A mission to Jackie O’s Brewery

Beer from Jackie O’s Brewery has become a lot more familiar to West Virginians, since this Athens, Ohio-based brewery began distributing in our state last year. We invite you to spend an hour with Erin and Charles exploring the latest news from Jackie O’s Brewery on this episode of West Virginia Beer Roads.

Seth Morton, JO’s director of brewery operations, joins us for a discussion of all things Jackie O’s. We’ll get into many aspects of business at Jackie O’s, which certainly retains its spot as one of the true outstanding brewers in the Appalachian region. You have to love that we can now purchase this beer at our favorite craft beer outlets in WV.

Listen to Episode 70 of WV Beer Roads

Morton brings his brewing expertise and enthusiasm to the podcast — and offers a special message to West Virginia craft beer fans who have helped his brewery’s beers sell well in the Mountain State. “If you’re listening in West Virginia,” he says, Thank-you very much.”

Morton said that the West Virginia market continue getting the same selection of beers that is available to the Ohio distribution market. Of course, what hits the shelves and taps does depend on which of those Jackie O’s brands the beer distributor actually purchases. In West Virginia, Jackie O’s is represented statewide by Johnson Bros.-Mountain State Beverage.

Jackie O’s produces stellar beers in many styles

While their core brands, standard seasonal, and a few of their specialties are available to West Virginia retail, many more types of specialty and small-batch beers are only available at the Jackie O’s motherships in Athens. So it’s definitely worth an occasional trip there to see the full breadth of this brewer’s expertise.

Their amazing array of bottled, barrel-aged beauties rivals any brewery in the country. They excel at spirits-barrel-aged, Imperial-strength Stouts, Barley Wines, and Porters. Also, their time-tested barrel souring program produces some of the best traditional fruited sour beers of any American brewer.

In the past few years, the brewery has also upped its production of clean, crisp lagers and other easy drinking beers (such their 4.5% ABV Ricky Golden Ale). Those beers are growing rapidly in popularity, as the brewery proves it can brew excellent lagers too. Its Athens taprooms each feature up to 20 or so taps of standard beers, sours, and BA Imperials. You will also find there a selection of bottled barrel-aged specialties and six-packs of core brands in 12-oz. cans.

Podcast fills you in

Some of the fun and informative stuff you’ll hear about on this podcast includes:

• Recent grand opening of their Columbus taproom;
• West Virginia becomes JO’s top market outside of Ohio;
• Details on JO’s Imperial Scout program and how to get involved;
• Upcoming Ohio Brew Week participation, July 7-15
  (Use this link to explore the Ohio Brew Week website);
• Can art by a West Virginia artist;
• Tasting notes on two new beers — Shop Dog IPA and Double Barrel Temple of Minerva Imperial Stout— both being released in July;
• Seth’s comments on several of JO’s famous past beer releases;
• A bunch of other topics.

Check out Jackie O’s website to find the plethora of beers currently available and the location of their four Ohio taprooms.

Jackie O’s website link