OktoberWest 2023 in Photos

An absolutely gorgeous fall evening brought out a big crowd for beer drinking, socializing and Octoberfest-style competitions in Charleston WV. Thousands of folks turned out for OktoberWest 2023 on Saturday evening.

The five-hour long evening festival, held in the Elk City District, gave everyone something to cheer about. OktoberWest is organized by the Charleston Main Streets group as part of their economic development mission.

It was great seeing that the size of the crowd did not seem diminished by the recent national downtrend in beer festival attendance numbers. The Brilliant Stream team (Charles & Erin) were on hand to help cheer on the revelry and document the evening.

The participation of local Charleston breweries—Bad Shepherd, Fife Street, and Charleston Nano—were bolstered by beer tents from other West Virginia brewers and from the local beer distributors. It was great seeing reps and tents from other West Virginia brewers this year, including The Peddler, Big Timber Brewing, Bridge Brew Works, and Screech Owl Brewing.

The doors to Elk City’s original distillery, The Bullock Distillery, were also open all evening long. And from neighboring Kentucky, it’s alway nice finding a representative and beer tent from Country Boy Brewing.

Distributor tents also poured popular beers from other West Virginia brewers, including Parkersburg and High Ground.

It wouldn’t be a true Oktoberfest-style party without some German beers, like the ones at the North Central Distributors tent. Other distributors supporting the event were The Beverage Market, Spriggs Distributing, and Johnson Brothers – Mountain State Beverage.

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Representatives from the Kanawha Valley Homebrew Club were on hand in case anyone sampling all the beers wanted to learn how to brew them.

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At the end of the evening, brewer Kenny Graley of Charleston Nano Brewery was worn out from serving so much beer — the sign of a successful fest.

More Fun Photos from OktoberWest 2023

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