Building brewery success in southern West Virginia

Sophisticated Hound Brewing Company has become an anchor in downtown Princeton’s Mercer Street Grassroots District. The brewery’s success in attracting a crowd every week produces business for it and for the other small businesses in the district, which is described as a blossoming neighborhood where Craft, Culture and Commerce come to thrive.

Matt Barnett is our guest on West Virginia Beer Roads. Hear how he founded, built, and operates Sophisticated Hound Brewing Company. The lessons he’s learned are a roadmap for how to operate a successful brewery in a small city that is a bit off the craft beer main road.

Watch video on Brilliant Stream’s YouTube Channel

Listen to the Audio Podcast

Brewery Bits

• Sophisticated Hound Brewing began in a small garage with tiny one-barrel brewing equipment. Now they brew on a 10 barrel system. and have a beautiful taproom in downtown Princeton.
• The brewery purchased a new canning system this winter and hopes to expand its distribution footprint. Beginning in March, start looking for its canned product in the Charleston, Huntington, Beckley, and Morgantown markets.
• The core beer lineup are all very approachable to folks who may not have a lot of experience with craft beer.
• Matt Barnett is basically a self-taught brewer. He says he went to several Oktoberfest events and began thinking brewing would be a good job to have. So he began buying home brewing kits and then moved up to bigger equipment, eventually getting a commercial brewery license.
• The brewery is named in honor of the owner’s rescue greyhound dog.
• Sophisticated Hound began with only four beers, but now keeps over 30 beers in rotation at the taproom, with eight to ten of them on tap at any given time.
• The taproom has a great outdoor beer garden which features live bands during warm weather seasons.
• The brewery recently added hamburgers to its taproom menu to go along with its popular pizza and panini fare. Also has plenty of salads and apps.
• The taproom recently began offering local mead from Old World Winery in Monroe County.

LINKS

Sophisticated Hound Facebook Page
Article from 2018 when SHBC opened its new taproom