Fox Hops Brewery jumps into WV beer world

West Virginia Beer Roads traveled to Elkins, WV, to get this interview with Samantha Fox, owner and head brewer at Fox Hops Brewery. Fox Hops is a new brewery, tucked into the Appalachian Mountains, that opened in April 2024.

As this beautiful region of West Virginia moves from its traditional timber industry background to becoming a bigger and bigger tourism industry stronghold, the opportunity for new businesses, like small breweries, opens up.

Changing industries bring many new types of people to the region. Along with that change comes challenges. The mixing of old and new is never completely smooth.

A new generation of brewers

Samantha Fox represents a new generation of brewers who are forging their own paths in this still relatively new WV environment. They’re doing their take on craft beer and introducing new groups of customers to it. Keeping new blood entering the industry is so important to the craft beer industry’s future.

As the new interjects and blends with the old, it’s intriguing to watch this interaction play out in its effects on both breweries and their customers. To blaze a path through diverse clusters of customers, brewers must be adept at adapting to people with different backgrounds, different palates, and different sets of experiences and expectations.

In a large city, breweries can focus more narrowly on sets of styles and more specific customer preferences and still have enough business to make a go of it. However, in small market towns like Elkins, brewery taprooms must find business paths that produce beers with broader appeal.

Today, West Virginia’s local craft beer industry finds itself in a very fluid situation, with an interaction and flow that will continue to change and shape both brewers and customers.

An interesting fact about Samantha, that adds to her unique perspective, is that she is the only female brewery owner in West Virginia who is also the brewery’s head brewer.

So listen in to our interview with Samantha Fox and hear from one of the new pioneers in WV craft beer. We think you’ll enjoy her optimism and enthusiasm as she provides her views on starting up a small brewery in the mountains of West Virginia.

List to the podcast

Time & Topics

TIME (min/sec)	DISCUSSION TOPIC HIGHLIGHTS
1:06	How Samantha got into craft beer
2:13	Her brewing education
4:49	Tasting Sammy Saison
8:40	Starting her own brewery
11:14	Description of the taproom
12:49	Samantha’s brewing philosophy
14:20	Brewing education
15:30	Review of current taplist beers at Fox Hops
23:38	Food service at Fox Hops Brewery
25:16	Discussion of female-owned breweries
27:38	Pink Boots Society program
28:49	How to keep in touch with Fox Hops
29:10	Involvement in 2024 summer beer festivals

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Tasty dishes and special friends

Food service at Fox Hops Brewery includes Pimento Cheese Bites (the most popular appetizer) and Carnival Brats and PB & J Burgers (the biggest-selling sandwiches). Samantha also recommends trying their Sweet Pepper Cole Slaw, which is a traditional dish with a different twist.

As Samantha reviews her new career as a craft brewery owner/operator, she says she owes so much to her parents, Ginger and Eric Fox. Without their support she doubts she could have gotten the brewery up and running. She also credits help and moral support from Elkins bar owner Jimmy Poyner, of Jimbo’s, and from West Virginia brewers — especially Greenbrier Valley Brewing and Big Timber Brewing — and from all those who have blazed a brewing path here before her.

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Fox Hops Brewery

ADDRESS: 25 Bowstring Lane Elkins, WV 26241
HOURS: Open Daily, except Sunday, 4-10 pm
Facebook Page Link

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