Foam: Brewery news from West Virginia

A beautiful day greeted the large turnout of beer fans for the Foam at the Dome craft beer festival in Charleston on Saturday. Beyond all the good brews, we recorded lots of news.

Moving the venue to the riverbank at the State Capitol seemed to be a real plus for beer fans and brewers alike. Everyone was in good spirits and things went smoothly for the first beer festival at the scenic location.

While it turned out to be a hot day, the river and the trees imparted a calmer, cooler, more peaceful feeling to the venue.

And the winners are

They held a little judged beer competition during the festival and the winners were:

•  1st – Stumptown Ales, Holy Citra! Double IPA;
• 2nd – Short StoryBrewing, Two For The Show Double IPA;
• 3rd place tie among Parkersburg’s Cell Block 304 Brown Ale, Country Boy’s Living Proof Brett Pale Ale, and Shale Brewing’s Roughneck Red Amber Ale.

Local – Regional Brewery News from Foam

We love beer festivals because we pick up all sorts of brewery news. Here’s some items we learned at Foam.

The Peddler Brewpub

Jay Fox, Peddler brewer, says be on the lookout for his new Mixed-Culture Saison and a Blueberry Wheat coming this week and next at the Huntington brewery. Right on the heels of those will be a New England-Style IPA. He’s ready for the summer weather.

Bad Shepherd Beer Company

The brewery is holding special tasting and tour programs during Charleston Art Walks, which take place the 3rd Thursday of each month. You’ll get to taste the brewer’s art and learn more about the beer-making process.

Short Story Brewing

They debuted a super new beer: Two for the Show DIPA. The brewery will soon open its new Street Food Kitchen and serve an international street-food-inspired menu led by chef Donnie Orr. They will match foods with their beers. This sound super.

Big Timber Brewing

The brewery is still hard at work to get its new Elkins production brewery in operation. That should occur sometime this summer. Once things get going there, they plan to add Logger Lager in cans. They expect two of their new 60-barrel fermenters will be devoted to Logger Lager production. It should hit the market by early fall. Meanwhile we’ll have Big Timber’s tasty Hatchet Session IPA, Blonde, and Logger Lager draft to keep us hydrated this summer.

Devils Backbone Brewing

Dallas Scherrer, sale representative, says Devils Backbone will have the new 16 Point Double IPA in the West Virginia market soon. Another new product will be Mile 842, which is an interesting sounding hybrid of a strong golden lager and an IPA.

Parkersburg Brewing

New seasonals are hitting the market says Amber Cain. They just released a Blackberry Sage Saison. Next up will be a new Coffee Blonde Ale. Sounds yummy.  And the brewery is still celebrating winning a gold medal at the World Beer Cup earlier this month.

Greenbrier Valley Brewing

Sam Walker-Matthews, GVBC’s GM, says they have some great stuff coming up. First off, a new Kolsch-style FestiveAle will be out in distribution in time for the summer festival season. At the brewery taproom, they have a creative line-up of small-batch brews planned. You’ve got to get over there to try them.

Dobra Zupas

Chuck Noll, Dobra Zupas brewer, says their Key Lime Gose went over so well that he has made a bunch more. The brewery will be part of a Pop-Up Pub at Tamarack this Saturday and taking along their Jagged Little Pale, a Citra late-hopped West Coast-style pale ale.

Weathered Ground Brewery

Anthony Meador, WBG’s assistant brewer, says the brewery is getting ready to release a new hoppy lager in the pub and to distribution. Their Rad Roots Farmhouse Ale is coming out this week. Also look for an experimental small-batch pale ale, featuring three uncommon hop varieties and fermented with a very funky, tropical yeast strain.

Stumptown Ales

Soon at the brewpub will be batches of a Berliner Weisse and a Holy Citra! variant featuring a different hop. Jon Robeson also says be on the lookout for beers out of his new barrel program. Brews like barleywines, big dark Belgian tripels, and more. Open 7 day/week.

Chestnut Brew Works

Josh Taylor, assistant brewer, says they have a new session IPA brewed with three Munich malts and Simcoe hops. Also look for a stout brewed with rye, wheat and cocao nibs and an upcoming India Pale Lager brewed with Amarillo, Simcoe and Citra hops.

Stone Brewing – Richmond

Jason Coleman, WV field rep for Stone, says be on the lookout for fresh Ruination IPA and Go To IPA, which is hitting the market now. Their once-every-two-years Totalitarian Russian Imperial Stout is also drinking nicely now. With a new recipe, this year’s version is brewed with flaked oats and Magnum and Belma hops.

Sophisticated Hound Brewing

Owner Matt Barnett says his new taproom will open June 9 in downtown Princeton. Longwall Lager and Mahaffey’s Irish Red Ale will be introduced then. The taproom will be open three days a week. Also look for the seasonal Backwoods Bourbon Ale, which is Racer 8 Stout aged for four months in a bourbon barrel with vanilla beans.

Berkeley Springs Brewing

Charleston distributor Michael Folio says fresh Berkeley Springs Brewing beers should be back in the market now that the brewery is in production at its new location. Popular Stonewall IPA and CaCapon Kolsch will be back in stock for the summer in southern West Virginia.

Country Boy Brewing

WV sales rep Josh Holland wants everyone to know that Country Boy has a great summer line-up available. Look for Ghost Gose, Living Proof Tart Saison to go with Half Way Home Pale Ale and the hot-selling Cougar Bait Blonde.  And if you see it, check out the Key Lime Cougar Bait.

Bridge Brew Works

The guys at Bridge Brew are readying their new open-air brewpub at the Fayetteville brewery. It’s a beautiful structure that you’ll want to see.  Get over there this summer and enjoy some fresh Mountain Mama. Watch for the grand opening date coming soon.

More photos of the day

(Click on photo to enlarge)

Festival website link

The Charleston Main Street organization did an outstanding job with the festival this year. Beer lines were never long. The beer selection was very good. Brilliant Stream would like to send to a big thank you to all the scores of folks who volunteered their time to make Foam at the Dome such a success. You guys are the best.