It’s true: brewery coming to Barboursville

Grand Opening now expected in first quarter of 2024

At last it’s happening. A local craft brewery is going to open in the region between Charleston and Huntington WV. The projected opening late this year of Köerber Beer Co. in Barboursville is such sweet music to the ears of the region’s craft beer fanbase.

The brewery’s founder, Jason Beter, who is a well-known Barboursville restaurateur, is making a bet on what Brilliant Stream firmly believes to be true: the Barboursville area has the right bones and the right demographics to become a stellar craft beer brewpub location.

At Brilliant Stream, we’ve long advocated for entrepreneurs to open small breweries in the Charleston-Huntington corridor. The towns and villages along that stretch of I-64 have the population base and favorable demographics for small craft brewery success.

Köerber Beer will produce popular styles

When it opens, Köerber Beer Co. will operate a 3.5-barrel brewing system with 17.5 barrels of fermentation space, which is a perfect size for supplying its in-house taproom, along with Beter’s two other restaurants, and for self-distribution to a few taps at other local restaurants and bars.

The brewery & taproom will operate at 650 Brady Street in a 4,000 square-foot space. The main brewery equipment, tanks and such have now been delivered and are being installed. Beter expects they will initially have three full-time employees when it opens. The project represents an investment north of $110,000.

“Our goal is to start out slow with a true 5-year plan,” Beter says. “Start small with the initial 3.5 bbl system. As we add more fermentors in the future, they will be 7 bbl.” 

With Beter’s experience and background in operating restaurants with lots of craft taps (currently the 1861 Public House and Oscar’s Breakfast, Burgers & Brews), we expect the beers that Köerber Beer Co. produces will primarily be popular, food-friendly beer styles. In fact, the brewery will sit just behind Beter’s pizza & beer place, the 1861 Public House.

Beter says the brewery will produce a couple of lagers/pilsners in addition to the mandatory IPAs, stouts, wheats, and other popular ales. Köerber will package its beer in kegs and will fill growlers/crowlers at the bar for take-out. A limited, light-fare food service at the taproom may initially be augmented by food trucks.

Köerber, a family business

Köerber Beer Co. will keep the brewing in the family with Jason’s son, Noah Beter, handling the duties of beer production.

“My youngest son [Noah] just graduated Marshall, but has chosen the career path as a brewer,” Jason explains. “Obviously, my businesses are focused around my family, so he is a natural fit to take the lead.”

Interestingly, Noah is receiving his commercial brewing training from two of our region’s well-established local breweries, Bad Shepherd Beer Company in Charleston and Chestnut Brew Works in Morgantown. You wouldn’t find businesses knowingly training a potential competitor in many other industries. That’s something to truly appreciate about the craft brewing industry. Camaraderie is a large part of what makes it strong, attractive, and successful.

At Bad Shepherd Beer Co., Noah recently got to assist with the brewing of Krista Dawn Blonde, which is the collaboration between Bad Shepherd & Oscar’s Breakfast, Burgers & Brews. Krista Dawn Blonde is named for Noah’s mom Krista.

Beer taps success leads to brewery development

Through the years, Beter has made good business by offering tasty, well-priced menu offerings, whether it be his popular pizzas at 1861 or the more eclectic breakfast and lunch fare at Oscar’s restaurant, which is located about five minutes away from the brewery site along busy Route 60. A big drawing card at both of his current restaurants are the well-curated craft beer taps — giving him lots of experience to work with in deciding what beer styles sell best and pair best with his food.

When he opened Oscar’s Breakfast, Burgers & Brews in 2017, Beter found immediate success — with much of that success coming from his craft beer service. He says he knew then that a brewery had to be a part of his future.

“We took small steps in buying equipment to homebrew with and started playing and learning,” he says. The ideas grew from there and have now culminated in Köerber Beer Co.

Local craft beer – the best beer business

What the nation’s craft brewing industry development patterns have demonstrated over the past decade is: Craft beer is at its best when it is local. The strongest category of breweries today, in our maturing craft beer market, are the ones down the street from where you live. Hyper-local is where the opportunities are in craft beer right now. Most of us would absolutely love to have a taproom open in our neighborhoods.

With the maturing of the craft beer industry, a growing number of West Virginians are showing their love for local craft beer — showing that love by opening up their pocketbooks. However, to say West Virginia has reached its craft brewing potential is a huge overstatement. WV is still one of the least-served states in locally-made beer.

The Huntington WV metro area, of which Barboursville is a part, currently has only one brewery — The Peddler, located in downtown Huntington. With a metro area population of 356,518 (2020 census) the region should easily be able to support several more small breweries.

For example, in nearby Charleston WV (metro population: 253,000), craft enthusiasts waited for nine years, after the city’s first downtown small brewery opened, before they got brewery Number Two. Nine whole years. Then last year, Charleston got its second and third breweries, plus a West Virginia brewery-owned remote taproom. Those developments are bringing hoards of people downtown. Now, anyone can plainly see the positive difference Brewery Row has made along a formerly sleepy block of Summers Street. It’s like night and day, business-wise.

Barboursville the lucky recipient

A brewery in downtown Barboursville will undoubtedly be a nice boost to other small businesses along Main Street. Brewpubs tend to bring a steady flow of customers with good disposable incomes — people who also favor shopping at other locally-owned small businesses. Unlike big liquor nighclubs, roadhouses, and the like, brewpubs tend to attract a more sober, mature, less-boisterous clientele that should be very compatible with the cool village scene in historic downtown Barboursville.

Brilliant Stream compliments Jason Beter for having the vision and confidence in his community that leads him to invest in a small brewery. Barboursville will be better off for it. And so will West Virginia.

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For more information and to follow the brewery development, see their Facebook page