WV brewery sales rebound from COVID

Have West Virginia breweries rebounded from the height of the pandemic? Read on to see what they say.

Brilliant Stream reached out to several of the state’s most successful and influential brewers to find out if there is a lingering effect from the COVID pandemic on our local beer market. Below, you’ll find the responses from Matt Kwasniewski of Big Timber Brewing, Kara Morrison of Greenbrier Valley Brewing, and Sam Fonda of Weathered Ground Brewery.

Though some brewers may have had quite different experiences, we figured the experience of these three would speak volumes about the overall state of the market for our local craft breweries.

Are beer sales back or not

Question 1

Overall, how well did beer sales go for you this-year versus last-year? Are sales back to pre-pandemic levels or are they even higher? 

Matt Kwasniewski/Big Timber — We’re about even for sales over last year down by 1% as of November. Both are above where we were prepandemic.  On pace for around 5,000 bbls. 

Kara Morrison/Greenbrier Valley — One thing holds true, West Virginia loves GVBC and our ever-growing sales attest to that love. The pandemic was so uncertain for the craft industry but supporting local never seemed to be a question for the craft consumers. Our sales have continued to increase, and we expect 2023 to be a record year at Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company. 

Sam Fonda/Weathered Ground — Our sales are slightly higher than 2021. We’ve grown internally in our taproom with sales and added staff to our kitchen to keep up. I feel like each year, we gain a stronger local presence as a taproom and restaurant. We’ve gained many new retail accounts this year and kegs are definitely back strong, where some of these accounts were buying only cans in 2020-2021. 

Question 2

During 2022, what shift, if any, have you experienced in percent of on-premise sales vs. off-premise sales. Do you see any changing trends there that are likely continuing? 

Kwasniewski/Big Timber — On-premise vs off-premise is about even year over year and on-premise is still way behind pre-pandemic levels.  Unfortunately, we don’t see much movement on that coming back yet but maybe one of these days.  Also, we probably are not working on premise to its full potential.

Morrison/Greenbrier Valley — Our off-premise sales have continued to increase each year as our space in convenience stores increases and as consumers are getting out, exploring, and bringing beer. Our friends in the on-premise world have definitely had a rough few years, but they have proven to be some of the most resilient of the businesses. Flagship kegs still reign as the best sellers, but our small batch variety sales are growing in popularity. Sales trends tend to be different for each packaging in the 11 distributor territories we have due to seasonal recreation, college schedules, and sports activities.

Fonda/Weathered Ground — We’ve seen a big shift in demand for our core brands. Cool Ridge Lager, Haggard IPA and Enniskillen Dry Irish Stout, specifically. This has caused us recently to no longer rotate brewing them in and out with our other lagers and IPAs, but instead to brew them more often. Brand new brands continue to move fast but some of our other “one-off” brands you’ll see less in the rotation.

Question 3

What beer style trends did see in your sales during the year? Has there been a significant movement in a style or two, sales up or down in 2022? 

Kwasniewski/Big Timber — Not a whole lot has changed, I feel, year over year on the style side (We seeing trends start to normalize, maybe!). Lower ABV still seems to be gaining some traction, but not a real noticeable amount over last year.  

Morrison/Greenbrier Valley — One GVBC trend that never goes out of style is our Devil Anse IPA; sales only continue to increase for our #1 best seller. The release of Braxxie Blonde Ale in February 2022 proved to be a great success and a gateway beer for domestic drinkers that usually steer away from Craft Brews. Our small batch Hazy IPA’s, Sour, and Gose’s have sold as quickly as they have been kegged, which has been a trend over the past few years that we do not predict change. 

Fonda/Weathered Ground — We really haven’t seen any trend change with styles. I think lagers continue to invite seasoned craft beer drinkers away from the crazy stuff and into the clean, crisp lager world. But the newer craft beer drinkers want the Hazy IPAs and fruited sours. Darker beer falls somewhere in between. There seems to be plenty of good mix. We just keep trying to make something for everyone and to manage it efficiently. 

Summary

Overall, our read from talking with these brewery folks and others is that sales are pretty much back to or slightly above pre-pandemic levels. We’re sure there are some differences in sales by beer style, but it appears that Hazy IPAs still rule the craft market roost in West Virginia. Craft Lagers, which seem to be exploding in sales for craft brewers in many parts of the country, are growing here too, but likely not nearly so much as in more advanced craft beer markets.

Big Timber and Greenbrier Valley are the number 1 and number 2 largest selling West Virginia craft breweries. Weathered Ground is arguably the state’s most influential smaller brewery.