Beer flows at Walton Mountain Brewing

THIS BREWERY CLOSED IN JUNE, 2019

Walton, WV — One entrepreneur is on an all-out assault to preserve and build community in his little neck of the woods. Walton Mountain Brewing Company is Tim Morgan’s main weapon in this fight.

Like many areas of rural Appalachia, Walton, West Virginia has faced on some hard economic times. Its former mainstay, the oil and gas industry, has moved its focus further north leaving Walton without much of an economic base. Facing severe population decline in recent times, many important fabrics of the community have either disappeared or have been worn thread-bare. Few local businesses and amenities remain to serve the folks who are committed to making Walton their home. Enter Tim Morgan and his wife and business partner Elonda.

Tim is one of those amazing, optimistic guys who has an uncanny ability to see through the fog and forge ahead toward solutions. He won’t take no for answer. His contrarian economic development strategy — to invest while others are running away — is proving itself in the success of his Walton enterprises. He is making a big difference in this little Roane County community.

Walton Mountain Brewing Company is the only brewery we know of that is combined with a true, old fashioned general store (d.b.a. Walton Mercantile & Hardware). The store half of the business sells just about any supply, grocery, and hardware that local residents and farmers might need. The brewpub half not only provides food and libation to the locals, but also brings money into the community by attracting customers from Ripley to Charleston and all parts in-between.

“A lot of our business is from out of town,” says Tim. “We’re trying to provide a destination to draw people in from out of town. We have people who come up almost every weekend from Charleston and bring their families.”

Walton Mountain Brewing has developed a nice reputation for bringing in top quality entertainment. Case in point is popular singer Whey Jennings, who has played the venue and will return there this year.

Not limited to just having popular bands, Walton Mountain Brewing does themed dinner shows with live entertainment and special foods. You will find a variety of fun events and holiday celebrations. Walton Mountain Brewing also does catering and has become the community’s main event center. The Morgans keep busy with weddings, private parties, dinners for sports leagues, and similar events.

Watch their Facebook page to keep up with specials like Friday Steak Nights, Pig Roast parties with house-made barbecue, and Karaoke.

Doing family-friendly well

One thing Walton Mountain Brewing does better than most any other West Virginia brewery is in making the place family friendly. So much of the brewery and general store floor space is taken up by family game areas — it’s very impressive. There are quoits, corn hole, electronic games, and more. No liquor or wine is served, only beer and soft drinks. Free buttered popcorn is always available for the asking.

A wide variety of sandwiches make up the core of the food menu. Wings, salads, fried pickles, onion rings, nachos, pizza, and several other appetizers are offered. You will also find desserts and a Kid’s Menu. The food is real good and prices are very reasonable. The newly enlarged kitchen means they can offer a lot more variety than they used to.

A nano with more

Tim describes his operation as a nano-brewery. “We can brew three to four barrels a month.”

His one-barrel brewing system limits him to small batches and he uses the frequent brew days as opportunities to tweak his recipes and brewing process You see, Tim is pretty new to brewing. The brewer who helped him open the place and who originally handled all the brewing chores has moved on, leaving Tim in charge of that too.

Tim’s lack of brewing experience didn’t deter him. He stepped right up and continued the brewing, learning more with each batch he made. And he is doing just fine. Still, you can tell that he is eager to learn, to get more skilled here. He seeks customer input on his brews and takes comments seriously.

HIs goal is to keep four core brews on tap and augment that with a rotating seasonal beer. Currently the core beers include: Gusher Blonde Ale, Rye Pale Ale, Derrick Stout, and White IPA. He is working on his seasonal line-up, which he will brew as capacity allows.

“We have the Black Walnut Festival [in nearby Spencer], so we thought of doing a black walnut beer or maybe a pawpaw beer.”

Right now, his biggest limiter is the lack of fermentation space. He only has two one-barrel fermentors. If his beers get more popular, and I predict they will, he will definitely struggle to keep his beers in stock. He wants to solve problem that by adding to his brewery capacity, but that would take another investment that he needs to save up for. His recent focus was investing in a new expanded kitchen. With that now complete, a brewery expansion is a distinct possibility.

Tim augments his house beers with other beer from West Virginia small breweries and regional craft breweries. A selection of the big, mass-produced beer brands is also available. He tries to have something for every beer palate.

The Morgans keep a nice line of branded merchandise including T-shirts, hoodies, can coozies, and more. T-shirts start at $9.99. It has been fun for them to see so many customers sending back photos of themselves in their brewery shirts at far-flung points around the world.

Forging ahead from 2001 to today

The Morgans originally moved to Walton in 2001 and purchased the property, operating it as a country store and hardware store. It’s not all been an easy ride. Tim says he began seeing significant population loss by 2015 . The next year, he started keeping track of all his customers who told him they were moving out of the area. By mid 2016, his count was up to 100 families that said were leaving. “At that point it was so depressing that I just quit counting.”

That’s when he decided it was diversify or die. He combined the hardware store into the main general store building and in 2017 opened his restaurant and nightclub in the former hardware store space. Over the next year, he got his brewery licensed and running. Walton Mountain Brewing began selling its own beers a little over one year ago in spring 2018.

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Walton Mountain Brewing Company

7177 Charleston Road
Walton, WV 25286
Phone: (304) 577-6700
Open Thursday though Sunday
Happy Hour: Thur.–Sat. from 5 to 7

Brewery Website • Brewery Facebook page