WV beer news from Foam
July 26, 2023
In between beers at last weekend’s Foam At The Dome craft beer festival in Charleston, WV, your Brilliant Stream correspondents picked up a good bit of beer news from area brewers. And here it is, straight from the brewery reps.
The Freefolk Brewery
Upcoming Releases: Flying Squirrel Pale Ale, which is flavored with locally foraged spruce tips (both cans & draft). Folktober Fest Marzen beer; and Candy Darter, a sour ale flavored with local sumac berries and cranberry.
Upcoming Event: Folktober Festival — September 20-24 — a week-long fall festival at both their Fayetteville and Hico taprooms. Marzen release on Sept. 20th.
Fife Street Brewing
Upcoming Brews: Late summer focus will be on the hop-forward hazy-juicy Myrtle Beach IPA, Kanawha Kettle Sour, Fife the Power Black IPA, and All You Need Is Dub Belgian Dubbel
Hot Stuff: Lower-alcohol summer beers like their Straight Kölsch and Walkway Session IPA are selling like hotcakes. 4-packs of Fife Street Brewery cans have also taken off.
Berkeley Springs Brewing
Upcoming Releases: Craft Lagers including a Munich Helles, and of course, their annual Applebutter Ale, with ingredients including hand-pressed apple juice from fresh apples and applebutter spices
Hot Stuff: IPAs and lighter styles like Cacapon Kölsch and Coolfont Cream Ale. Live music at the brewery each month.
Clendenin Brewing
Upcoming Brews. Watch this fall for barrel-aged beers rested in barrels from Bullock Distillery in Charleston, both gin and bourbon variety.
Hot Styles Right Now: Sours like Key Lime, Tropical, and their flavor-your-own sour: Tangy Temptation
Watch For: Chillin’ on the Elk Festival, Clendenin Brewing and other WV breweries, October 7th
Country Boy Brewing
Upcoming Releases: Oktoberfest is their fall seasonal, with wide distribution of canned 6-packs and draft. Cherry Cobbler Berliner Weisse (vanilla cherry cinnamon flavored). Pineapple Orange and Guava Sour, and Prime Directive IPA an easy-drinking hazy with Mosaic, Citra, Eldorado hops.
What’s Hot: Selling well are their rotating seasonal IPA selections like Prime Directive; the more easy-drinking brews like Herd Country Lager, Hillbilly Hustle (with lemon, ginger, blackberry added), and Keeneland Spring Lager. Two styles getting traction in WV: Hoppy IPAs and easy-drinking stuff.
New at the Brewery: They recently bought 8 fermentors from DuClaw Brewing in Maryland (an operation which was recently sold to another brewery). These fermentors will help Country Boy meet the growing demand for their beer.
High Ground Brewing
Upcoming Releases: Their classic and very popular Mark It Zero Golden Stout. Also coming soon is their annual release of Famous Monster Oktoberfest Beer.
Upcoming Events: Art Market at the brewery, with creative folks and their wares. Oktoberfest Party in late September with 6 or 7 German-style beers.
What’s Hot: Their Weird Science ale, is on a big upward roll. It’s brewed with kviek yeast and undergoes a super fast, super hot fermentation that turns out a lager-like beer. Flavored with Zappa hops.
Sierra Nevada Brewing
Upcoming Releases: Sierra Nevada Oktoberfest, which this year is a collaboration with Kehrwieder Creative Brewery out of Hamburg, Germany. (It’s a younger German brewery, whose brewmaster attended brewing school with Sierra Nevada’s Mills River N.C. brewer.)
Next Hazy IPA in their Rotator Series will be Dank Little Thing. Also, Juicy Little Thing will soon return as a year-round beer this time.
What’s Hot: Hazy, hazy, and more hazy. Last year, Hazy Little Thing IPA hS surpassed SN Pale Ale as their best selling beer. Hite says they’re still the number one selling family of craft brews in West Virginia. Also scorching hot, Hite says, is their showcase Mill’s River brewery, which a lot of people call “Malt Disneyworld”. Business there is very briskI. It features a bunch of special R&D beers and one of the best restaurants in North Carolina.
Bridge Brew Works
New/Upcoming Releases: Pillow Rock Pilsner, Iapetus Gose with a tangerine twist this year, and Bridge Brew Oktoberfest Bier
Check It Out: Bridge Brew’s outdoor beer garden with its beautiful timber-framed open air pavilion. It’s a hoppin’ place to be. Mountain Mama’s food truck has returned. Also featuring food trucks by Cast Iron Smokers and Pepper Junkies.
Parkersburg Brewing
New/Upcoming Releases: Confluence Kolsch in kegs and cans. Mojo Coffee Milk Stout and On the Lam Oatmeal Stout return.
Upcoming Events: Oktoberfest at the brewery in October. This year, it’s a fundraiser for local arts center.
What’s Hot: Kolsch, Hip Hef Hefeweizen and their IPAs.
Big Timber Brewing
From Wayne Border, Brewery Representative
Upcoming Releases : ForestFest Oktoberfest, New Seltzer Flavor
Hot Brands: Their Big Timber IPA continues very strong, accounting for about one-fifth of their overall annual beer sales. Also flying off the shelves are Hazy IPAs, Sours, Lagers, and the lovely Big Timber Porter, which won medals at both the Great American Beer Festival and World Beer Cup over the past year.
Upcoming Event: Grand opening of new BTB Taproom in Elkins in time for the 85th annual Mountain State Forest Festival celebration beginning in late September.
Bad Shepherd Beer Company
A crowd gathers around the Bad Shepherd Beer Company tent. Must have had some good stuff on that beer menu.
Your beery, cheery Brilliant Stream correspondents
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