Welcome Berkeley Springs Brewing Co.

UPDATE: Berkeley Springs Brewing Company added its brewpub license as of 8/8/15. The Bath Water Brewpub serves pints of all house brews, initially including the flagship beers: caCapon Kolsch, American Amber, and Berkeley Brown. The brewery will continues to sell 32-oz howlers and 64-oz growlers for off-premise consumption. At the pub, food can be ordered in from local restaurants.

It’s been a long road for Karl Wagenbrenner in his quest to open a small brewery in a small town. Like so many others who long to have their own craft breweries, he had a couple false starts, struggled to understand regulatory compliance, and had to constantly scrape to find enough money.

But his day of reckoning has arrived. No longer a brewery-in-planning, Berkeley Springs Brewing Company is now fully licensed and operational.

Wagenbrenner’s determination and endurance during this journey is what separates him from thousands of others who tinker with the craft brewery idea but never get there.

The long and winding road

He didn’t start out to be a brewer though. For 22 years he was a successful construction worker until a disabling injury prevented him from continuing in his chosen occupation.

“I had to find another way,” he said.

The path led him to the beer business, first as the owner of a homebrew supply shop.

“I’ve made wine for going on 17 years and been brewing for four,” he said. “I really enjoy teaching which is why we started the homebrew shop. It just kind of steamrolled into brewing.”

As a new brewery owner, he brings much to the table. He is an accomplished home winemaker and homebrewer. For three years, he taught homebrewing to others as the operator of a brew-on-premise business. He knows his brewing ingredients well from operating the homebrew supply shop. He has a strong business partner in wife Denise, who is an accountant and keeps his bookkeeping straight.

Now he takes his skill set to the new challenge of actually operating his own commercial brewery.

Berkeley Springs, a town known for water

Berkeley Springs is a small mountain town in West Virginia’s eastern panhandle. It’s a town best known for its historic spring-fed baths. George Washington bathed here. (At the town springs they have a bathtub carved out of rock they say was his.) The town is also known for its good water and for an annual water festival and International Water Tasting competition.

Berkeley Springs is a town with quite a bit of style, an active arts scene, lots of antiques, a popular farmers market, and some excellent restaurants. (Check out Lot 12 Public House and Panorama at the Peak, for two.) As far as we know, Berkeley Springs has never before had a brewery.

The town is centered, north to south, within a 25-mile strip containing four states: Pennsylvania, Maryland, West Virginia, and Virginia.

When asked how he ended up opening a business in Berkeley Springs, Wagenbrenner was quick to reply that he chose Berkeley Springs in part because it was the most populated and tourist friendly location in the area, but there was more.

“We’re in Berkeley Springs with one of the best waters on the east coast,” he emphasized. “It makes excellent beer. And we have wonderful brewing ingredients right here in the four-state region.”

As much as he can, he will emphasize ingredients sourced from the local area. For example, he hopes to build a relationship with the Organarchy Farm, a hop grower in nearby Oldtown, Maryland.

“And there’s another hop farm and a boutique maltster over in the Frederick, MD, area we’re going to try to hook up with too. I like to support local businesses and use ingredients that are available in the local region.

“For me it’s about sustainability. I’ve got to support the local businesses if I want them to support us.”

The Mountain Man

Around town you will often hear Wagenbrenner called Mountain Man, a name coming from the Mountainman Brew Supplies shop he still operates under that name. His original shop was located just down the road from his new brewery location.

“Homebrew is where my heart is,” he said. “I love to teach. I love to see the look in their eyes when they first taste something that they’ve made.”

At the new brewery he hopes to add classes at which people can come and learn what it takes to brew. As a student in the class, you would observe and assist Wagenbrenner in all steps of brewing a 10-gallon batch of beer. Once the beer is finished it would be put on rotation in the brewery’s pub. The student’s fee would also cover the purchase of some beer to take home.

“It does take a special hand to do it well,” he adds. “But humans have been doing this for thousands of years. There no reason we can’t continue doing it.”

Brewing both standard and experimental beer

When asked what beer styles he will bring to the new brewery, he says he doesn’t like to pigeon-hole himself into any particular area.

