From a flood to a pour: the Clendenin Brewing story

The story of Clendenin Brewing Company begins in 2017 following the big Elk River flood of June 2016 that had devastated Clendenin’s business community.

You see, Clendenin is the hometown of hospitality industry entrepreneurs Matt and Nikki Holbert, who both grew up in that area. Matt and Nikki have since gone on to become founders/operators of two Charleston restaurants and other enterprises, but are two people who never lost touch with their Elk River roots.

Following the big flood, both felt a strong desire to do what they could to help their home area recover economically. In 2017, when the opportunity arose to purchase Clendenin’s classic Farmers & Citizens State Bank building, they jumped on it. While initially they weren’t real sure what all they could do with it, they were sure they would rehab the building and turn it into an asset for the community.

Their initial restoration project turned the building’s upstairs into four bed and breakfast rental units, with space to build out four more. This gave the town some much-needed high-quality lodging space for visitors to downtown. Each room has a different theme, all designed to give guests a special vacation feel.

Once opened, the occupancy rate at their “Take Me Home” bed and breakfast inn has been very high. The BnB’s success helped prove that Clendenin could be an overnight destination for out-of-town visitors.

More visitors create need for more amenities

With more people coming to the town, Matt and Nikki knew the town needed more things to offer its visitors. Food and beverage options downtown were few.

At their popular Charleston restaurants, the Holberts always featured craft beer on their taps and well understood its draw. Through the years they had given some thought to starting a brewery of their own, but never made the move until Clendenin came calling. “When we started building Airbnb rooms upstairs, we said, ‘You know what, maybe the brewery idea is a good match for this building,'” Matt explained. “One thing led to another, and five years later, here we are.”

The COVID pandemic slowed the brewery project development down a little bit, but they never wavered from the idea that a brewery could work there. Slowly, they began purchasing used brewing equipment from various sources and various places. They began working with Matt’s brewing friend, Tom Dawson from the Tidewater Virginia area, who helped them finally pull it all together and get a working brewery set up. Last year, renovations began for a taproom space on the building’s main floor. Things got serious over the past winter and work advanced quickly, culminating in late May with receipt of their final state brewery licenses.

Soft-opening days started on the first weekend in June and continued each weekend prior to their scheduled June 25 Grand Opening.

Encouraged by initial response

Nikki and Matt realize that they are breaking new ground and it will take time for the local population to become acclimated to what a local brewery is and what it offers. That being said, they’ve been encouraged by their initial soft opening weeks. “We’ve already seen quite a few young couples who are locals,” Matt says. They sense that a segment of the local citizenry is appreciative that they can walk downtown to a welcoming, clean, bright, family-friendly establishment and get a local beer, even if it’s the first West Virginia-made beer they may have ever tried.

Nikki believes they will introduce craft beer to lots of formerly non-craft-drinking people—folks who don’t now drink it due to the fact that they haven’t really ever been exposed to much of it. “Even the bars up here don’t carry much craft beer,” she says. If Clendenin Brewing experiences what so many other small breweries have found when opening in little towns that didn’t have much craft beer, they’ll soon make plenty of local converts. So many folks discover they have a taste for craft once they give it a try.

Clendenin area on the move

When discussing why they have so much confidence in the Clendenin and Elk River area, which has suffered through some really tough times, Matt says he sees a bright future led by recreation and tourism.

“I think that the Clendenin/Elk River area is becoming sort of a weekend vacation club for folks from the Kanawha Valley, Charleston and Huntington area,” Matt says.

He feels the town and its area already offer a lot with much more on the horizon. He notes that there is a rapidly growing recreational tourism component with bicycling, river floating, and fishing all getting going. A large public investment in the Elk River Trail has started paying off in hundreds of weekend bikers, hikers, and horseback riders. Summer weather brings out the kayakers and now supports two local river rental/outfitter businesses. The town allows side-by-sides and other ATVs to operate on city streets, and you see plenty of those too. The Elk River also attracts anglers from far and wide, as people continue to regularly catch trophy-size muskies and other freshwater fish.

