Blackwater Brewing closed, is it gone for good?

Blackwater Brewing Company seems to have ceased production at its Davis, WV, facility. It is unclear whether the brewery will restart under new management.

Earlier this spring, Blackwater Brewing owner Lincoln Wilkins accepted a new full-time job as a medical science liaison with Alkermes, a pharmaceutical firm headquartered in Ireland. It is not clear exactly when Wilkins stopped brewing beer at Blackwater, but we hear it has been at least a couple of months.

Wilkins owns the building and brewing equipment, so he could lease or sell the brewery to another operator. That is one rumor on the street. We reached out to Wilkins over the past week or so but had not received a response as of the posting time for this article.

Barrels Brewhouse restaurant also closes

Barrels Brewhouse, a separate business which operated the restaurant and bar at the brewery, closed in early May at least in part as a response to Wilkins’ decision to change careers.

Barrels Brewhouse had leased the space from Wilkins after he decided to close his own Blackwater brewpub restaurant and focus on brewing. Barrels Brewhouse continued to feature the beers of Blackwater Brewing and became its de facto taproom. But without beer from the brewery, the business model made less sense.

“We closed on May 5th due to the landlord’s decision to pursue other interests,” said Matt Holbert, co-owner of Barrels Brewhouse with his wife Nikki. “Nikki and I made many new friends in Tucker County. We would like to thank our many loyal customers for their unwavering support.”

European-style session ales

When Wilkins purchased the Blackwater Brewing Company in December 2011, he brought a new professionalism to the establishment and created a solid menu of well-crafted beer.

“I brew European-stye session beers,” Wilkins told Brilliant Stream back in 2015.

He strived to make beer that was approachable and easy drinking. His Canaan Valley Kölsch, Angus Macker Hardy County Sweet Oatmeal Stout, and 320 Altbier were some of his early recipes and some of his best. His Goldenrod Gold Ale featured locally-sourced goldenrod honey, giving it a unique flavor that scored very well in the ratings. More recently, his Indigenous IPA was an attempt to broaden his style diversity into the popular contemporary IPA category. It was very well-received.

Overcoming the baggage

Blackwater Brewing Company is one of the state’s oldest craft breweries. Founded in 1998, it had operated in Davis ever since. Before Wilkins purchased the brewpub, though, the brewery had fallen on hard times with its previous owners. Beer quality had dropped; the physical facilities had gone downhill. Blackwater’s reputation in the market had suffered.

The first thing Wilkins had to do was clean-up, repair, and improve the brewery and the pub. Once that was done, he adapted his favorite brewing recipes to the brewing system and to the mountain water. Next, he went about repairing the brewery’s reputation.

“I decided to keep the Blackwater Brewing Company name because I liked it,” he told us in 2015, even though he knew the name came with baggage that would take time to fix.

Things didn’t happen overnight. With primarily he and his wife Amanda doing all the work, improvements took a lot of time. It also took time for people to give the brewery another chance.

As Wilkins got around the state to beer festivals, such as Bramwell Oktoberfest, Rails & Ales, and Foam at the Dome, his friendly persona, professionalism, and tasty brews attracted members of the craft beer community to him. He was a good guy and people liked him.

But it was never an easy road for the brewpub. Wilkins struggled to the find good employees needed to successfully operate the restaurant and grow the brewery. He put in many long days trying to keep the restaurant and brewery going. You could tell he was becoming frustrated. In the fall of 2016, he leased out the restaurant and bar space to Barrels Brewhouse and focused his time on running the brewery side. He had hoped to expand the brewery, enlarge its capacity, and get more into distribution, but those plans fell through. With a cramped brewing area, only a three-barrel system, a shortage of fermentation space, and a one-man operation, he was likely never able to get over the hump, so to speak, with the brewery business. Five and a half years of being the sole brewer without a break could wear out anyone.

Wilkins is a hard worker and a good brewer but it’s likely he just burned out a bit. We know he loved making beer, so it must have been a tough decision for him to walk away from it. Hopefully his new pharmaceutical industry job will renew his energy.

A native of West Virginia, Wilkins previously worked in the pharmaceutical industry in Louisiana after earning his PhD in Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of Kentucky. It was in Louisiana that he first became involved in craft brewing when he invested in a local brewery there. After the pharmaceutical firm where he worked was sold, he jumped at the opportunity to return to his home state and buy Blackwater Brewing Company.

Good luck to you Lincoln Wilkins wherever the road may take you. Thank you for the many years of excellent session beers.

Blackwater is the fourth brewery in West Virginia to close in the past year, joining Morgantown Brewing’s production brewery in Westover, Lost River Brewing in Wardensville, and Mash Brewing in Charles Town.