Several new WV breweries likely in 2018

It looks like around five new WV breweries are poised to join our brewing community in 2018. They include Walton Mountain Brewing Company, Walton; Big Spruce Brewing, Snowshoe; Cheat Canyon Brewing, Morgantown; High Ground, Terra Alta; and Rambling Root in Fairmont. 

You can find the details of these project on Brilliant Stream’s WV Breweries in Planning 2018 page. If other definite projects pop up along the way, you will also find the details on them on that page.

Walton Mountain will be the first of the bunch to serve beer. Its grand opening is set for the end of February. Rambling Root hopes to open its brewery this summer. Old Spruce and Cheat Canyon have both done site work and are waiting for construction to begin once spring weather arrives. Both of these projects aim to have taprooms open by late this year. High Ground Brewing is shooting for a late 2018 opening. As soon as we get any updates on these new projects, they will be added to the Breweries In Planning page.

If anyone hears of another brewery in development, please let us know.

2017 gave us four wonderful new WV breweries

Last year, we had four breweries open, which were all very nice investments, great people, and very good beer. They included Abolitionist Ale Works, Charles Town; Short Story Brewing, Rivesville; Weathered Ground Brewery; Cool Ridge; and The Peddler, Huntington. While they are all exceptionally nice breweries, Weathered Ground got the nod as Brilliant Stream’s New Brewery of the Year.

Where will we end the year

West Virginia has 27 brewery licenses active as of today. It would be nice to us end the year with at least 30. However, with one currently licensed brewery said to be up for sale and, we hear, not producing beer right now, and another going out of business at the end of January, that 30 number could slide unless all the breweries in planning get open. We’ll have to wait and see.

Hopefully, the increased interest of lenders targeting small brewery development will help bring a few more projects into planning and development. See Brilliant Stream’s feature on two Community Development Financial Institutions that want to help us develop our brewing industry.