Rails & Ales Festival hits new high

I can’t imagine a better way to kick off West Virginia Craft Beer Week than what we experienced at the Rails & Ales Festival in Huntington on Saturday. In its third year, this festival has hit a serious good stride.

Around 3,500 people lined the grassy, tree-lined banks of the Ohio River on a beautiful sunny afternoon to sample brews from roughly 60 breweries. It was an awesome sight.

I wasn’t the only one who noticed. The comments of Daniel “D.H.” Harrison, co-founder and tireless ambassador for Country Boy Brewing Company of Lexington, KY, caught the essence of the day.

“It’s amazing man,” Harrison said of the West Virginia craft beer market as evidenced at Rails & Ales. “It’s on fire. These guys are hungry for craft beer.

“There’s not a lot of brands come into the West Virginia market because there’s a lot of red tape on the state licensing level. But if you take your time and do your due diligence and get it done, it’s great.

“We love the people here man. They’re starving for good beer.”

First year attendee Steve Redden, brewer for Beckley’s Dobra Zupas brewpub, also noticed the vibe.

“I’ve never been to Huntington before, but this is a hell of a great way to see it,” he said. “I love this place.”

Ken Linch, veteran brewer and co-owner of Bridge Brew Works in Fayetteville, WV, was not short on superlatives either.

“This is probably my favorite festival in West Virginia right now,” said Linch. “It has just blossomed with breweries and with people. We’re now down along the river with trees and grass and shade.

“There’s a tremendous participation rate for vendors and breweries this year. I’m really impressed.”

In-state brewers, out-of-state brewers, and new brewers—all noticed the quality of the festival and the enthusiasm of the attendees.

Community turns out to support festival

It was impressive to see all the people, mostly from a 50-mile radius of Huntington, celebrating their craft beer. And I do mean celebrating. Like D.H. Harrison said, people here are hungry for craft beer. And Rails & Ales was a virtual feast.

Breweries, restaurants, souvenir vendors, hundreds of volunteers, 2,800 paid attendees: the community truly turned out for craft beer.

While all age groups were well-represented among attendees, the crowd definitely skewed younger. The 20-somethings were quite well represented, which is good to see in a state where you often think all the young adults have moved away.

If you’re wondering what’s going on in the West Virginia beer market today, you need look no farther than the Rails & Ales festival.

Rails & Ales feeds blossoming market

One guy who should be especially proud of the event is Jeff McKay, who is one of the festival founders and also its beer buyer. Jeff is owner of the excellent Summit Beer Station, a craft beer bar just down the street from the festival site. McKay, more than any other person, is responsible for accelerating craft beer growth in his part of the state.

But with McKay’s modest, unassuming manner, you can’t get him to brag.

“I’m glad that everybody has breathing room this year,” McKay says when asked to talk about festival high points. “The lines aren’t too bad. It looks like everybody’s enjoying themselves, and the weather’s perfect.”

Moving the festival from its original location on a downtown street to Harris Riverfront Park on the banks of the Ohio was a brilliant move. This act alone provided the elbow room, scenic views, and shady spaces the festival needed to take it to the next level.

Pressed further, McKay did get more to the heart of the matter. A bit of pride shone through as he discussed the 2015 festival’s greatly broadened beer selection.

“We brought in a ton of new beer this year,” he said. “Several beers new to the state are debuting at the festival.”

“People can come here and sample things that they normally might have some trouble tracking down, especially some of these imported beers.”

Among the new brewers/importers debuting at the festival were Dorba Zupas, Sunken City, and Artisanal Imports.

Your first taste of Dobra Zupas ale

Dobra Zupas’ beer made its international debut at the festival. Brewmaster Steve Redden explained that they just received their state license a few days before, and he was still waiting on his grain order to arrive. His beer goes on tap at the Beckley restaurant this week.

“I had just enough extra beer to fill a few kegs to take to the festival,” said Redden. “I brought our Hopped Up IPA (7.0% abv) and our Java Jive Coffee Porter.”

Dobra Zupas is an established Beckley, WV, restaurant that added a brew pub. They installed a one-barrel brewhouse and four one-barrel fermenters to supply their needs. Redden will be kegging everything and selling it directly at the bar.

“I’m looking to do some sours and stouts,” Redden answered when asked what to expect once he gets his feet on the ground. “We also have 12 bourbon barrels from Smooth Ambler. I just want to get weird with it.”