“We will be making all real ales in many different varieties,” he said. “I personally like the flexibility of the ales, but I like all beers. I like to put my own spin and twists on different styles.

“If a customer says ‘I’m not a beer drinker,’ they might be surprised what real ale tastes like, especially when paired with the right food.”

While the two beers he is opening with—caCAPON Kölsch and American Amber—are pretty straightforward brews, he promises more.

“You can’t just limit yourself to a specific style or genre of beer,” he says.

He is interested in exploring unusual ingredients, such as bittering with wild roots and herbs instead of hops.

“I will throw a handful of roses in a red ale to gain different flavors and nuances that aren’t really there on the tip of your tongue,” he explains, “but by the second or third swallow you find out that there’s a lot more complexity to that beer. “

He has ideas for a basil beer, a paw paw beer, and a persimmon beer. He’ll likely experiment with barrel aged beer.

“I also have an applebutter-infused autumn ale that will be available for the local Apple Butter Festival this fall.  The apples I use will come from local orchards.”

To supply the brewery pub he is starting with a 2-barrel brewhouse capable of expanding to 3-barrels, and about 10 barrels of fermentation space. To set up the brewery, he’s done most all of the work himself.

Brewery space has room to grow

He has about 3,000 sq. ft. under lease. His homebrew supply shop takes up 700 sq. ft. The rest is brewery and pub.

He will initially be selling beer only in growlers to go. Of course, samples are free. This summer, once he completes the build out of his pub area, he will also offer beer by the pint.

The brewery location has a lot of parking. It’s a place where he can grow and expand.

His pub will have a small kitchen and offer a few basic food items. To expand the food menu available, he plans to work with restaurants close by who will agree to deliver food to his pub.

Down the road he is looking at doing special beer pairing events with other area restaurants. He hopes to have enough beer so he can wholesale some to select local restaurant accounts.

Focused on the future

Overall, he says his biggest challenges to getting open were finding a good location and working with state regulators. He found it much easier working with the feds than with the state. With those challenges now behind him he is laser-focused on making his new brewery a success.

By nature, he’s anxious to get projects moving and growing, but sometimes finds he needs the reigns pulled in just a bit. That’s where his wife steps in.

“My wife is a very strong accountant,” he reiterates. “She beats me about the head with the check book all the time. If it wasn’t for her we really wouldn’t have this space. We wouldn’t have this ability to do what we’re doing.”

A whole community effort

Wagenbrenner says others, too many to name them all, have helped him get to today. A few stand out. He mentions people like Stan Oaks, a retired molecular biologist, who is also an accomplished wood worker.

“He not only built our bar, but also invested some capital to help push us along,” acknowledged Wagenbrenner. “And he’s going to help us isolate yeasts from the local area to use in the brewery.

“Then there’s Chuck and Shanon Mills and Mark and Karen Tozzi, who are homebrewers and wonderful enough to believe in us to make an investment. We needed a team of like-minded people to make this happen.”

For technical assistance he credits Bob Marggraf, a local business consultant/coach and a successful businessman himself. He also credits folks from Natural Capital Investment Fund, an arm of The Conservation Fund in Shepherdstown, WV,  who, he says, appreciate his local, sustainable approach to building a business.

“Creating jobs and working with the local ecconomy and community is our ultimate goal,” he asserts. “We have eyes on the future and want to create careers for life not just jobs.”

As most successful businesses find, it takes a blend of talents, skills and people to build long-term success. Berkeley Springs Brewing Company owners Denise and Karl Wagenbrenner seem to have the bases covered. Their team and their brewery is now off and running.

They invite folks to come in and try a fresh craft beer made with the famous Berkeley Springs water.

Brewpub Hours

Thursday–Saturday: 11:00 AM to 9:00 PM
Sunday: 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM

Contact Information

Berkeley Springs Brewing Company
91 Sugar Hollow Road
Berkeley Springs, WV  25411

BSBC Facebook Page
Berkeley Springs Brewing Co. Website Link
(304) 258-3369