Wheeling’s big brewfest performs

Mountaineer Brewfest in Wheeling, WV, is coming up soon (August 17) and, if you’ve procrastinated, it’s time to get your tickets. Besides having so much tasty beer, food, and music, this festival is a winner for its give-back to the community.

No other West Virginia beer festival raises so much money for important local charities. No other festival does a better job recruiting, taking care of, and serving beer from West Virginia brewers.

Mountaineer Brewfest is one of our very favorite craft beer festivals anywhere. It does an exceptional job working with our West Virginia breweries. Brewers come back year after year because they are treated so well. For the festival attendees, this means you can always count on a super good list of WV beers on draft.

And beyond West Virginia beers, there are tons of others from national, regional, and international brewers at the beer distributor tents.

Doing good works

But even more impressive to me: I don’t think there is a festival in this state—and very few anywhere—that works harder and does more good for their community than Mountaineer Brewfest. No other brewfest does a better job involving so many co-sponsors from their community. To date, this fest has raised over $211,000 for its featured charities.

DATE: Saturday, August 17, 2024
TIME: 3:00 to 10:00 PM
PLACE: Wheeling Heritage Port, 1201 Water St. Wheeling, WV

Tickets on sale now

General Admission: $45 plus tax & fees. 4:00 pm entry
V.I.P. Admission: $80 plus tax & fees. 3:00 pm entry plus additional benefits
TICKET LINK

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Q&A with Brewfest founder Jeff Hayes

We got with the festival’s head organizer Jeff Hayes and did a Q&A. He provided some great insight and information on this year’s fest.

1. What would you say to someone who used to come to Mountaineer Brewfest but who has missed the past couple of years?

[Jeff Hayes] I would say, “Come on back, your friends are all here! But seriously, we always aim to do better and to be better year over year. We pride ourselves on being one of the best festivals throughout the state. We listen to our patrons and tweak what isn’t working and continue to fine-tune what is. Year after year we are focused on bringing something new and fresh to the city of Wheeling whether it be new brews, delicious food, or some of the best live entertainment you can find anywhere throughout our state.. Friends meet friends here. The Brewfest is a homecoming of sorts, we get to see friends who we may not have seen since last year’s festival and we hear the same thing from many of our festival patrons.  

2. Pick out a few highlights from the expected brewery/beer lineup that you think will excite craft beer fans this year.

[Hayes]  It is very important that we keep the festival fresh and so we are always looking to expand our lineup of Breweries and Beers. This year we will be featuring some of our familiar faces who have been with us since Year 1, along with Old Spruce Brewing (Snowshoe, WV) who will be visiting us for the first time.

Sifting through the beer lineup this year, there are several beers that I know I am excited to try and I think our patrons will be excited about as well. We will have beers from every end of the spectrum from a Russian Imperial Stout and both a coffee and donut stout to sours, blondes, and IPAs as well as everything in between. We will also be featuring several craft Ciders along with a craft Hard Tea for those individuals who haven’t located a style of beer that they enjoy. 

3. Talk about the food vendors, what should folks expect this year?

[Hayes] Great food compliments the great WV Craft Beer again at this year’s Brewfest. We have new and favorite returning artisan food vendors and everything from tacos, pizza, BBQ, seafood, and more. Our food vendor lineup this year includes  The Gringo Tacos, Ideal Provisions, Mister Crabs, Paleonardos, R&G SmokeShack, Wood Fired Pizza Co, and Midge’s Hotdogs.

4. You like to make live bands and music a big part of Mountaineer Brewfest. What do you look for in bands you hire for a featured spot at the festival and what type of music can attendees expect this year?

[Hayes] We like to have a mix of music genres for our attendees and include local talent but also bring in acts that the Northern Panhandle has not seen before. Finding the right bands takes many hours of combing through websites and videos to find the right bands for our crowd. We like to feature rock, and country, and we want our headliner to bring the energy for a party at the end of the night.

This year’s entertainment includes on our Main stage- “The Clintones” the ultimate 90’s rock band from Pittsburgh at 4:30 pm performing a 90s rock show of alt-rock, grunge, pop punk, and favorite radio-friendly 90s hits. Then at 6:30 “Wayland” from Nashville, who has appeared multiple times on Guy’s All American Road Trip and Diner’s, Drive In’s and Dives, will perform their own set of heartland country-rock. And this year’s headliner “Steal the Sky” from Philadelphia closes out the show at 8:30 pm with their high-energy mix of pop, rock, and dance music. We also have local favorite “Tyler Porter” performing his unique brand of acoustic music during the VIP hour at 3 pm. 

5. Talk about this year’s featured charity and why they were selected.

[Hayes] Here at the Mountaineer Brewfest, we value the fact that we have the freedoms that we do to be able to host a festival like this, and there is no greater defender of those freedoms than our Veteran’s and active duty service men and women. Every year we accept charity applications from as many as a dozen or more local non-profits and the charity is selected by polling the individual members of the Brewfest committee. Every charity does great work within our community and every year the decision amongst the committee gets tougher and tougher. I think this year it was very important to the committee that we give back to those individuals who fought so bravely to preserve our freedom and so this year’s charity will be Helping Heroes. 

Helping Heroes is a community-based, non-profit organization created and administered by Veterans and Veteran supporters. It provides support services and resources to homeless and near homeless, as well as any other Veterans in order to transition them to, or to maintain self-sufficiency.  The Mountaineer Brewfest looks forward to helping them in creating a permanent home to house their offices and transitional housing for Veterans where they will provide healthcare, education, employment, public transportation, and other community-based services.

6. Talk about the importance of volunteers and the role they play at the festival.

[Hayes] There are over 100 local volunteers from the community, organizations, and our charities each year that help the Mountaineer Brewfest run smoothly, and we can’t thank them enough for all they do to make this a special event. 

We want to recognize three of these organizations that have been instrumental to the success of the Mountaineer Brewfest: the Circus Saints & Sinners, the Wheeling Alers Home Brew Club, and the newest organization to volunteer, The Wheeling Lightningbirds, our local women’s amateur ice hockey team. The Wheeling Alers bring their expertise to the festival by managing our WV Craft Beer competition and work the taps at many of our Brewer tents. The Saints & Sinners organization attends to the taps in our Beer Garden and raises additional funds for our charity through tips they receive and match them with sponsor donations, and the Wheeling Lightningbirds also work the taps at many of our WV Brewer tents. 

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Visit www.mountaineerbrewfest.com for a list of attending brewers and for links to additional festival features.