The town is also getting more active in scheduling and promoting local festivals and events — as evidenced by last fall’s initial Chili’N on the Elk beer & chili festival. Helping improve Clendenin as a festival venue will be a new riverside entertainment stage, which is currently under construction in downtown and should be completed in time for the town’s 4th of July celebration.

When it comes to building a more significant tourism industry in Clendenin, Matt and Nikki believe that the brewery could be the glue that connects all of these other dots together.

“People who enjoy outdoor recreation are the same types of people who enjoy craft beer,” he says. “I tell people all the time that there’s no silver bullet for Clendenin, but there’s enough parts that when you add them all together, you come up with something pretty cool.”

Nikki adds, “It’s just nice to be bringing something nice to Clendenin. Hopefully, it helps the area grow a little.”

Matt also feels that Clendenin is being helped along by a very progressive mayor—Kay Summers— and town council who are doing the things necessary to help the town reinvent itself as a tourist destination.

The Brewing System

Brewing at Clendenin is conducted on two electric 50-gallon mash-tun/boil-kettle combo units. When double batching, these units can produce around 160 gallons of wort a day. That translates to about four barrels of finished beer. They have several fermenters, the larger of which can hold 5 barrels. They are currently looking for additional fermentors so they can increase the variety of beer they offer. They already own some larger brewing equipment, including a three vessel brewhouse and canning line, which they may someday use to move up to the next phase of beer production and beer distribution. But until then, they plan to brew on their pilot system.

About moving up to the larger system, Matt explains that they don’t have a specific timeline because they first want to be sure they are consistently producing very high quality beer.

Tom Dawson continues to lead the brewing sessions with Nikki doing duty as assistant brewer. Tom will continue to come up mostly on weekends to brew until Clendenin Brewing hires its own brewer, probably by late this summer. They are beginning to talk with prospective brewer candidates now.

Matt and Nikki say they are very appreciative of the assistance they received from area business development organizations which has helped them raise the capital needed for the brewery start up. They say Clendenin Brewing Company has received ongoing support from state and local economic development offices. “The company was the first-ever recipient of Advantage Valley’s FASTER WV loan program, providing an influx of much-needed capital to purchase a portion of the brewing equipment,” they said.

Big Grand Opening event set

The town of Clendenin will be joining in for the Grand Opening ribbon cutting ceremony, which takes place on Saturday, June 25 at 11:00 AM. According to Matt, the ribbon cutting will be led by Mayor Kay Summers, joined by other dignitaries from state, county and local government. Clendenin’s Main Street will be closed for the day as The Mark Miller Band will be playing on the stage immediately after the ceremony. Vendors will be setup along the street offering local, handmade crafts along with face-painting and other activities. There will be games for people to play, including a cornhole and axe throwing tournament with prizes awarded for top finishers.

Grand opening beer line up

Grand Opening beers will include:

• Clendenin Cream Ale — a very approachable pale beer, easy to drink, light flavor, low bitterness. 6.3% ABV
• Amber Knights Ale — A drier ale with toasted malt flavors that is very approachable. 5.7% ABV
• Mothgirl Citrus IPA — A standard American IPA with low bitterness and lots of citrus aroma and flavors from the hops. 6.4% ABV
• Pentacre Porter — rich with a chocolate-coffee signature from the roasted grains.
• Big Sandy Session IPA — lighter body, nicely hopped, lower alcohol.
• Toehead Blonde — a mild easy drinking pale colored beer.

Beer flights will be offered in addition to pints and 10-oz. pours, which provides a nice variety of sizes for thirsty customers. Cans of to-go beers will also be available.

A Clendenin Brewing beer will also be on tap at Paddlers, a restaurant & bar in downtown Clendenin. Charleston residents can expect to occasionally see a little bit of Clendenin Brewing beer at the restaurants owned by Matt and Nikki, including Bricks and Barrels and Axes and Ales. But for the full beer menu experience, though, you’ll need to get to up Elk to Clendenin.

For more information, follow the brewery Facebook Page.

To see an earlier article about the brewery development in progress, follow this link.

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Clendenin Brewing Company
2 Main Street
Clendenin, WV