a year or so. The beer scene is improving in the state, it takes time for the industry to react to a new state. And our state does not make it easy for them either. I was a co owner of big swiss but we decided to go in with Wil Laska who was going to open Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company. Big Swiss was going to be a nano but GVBC will be 15 or 20 barrel. We are going to locate ourselves across from smooth ambler, in a warehouse space. We plan on using 8000 square feet. We hope to have a tap room and provide growler fills. We hope to host festivals alongside smooth ambler in a 6 acre space adjacent to the warehouse. We will grow some of our own hops on site and have an outside space as well. Look for our opening in December this year. We will be hiring a brewer, cellar help, a brewing assistant, some front staff and sales eventually. I'd love to meet with any prospective employees. If there are any homebrewers out there i'd like to officially open a homebrew club. Currently you may contact me on my cell phone at 304-550-8840. If you have any questions about the brewery feel free to shoot me an email.

As for other breweries, i know Rodger is still planning on opening, cant wait. He has the most beautiful bar area i have ever seen. Swift level is also interested in opening a brewery and Roger knows of someone else i believe. He wouldn't tell me who so i'm not sure how serious they are. Here's to our little town soon becoming a center for the state's beer culture. Of course morgantown has quite a few as well but we will knock it out of the park in per capita eh.

i appologize if you are on one of the other feeds, i just copied and pasted into those feeds. We will be giving away beer at the bootleggers ball this year. Not official recepies but some good beer none the less. I'm making an ipa using chinook hops and running it through a hopback filled with whole leaf chinook. should be a hop explosion.

 

Good luck with convincing the state to allow growler sales... There's some really shitty law about the beer having to exist in the original container (whatever that means). Essentially, beers can only be poured into drinking glasses and consumed on-premise. The only reason I know this is that I'm looking to open a craft beer bar in Huntington and ABCA pretty much shot down every I idea I had with have a growler program. Additionally, the guys at Bridge Brew Works have been trying to get the ability to sell growlers, but the state won't let them. You know it's pretty bad when the most popular brewery in the state can't sell growlers...

 

Morgantown Brewing Co. does growlers...

 

MBC may very well have the ability to sell growlers. However, it would be nearly impossible for the Apothecary to have the ability due to the ABCA's reach. I've personally contacted ABCA and they clearly stated to me that bars cannot legally sell growlers, but brewpubs must have prior approval and jump through all of the hoops and red tape.

 

Ive had growlers from mountain state brewing numerous times

 

John, have you found any Blue Dot in Morgantown :-) ?
I will personally vouch for Mr. Michaelsen, WV BAs should make the effort to get together with this generous spirit. Hope to see you in PDX soon!

 

Tobacco Town in Beaver WV has a large selection of craft beers. Breckenridge 471 IPA, oatmeal stout and vanilla porter. Seadog IPA, Southern Tier 2XIPA, Napa Smith Lost Dog and Pale Ale, Sneaky Pete 4pks, Shipyard IPA and Export Ale, several of the local Bridge Brews, rogue juniper, dead guy, mocha porter and American amber ale, 3 different great lakes, several Sierra Nevadas, flaying dog and magic hat. This place really surprised me. And it all cold! Thy also have a huge walk-in humidor filled with cigars. Awesome little shop and I highly recommend going if your in WV.

 

Saying hello. Just moved to Morgantown, WV from CNY. Feeling a bit . . . well, like this might be a difficult transition for this craft beer drinker. I learned to love craft beer in Seattle, where I lived for 8 years. Felt deprived in Syracuse, NY. And now I'm here. Hi everyone!

 

That is a tough one, but at least you had Syracuse as a step-down between Seattle and here.
Don't give up hope, things are getting better here. They may never be on par with Pacific NW but they are manageable.
And hey, UPS delivers throughout the state! Bet you never knew you wanted to be a trader huh?
Seriously though, Pittsburgh is not a very long drive from there, and there is a good shop down I-68 in McHenry MD also.

Cheers and welcome.

 

Thanks for the welcome, jmw!

And at least I can get deliveries! May be time to get into trading, like you said, and discover the world of online beer shopping. I know shipping can be a bit insane on those sites, but desperate times.

 

Look around a bit before you go postal (snicker). It may not be as bad as you think. Southern Tier should be familiar to you, and I've heard that Green Flash (or was it Lagunitas?) will be here shortly. Sadly, no Founders or Bell's or many other well-loved mainstream standards in the greater beer world, but you should have seen this place a few years ago before the 6% cap was lifted.
Check the Apothecary downtown.
There's also a homegrown called Morgantown Brewing.
Mountain State has an outlet in town, but I'm not a large fan.
You also have access to a couple homebrew clubs either in town or nearby if that's a passion

 

Smart Alecky good editor you are! Good luck West Virginia!

 

Green Flash should be here in a couple months. Lagunitas will be here after the new brewery is built, which will probably be around 2015. I also know of a couple distributors that are pushing really hard for Bell's, but I doubt anything will ever come of it.

 

I checked out the Giant Eagle Market Place near the Pitt airport the other day. Nice selection, though their make-your-own 6 selection was super picked over. And of course it's a bit of a hike. Grabbed Founders Rubeaus and Bell's Two Hearted, but could have done more damage if the bank account allowed. Anyplace closer to Morgantown that does the mix-6 stuff?

I've checked out Morgantown Brewing a few times and Mountain State once. The former has some good beers, the latter was a bit meh. (Though I highly recommend the stout float with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, and a dash of blackberry brandy. Yum.) The Apothecary has been closed, but I think they open again today, so I may head downtown later. And I've been meaning to give homebrewing a try for a few years. This may be the final push I need!

 

Mix-6 shops are kind of hard to come by in that direction. I'm sure they are out there (there are a couple shops in Washington for example), but can't speak to how good they may be.
You might want to put a query out in the Mid-Atlantic subforum specifying your interest in learning about SW Pen. There are some fine folks on there between here and Pitt, and I'm sure if it's around they will know about it.

When you head back to Pitt you may want to check out the Giant Eagle in Glenshaw, just north of town. They have a better single bottle/bomber selection than GE/Robinson near the airport.

Going the opposite, if you know of a beer that you wouldn't mind having a case of, there are numerous PA distributorships within stabbing distance, including one right outside of Mo'town in Point Marion.

 

Fairmont and Morgantown both have homebrew clubs, check them out. They are an active bunch. MASH and Fairmont Homebrewer's Club.

 

Along with the depressing distribution here . . . do you all really just throw out your glass? I've been saving my bottles since I moved and they're starting to pile up. I just can't . . . eight years in Seattle and living in NY . . . I am way too trained.

 

This is a good observation. The place that I work has a recycling agreement, but that's a state agency.
Check with the university.