Three WV beers honored at Rails & Ales

Rails & Ales Craft Beer Festival held its first beer competition at the festival Saturday in Huntington, WV. Three WV beers were judged superior out of entries from 11 West Virginia breweries.

Brewers were each allowed to submit into the competition one beer they were serving at the festival. Beers were judged blind and scored according to BJCP guidelines by a team of six experienced beer judges. Head judge Dave Zalewski of Chesapeake, OH, said all of the entries were outstanding with five beers advancing to the best-of-show round. 

Out of the five finalists, three were honored with trophies for excellence, and one received honorable mention. They were:

• First Place: FestivAle Kölsch, Greenbrier Valley Brewing, Maxwelton
• Second Place: Overcast Hazy IPA, Big Timber Brewing, Elkins
• Third Place:  Ice Cream Summer Milkshake IPA, The Peddler, Huntington
• Honorable Mention:  Coal Train Baltic Porter, High Ground Brewing, Terra Alta

These beers are all solid

FestivAle: It really was not a surprise to see that the judges loved FestivAle Kölsch. Earlier this summer, Brilliant Stream lauded FestivAle Kölsch, finding it on point for a great summer drinking experience. We called this year’s version a spot-on beauty and highly recommended it.

Brian Reymiller, Greenbrier Valley’s Director of Brewing, says he thinks using the correct ingredients is what makes this beer. More specifically, he credits the use of an authentic yeast strain and proper fermentation management. “Kölsch is all about subtlety,” he says.

Overcast: Even though it is a newer release in limited distribution, Big Timber’s Overcast Hazy IPA has quickly received great consumer acceptance and has been much sought after around the state. Hazy IPAs have certainly been one of the hot craft beer styles nationally over the past couple of years, and it is great to see Big Timber’s hazy doing well. Big Timber head brewer Matt Kwasnieski believes it’s because the brewery is getting Overcast dialed in.

“I think hazy IPA is just a great style. It expands on what craft beer is and creates another unique drinking experience that extends palates that might otherwise not prefer beer,” he said. “I also love how temperamental hazies are. It really forces the brewer to hone their craft and keep the beer local, due to the instability of the beer.”

Ice Cream Summer: Jay Fox, head brewer at The Peddler, said he’s not exactly sure why people love his milkshake IPAs so much, but he’s glad they do. He describes Ice Cream Summer as a flavorful brew made with loads of oats, wheat, lactose, vanilla, and raspberries. Fox says it has a creamy mouthfeel and good balance between tart and sweet. It’s not too hard to imagine why the judges also liked it so well.

Coal Train: It shouldn’t be a surprise either that High Ground Brewing of Terra Alta nailed down an honorable mention notice. Only opening this spring, this brewery has come out of the gate strong and is certainly a contender for best new WV brewery, 2019. Its Coal Train Baltic Porter is a beautiful beer — and that is a style not easy to do well. Congratulations to Dallas Wolfe and his crew.

Beer judging a serious art

Our local beer judges do take their art very seriously. Judging took place Saturday afternoon at Huntington’s Heritage Station visitor center. This provided a comfortable, quiet place for the judging.  Brewers dropped off their entries in early afternoon, and judging took place from 2:00 – 3:30 p.m.  The results were announced at the festival at 6:00. Judging sheets were given to the brewers so they can review the comments.  

The judges were supplied by the Greater Huntington Homebrewers Association and included individuals with a lot of beer judging experience, as well as being competition medal winners themselves at the regional and national levels.

Big Timber’s Kwasniewski probably summed up all the winners thoughts when he stated that it is nice to get some recognition. “I don’t envy the judges when you have to judge any and all styles against one another,” he said.

With several of West Virginia’s major beer festivals now holding beer competitions, watching the winners is a good way to keep up with who’s making some of the more interesting beers in the state.

A proposal with merit

Kwasniewski did have one suggestion for the festivals that might help their competitions be more meaningful, and Brilliant Stream thinks it definitely has merit.

“I think it would be cool if some of the ‘open’ style competitions would select a style a year in advance and then give the brewers a chance to brew a beer in that style, if they don’t already have one,” he said. “I think it would help the judges to be able to compare something more apples to apples.”

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LINKS

Rails and Ales Craft Beer Festival
Greater Huntington Homebrewers Association

Travis King of WV Beer Guys also contributed to this article