Short Story celebrates 5th anniversary

Short Story Brewing celebrates its 5th anniversary this weekend at the brewery in Rivesville, WV. We think five years is a very important milestone for a small business. It means it is undoubtedly doing most things very well. In Short Story’s case, it means they are brewing some truly awesome beer.

Since its inception, Short Story Brewing has developed into one of the state’s very top echelon brewers. We congratulate them on their success and look forward to an even more successful and tasty future for Short Story beer.

To get everyone up to date with the the brewery and its celebration, we asked brewery co-founder Aaron Rote a few questions. We share his answers here.

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Q & A

How does it feel to reach 5 years? 

In some ways it feels like 5 years has been a long time coming, and in other ways it feels like it flew by. Mostly, it feels like a relief to have made it five years. We survived our first 3 years and just when we started to hit our stride, COVID came along.  It was almost like starting over. Certainly never a dull moment in those first five years. 

What are one or two things that you think are the biggest accomplishments of Short Story Brewing during that time? Things you are most proud of.

Hard to pick two. I think we are part of a group of breweries that really helped raise the profile of West Virginia beer, and I think we did so by sticking to our principles. We always kept our community in focus, but we were also able to push into new territories and be part of the larger scene. I’m also really proud of the team we’ve built. We’ve been blessed to find the right people for every role.  It’s really fun to see your business grow to include people you love and respect. It’s still a joy to go to work most days!

What is something you have seen occur in the beer market the WV beer market that you wouldn’t expected five years ago?

I think it’s been interesting to watch some of the existing breweries change and evolve, and it’s also been cool to see new breweries come in with really specific styles and claim their own little corner of the market. Those two things together helped the WV beer market catch up where we used to be a few years behind the bigger trends. I think it also helped shield us from a huge influx of big out of state craft brands. If our beer wasn’t good enough, these big players could have swallowed up our sales. But that’s not what happened. I think the opposite may have happened. 

What are you most looking forward to in the next five years?

Normalcy! I think the first five years really prepared us for anything and we’ve built a brewery and a business that can withstand a lot of stress. But I’m optimistic that the next five years will be our best years, and we’ll get to realize our full vision.  

What are some highlights folks can expect at your brewery celebration weekend?

5 is a big a year, but we are playing it a little more casual! Sometimes these things get so elaborate that we don’t get time to enjoy the festivities.  So we’re giving people a whole weekend to come out and celebrate and invited some of our favorite musicians from the past five years, like Greg Short and Aristotle Jones.

Are you releasing any special beers for your anniversary?

Honestly, we have been working so hard to keep up that most of our special releases got pushed to later in the summer. We will be bringing back our Brown Ale, Hunt & Peck. And we’ll have basically a history lesson of our IPA production on tap. From Chasing Daylight to our recent collab with The Apothecary, The Phantom of the Apothecary. Grace and Jason, were the first two people to give us advice about opening a brewery, so that feels like we’re coming full circle a bit. 

And finally, when we asked Aaron if there was any upcoming brewery news he would like to share, he answered: “All I can say is that big things are in the works, and we hope to make an announcement very soon. Year six is going to be very eventful for Short Story Brewing.”

Watch Brilliant Stream for whatever big news is coming
from Short Story Brewing.

For a schedule and details of this weekend’s anniversary events, check Short Story’s Facebook page.