Brewery coming to Martinsburg

UPDATE: This brewery project was cancelled. It move to Maryland.

One more local brewery desert in West Virginia will bite the dust when Homaide Brewing Company opens in Martinsburg next year. The brewery will be located in the building that also houses the Eastern Panhandle Bicycle Shop and the Pedalin Pints pub.

Brewery project organizer Stephen Perez informed Brilliant Stream that he will install and operate a brewery that includes a 5-barrel brew house and 20 barrels of fermentation space, along with kegging and canning equipment. He plans to self-distribute his product. The existing Pedalin Pints pub will serve as the brewery’s taproom.

While the new brewery will likely produce a wide variety of beer styles, Perez, who will lead the brewing, is partial to Belgian styles and enjoys using fruits, spices, and barrel aging. He expects the brewery will create two full-time and two part-time jobs. The project represents an investment estimated at $225,000.

Last summer, building owner Brian Weber told Brilliant Stream that he was seeking a brewery tenant for part of his building at 805 East Moler Avenue. Today, he explained that the proposal he received from Perez impressed him, so he agreed to lease the space to him. The brewery will take up 2,100 sq. ft. of space inside the 10,000 sq. ft. building.

Perez says the target opening date for Homaide Brewing is April, 2020. Martinsburg has not had a brewery since Mountaineer Brewing Company shut down in 2011. The Martinsburg/Berkeley County metro has approximately 120,000 people. It is currently by far the largest county in West Virginia without a local brewery.

The three counties of the Eastern Panhandle have been a hotbed of brewery activity in recent years. Since 2015, six breweries have either begun operation or are in development there. In addition to Homaide, they include Berkeley Springs Brewing and Cacapon Mountain Brewing in Morgan County and Abolitionist Ales Works, Bavarian Brother Brewing, and Rippon Brewing in Jefferson County.

Links

Homaide Brewing Facebook page
Peddlin Pints Facebook.Page