Redden said Dobra Zupas means good soup in Slovenian, which is the native tongue of restaurant owner Joe Zupanick.

Sunken City Brewing Company growing fast

Sunken City Brewing Company, of Smith Mountain Lake, VA, received its West Virginia sales license just two weeks ago.

“We make pretty approachable beers,” said Jeremy Kirby, Sunken City brewmaster. “We put it in a can, and I’m hoping it translates well to the West Virginia market with all the rivers and the outdooriness.”

Sunken City is introducing all its flagship beers in WV initially, including Dam Lager (an amber lager), Steamboat (a California Common) and Red Clay IPA (an American-style IPA).

The two-year-old brewery has a tank farm of seven 50-barrel fermenters, one large brite tank that feeds an automated canning line. From its southern Virginia location, it supplies markets across Virginia, North Carolina, and now West Virginia. Kirby stays very busy keeping these markets supplied.

“We have a 25 barrel, four vessel system, so we can brew back-to-back batches to fill a fermenter,” Kirby explained. In a typical brew day, he makes 1,500 gallons of beer.

Kirby has been brewing for eight years. He attended the VLB brewing school in Berlin and brewed for two years in Durango, Colorado, at Carver Brewing and four years at a brewpub in Nebraska before accepting the Sunken City job.

Sunken City has hired Keith Brown as its West Virginia sales representative.

Artisanal Imports brings its Belgian craft beer 

Artisanal Imports just entered the WV market in the last couple of weeks but made a point to get to this festival. The Austin, Texas, beer importer is one the nation’s most successful importers of top quality Belgian beers.

Scott Larrick, Artisanal’s Midwest Area Representative, says he finds the West Virginia market is excited about Belgian beers.

“I have pretty high hopes for the WV market,” Larrick said. “There’s less competition here. There’s just not as many American craft breweries, not as many importers here, but there’s a real growing demand for craft beer.”

“We’ve been working on getting beer into West Virginia for two years. There’s quite a bit of red tape but we’re very excited to have beer here now.”

Artisanal products are now hitting the shelves in the state’s larger cities.

“We got our biggest names here: Tripel Karmeliet, Kwak, La Trappe Trappist Ales, St. Feullien Tripel and Saison,” said Larrick. “We also have Trooper, which  just came out two years ago. It’s a collaboration between a family-owned English brewery named Robinson’s and the heavy metal band Iron Maiden. It’s a session ale, really balanced but flavorful”

26-minute sell-out demonstrated interest

When festival tickets went on sale a few months back, they completely sold out in 26 minutes. (See the Brilliant Stream post.) That kind of beer festival ticket sales are usually reserved for festivals in bigger cities or ones sponsored by breweries with cult followings. For this to happen in Huntington, WV — a city that doesn’t even have a craft brewery within 30 miles — it’s nothing short of amazing.

Beyond the plentiful beer brands and the lovely riverbank setting, many other things at Rails & Ales were done right. Getting several thousand people through the gates went as smoothly as at any festival I have seen. Rails & Ales was well stocked with volunteers who checked IDs and tickets.

It was a beautiful day, but also a hot, sunny one. Once inside the festival grounds, you found ample shade structures. Large tents and shade trees were all around.

Eleven food vendors served up a variety of food. I saw teriyaki, Middle Eastern, Italian, BBQ, Mexican, and more. I have not seen a better variety of food vendors at any festival this size.

Volunteers, who are the heart of any festival, did a yeoman’s job pouring beer. Every booth seemed well-stocked. Beer lines were not overly long. I saw only a few breweries at which the wait was more than a couple minutes.

To keep folks hydrated, the festival had water stands placed in the tents. To keep folks relieved, there were plenty of toilet facilities on the edges of the grounds. Sure there was some waiting in line for the indoor toilets, but you could always find a porta-potty if your needs were more immediate.

More about Rails & Ales Festival

The Rails & Ales Craft Beer Festival is organized by the Better Beer Coalition, a group of craft brew loving local folks; Jeff McKay, Blaine Crabtree, Natalie Thompson, Jay Fox, and Jessica Pressman.

The goal of the festival is to promote a craft beer culture in the area and to improve access to craft beer by demonstrating the local demand to microbreweries and distributors.

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For more information of WV Craft Beer Week events use this link: http://wvcbw.com/?post_type=tribe_events