Wheeling beer festival honored

Maybe it’s because we’re now in the season of thanksgiving, but when reflecting back on the the past year, I’m still amazed by what had to be the most remarkable occurrence of giving I’ve seen connected to a local beer festival in West Virginia. And it revolves around a mallet.

Two days prior to each year’s festival, Wheeling’s Mountaineer Brewfest always holds a big dinner for sponsors and those who purchase V.I.P. Plus tickets. The VIP Craft Beer & Food Pairing event features beers from a featured West Virginia brewery paired with a four-course meal designed by Executive Chef John Greenwald at Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack.

This year, the 290 dinner attendees enjoyed four scrumptious courses paired with Screech Owl Brewing’s Rough Cut Porter, Wild and Wonderful Strawberry Ale, Class 3 Whitewater IPA, and Bold Blonde Ale. The VIP dinner went very well, as usual — but a new activity added to the evening event (involving a mallet) turned out to be extraordinary. 

Now for the remarkable part

Something you need to understand about Mountaineer Brewfest: It is well-known for its charity. Each year, it excels in donating a huge chunk of its proceeds to a local nonprofit group. And each year, the festival has upped its contributions by working hard to raise more money. This year’s selected charity was the Seeing Hand Association, which provides employment, training, and other services to blind and visually impaired persons in the Upper Ohio Valley.

On brewfest day each August, the festival always opens with a formal procession led by bagpipers and festival committee members. The procession winds its way through the festival grounds and ends with an event called The Tapping of the Firkin. Using a provided wooden mallet, an honored guest hammers the tap into the cask, and the first beers are poured. It’s a cool, sort of nostalgic way to open the festival.

Well, earlier this year, when the festival committee was brainstorming ideas to enhance their 2022 event, one committee member had a novel suggestion. Instead of just having an honored guest tap the cask, they should auction off the mallet and let the winning bidder have the honor of tapping the firkin. The committee liked the idea. Maybe it would raise a few extra dollars, they thought.

“So at the VIP dinner we had this auction,” explained Jeff Hayes, Mountaineer Brewfest’s founder and president. “We didn’t know where it was going to go. We started out the bidding at $200, and it just went sky high.“

Higher, then higher still. It didn’t end until a guy named Harvey Greenidge bid an incredible $2,300 for the mallet. Wow. No one expected that.

Roger Johnson of Screech Owl Brewing, who was there to introduce his beers at the dinner, said he’d never seen anything like it. “I was amazed. The community came out hugely to support this charity and the Brewfest. There was a lot of money gathered for the charity that night.“

Greenidge, the man with the mallet

Originally from New York City, Harvey Greenidge moved to Wheeling a while back to run the Highland Sports Complex, which is a 200,000 sq. ft. facility with a variety of fields, courts, and associated amenities.

When asked what led him to make the high bid, Greenidge said the spirit of community service is why he is in Wheeling. “That’s why I was brought here, to help give back to the community here in Wheeling, and any way I can help, I try to do that.”

Greenidge was very pleased to help with the festival’s fundraising through his purchase of the mallet and also through his business being a festival sponsor. “The Seeing Hand Association is a great asset to the community helping the visually impaired,” he said.

When festival day arrived, Greenich performed his tapping duties with perfection. In his career, Greenidge has played plenty of different sports, but tapping a cask was something new for him. “lt’s my very first time doing it,” he said. He even admitted that he cheated a little bit by looking up videos on YouTube “so I wouldn’t have beer spilling all over the place.”

Big Timber Brewing of Elkins, WV, provided a fresh cask of ForestFest Oktoberfest beer for the occasion.

Just blows me away

“The input from our community has just blown me away,” said festival President Hayes.

Festival board member Jeff Yorkovich explained that festival financial revenues come mainly from two pots. One is the proceeds of the overall festival, primarily made up of ticket sales, sponsorship donations by businesses and organizations, and food vendor space registration fees. Wheeling businesses and organizations have always stepped up to the plate to help underwrite some of the festival’s basic overhead. This year over 40 were involved, including title sponsor, Wheeling Island Hotel-Casino-Racetrack, which has been the title sponsor since the festival’s beginning in 2014.

The second pot of revenue is from tips received by beer pourers. Members of Circus Saints & Sinners, a volunteer community service club, pour beer in the festival’s beer garden area. The servers accept tips throughout the day and all their tips are combined and then matched by a special donation obtained by the club from local businesses.

Charity a trademark of beer festival

All this work, all these sponsorships, all the tickets purchased by craft beer fans, all the tips, all the brewers and distributors who bring their beer — it all culminates in a big check made payable to a local charity. This year that happened on September 29 at a ceremony in Wheeling. The festival’s news release stated:

“The Mountaineer Brewfest Committee is extremely pleased to announce that proceeds from the August 20th, 2022 festival resulted in a donation of $40,000 to the Seeing Hand Association. The donation included proceeds from the festival totaling $26,000 and $14,000 generated by volunteers of the Circus Saints & Sinners in tips and matching donations.”

Seeing Hand leaders appreciative

Seeing Hand Association Executive Director Karen Haught reacted to the donation: “We are extremely humbled and grateful to the Mountaineer Brewfest for believing in our mission and working hard to give us this incredible gift.”

Theresa Kurtz, operations manager for the Seeing Hand Association said, “This is a game changer for us this year. For a little organization such as us to be chosen means the world. It’s going to help us provide our programs and even extend some programs and employment opportunities.“

Kurtz says the association, which was founded in 1946, is not government funded and constantly has to work hard fundraising for every dollar of donations it receives. She said they could always use more volunteers, but they get the job done.

Homebrew club integrally involved

It is also a pleasure to see the festival committee including representatives from the local homebrew club, the Wheeling Alers, as active members. “Absolutely, they’re a part of it,” says Fest President Hayes. “I’ve got three of them sitting on my committee. I’ve turned much of the work organizing and managing the brewers over to them.” 

Working with Hayes, the Wheeling Alers take charge of managing a favorite part of the festival line up: the West Virginia brewers section. This year, 14 WV breweries and one cidery participated. “It’s a very professional relationship,” as Hayes sees it. “Their team just rocks.”

Mountaineer Brewfest presented a $1,000 check to the Wheeling Alers Home Brew Club for their efforts and support at this year’s event.

WV Beer Festival of the Year

An uncompromising commitment to community

West Virginia was blessed with a number of wonderful beer festivals during 2022. Hops on the Mon again filled Morgantown’s High Street with revelry. OktoberWest packed more people onto the streets of Charleston’s Elk City District than the law should allow. Rails & Ales brought its usual contingent of excellent beers to Huntington. We saw many successful smaller festivals too. But no other beer festival auctioned off a mallet for $2,300 and donated $40,000 to a local charity. That’s why Brilliant Stream honors Mountaineer Brewfest as West Virginia Beer Festival of the Year, 2022.

Congratulations to all the volunteers, sponsors, festival committee members, Circus Saints & Sinners, and Brewfest honcho Jeff Hayes for their outstanding contribution to community and to craft beer culture in West Virginia.

LINKS

Mountaineer Brewfest website