Bridge Brew Works adds tasting room

Formerly West Virginia’s only brewery without a pub or adjacent taproom, Bridge Brew Works has recently opened a tasting room at the brewery.

With the six-week-long Gauley Season kicking off today and the popular Bridge Day set for October 17, the Fayetteville area will now have one more attraction to offer the throngs of tourists: craft beer tasting.

Craft beer enthusiasts among the roughly 40,000 Gauley Season kayakers and rafters and the 200,000  Bridge Day visitors will have the opportunity to sample not only Bridge Brew Works’ core brands, but will also get to try special one-off brews available only at the brewery tasting room.

The posted tasting room hours are Fridays and Saturdays from 3:00 to 6:00 p.m. However, co-owner Nate Herrold said if someone shows up outside those hours, he’ll still do his best to greet them and pour some samples.

“It’s exciting for us,” Herrold said describing his feeling about opening the tasting room. “We’re hitting the ground running right now with Gauley Season for the next six weeks.

“For our growler filling station, we are typically here working all day during the week and are happy to fill a growler for somebody.”

Law change leads to new investment

The brewery tasting room was made possible last June when a new law took effect that allows production breweries to offer free sample and sell packaged beer and fill growlers at their facilities without having to have a brewpub license.

Co-owner Ken Linch estimates that constructing the tasting room addition and purchasing the draft system, bar, and growler filling station was about a $60,000 investment—and that was with the owners doing a lot of the work themselves.

“We’re very happy it came through,” said Linch in an enthusiastic tone as he showed off his new tasting room. “Now, this is an another productive part of the building.”

As word spreads that the brewery is now welcoming guests, visitors are flocking in.

David “Yogi” Dean, a regular Bridge Brew volunteer at festivals the brewery attends, thinks adding the tasting room is the right move for the brewery.

“I think it’s a great idea because people from the beginning have craved interaction with them at the brewery,” said Dean. “I think the tasting room being right there at the brewery is so convenient, so the guys can step away from the brewhouse and fill a growler or give a customer something exclusive that’s only available at the tasting room. It will certainly help build business.”

What you’ll find at Bridge Brew tasting room

Linch says they will try to keep four beers on tap at all times, and sometimes the fourth beer will be something that will only be available at the tasting room.

“For example now we’ve got the Bridge Brew Ale aged in a Bourbon barrel,” Linch said.

If they have a larger group visiting, they may also open up a bottle or two of other beers they have in stock.

Bridge Brew Works’ signature aluminum 16 oz. bottles will be sold individually or in mixed six-pack carriers. The brewery is selling and filling growlers in both quart and half-gallon sizes—all with a snazzy new growler filling station.

Seasonal beers will be offered

Seasonal brews will be an important part of the offerings at the tasting room as well as at retail. This fall the brewery will again offer its Halloween seasonal Draculan Red IPA. They introduced the beer last year, but this year’s version is a little different,

“This year we are brewing it with a Belgian yeast,” explained Linch. “It will have some American hops such as Nugget, and we used a hop back on it filled with 11 pounds of whole cone Centennial. It should be pretty tasty. “

Another seasonal, Bridge Brew Oktoberfest, has been available since August. Later his fall, and available only at the brewery, will be a barrel-aged Peregrine Porter aged in Smooth Ambler bourbon barrels.

Lots of lagers too

Throughout its existence, lager-style beers have been a mainstay for Bridge Brew Works. Their flagship beer and best seller is Long Point Lager. Other lagers include the Oktoberfest and Black Diamond Schwarzbeer.

“I think we tend to produce more lagers than most breweries our size,” Linch said. “Even the Crux Kolsch during the summer is essentially lagered.”

Since lagers take a longer time to condition and tie up more tank space, they can pose a bit of a tank schedule management challenge for the brewery. Ken and Nate have historically done a good job balancing their brewing schedule to maintain a nice mix of ales and lagers at all times.

The brewery recently installed a reverse osmosis water purification system that they use in making their lagers.

Get your growlers filled here

“Our growler filling station is a PEGUS brand,” explains Linch. “It’s a counter pressure bottle filler that allows you to evacuate the air from the bottle with CO2, and then fill the bottle under pressure. This way the beer does not foam nearly as much.”

Purging the air from the bottle with carbon dioxide and filling the growler under pressure greatly cuts beer loss for the brewery and greatly extends the shelf life of the growler for the customer.

Since it doesn’t lose any of its carbonation and you can get the growler full and capped right away, the beer stays fresher longer. The company claims the beer will stay good for a month or more unopened in the refrigerator.

One requirement for this filler: a see-through glass growler jug must be used so the beer level can be monitored to tell when the bottle is full.

At the tasting room customers can also purchase glassware imprinted with the Bridge Brew logo. Traditional pint glasses are $5 each and the Belgian snifter-style glasses are $6 each.

Bridge Brew Works keeps growing

The tasting room is not the only recent investment at the brewery.

“The addition on the back of the building along with the bottling equipment other fixtures and furnishings totals over a $150,000 investment.” Linch said. “We have a total of about 4000 sq. ft. under roof on our 1 acre lot. It takes a lot of room to get tractor-trailers in and out for loading and unloading.”

But even with the expansions, things are still cozy at the brewery.

“Whatever square footage you think you’ll need, you probably need twice that much,” Linch asserted. “Even with the space we have, we’re pretty tight.”

We can hope another brewery expansion is around the corner.

Contact Information

Bridge Brew Works
335 Nick Rahall Greenway
Fayetteville, West Virginia

(304) 574-1898
BridgeBrewWorks@gmail.com

Bridge Brew Works Website

Tasting Room Hours

Fridays & Saturdays: 3:00 to 6:00 p.m.
Other times by appointment.