Brewery promos return to Kanawha Valley region

This week featured two brewery bar promotions at popular local area establishments. Fairways Bar & Grill in Teays Valley held a super Big Timber Brewing event and Gonzoburger in Charleston’s Elk City District conducted is first tap takeover with Bad Shepherd Brewing.

We love seeing the return of bar promotions that have largely been on hiatus the past two years due to the COVID pandemic. Tap takeovers and other similar promos give a small brewery the opportunity to highlight its products and expose them to new customers. The bar or restaurant benefits from the increased business and social media attention that the events generate.

Big Timber at Fairways

The Fairways event poured an incredible 11 different Big Timber beers. That is likely something that has never been seen before in our local market. Included were:

• Overcast Hazy IPA
• Double Bit DIPA
• Overgrowth Imperial IPA
• West Virginia West Hop Ale
• Alpenglow Fruited Sour
• River Cruiser Fruited Gose
• Frost Notch Winter Ale
• Big Timber Blonde Ale
• Logger Lager Pilsner
• Timber Cutter, a low-calorie, low carb IPA
• Hibernation Imperial Stout

Big Timber Brewing’s Jared Wray, who is the brewery sales manager, led the event and was ably assisted by Spriggs Distributing sales rep Michael Smith. Our beer distributors play a vital role in promotions of this sort, and Spriggs providing 11 different Big Timber beers was most impressive.

Bad Shepherd at Gonzoburger

Gonzoburger is a popular local burger restaurant not known for bar promotions, so it was great seeing them involved in an event of this type. At Gonzoburger, the four Bad Shepherd beers on tap included:

• Loral Brolands – a hazy IPA with Loral, Sabro and El Dorado hops;
• Red Sullivan – an Irish-style red ale produced for the St. Patrick’s Day season;
• Never Mind the Bullock Barrel, Here Comes Some Loud – their Loud IPA rested in a Bullock Distillery gin barrel;
• Dutch Baby – a blueberry and maple hefeweizen.

Head brewer Ross Williams and assistant brewer Michael Bonham were on hand to explain the beers and help direct customers to the one they’d like to pair with the popular Gonzoburger hamburgers and other menu items.

Links

Big Timber Brewing
Bad Shepherd Beer Company
Fairways Bar & Grill
Gonzoburger