Mountaineer Brewfest 2025 brings it

Through the years I’ve come to crown Mountaineer Brewfest as the very best beer festival in West Virginia. It may not offer the world’s most exotic beers, but It doesn’t need to. That’s because it shines with the deepest community involvement and most respect for the WV brewing industry of any festival you could imagine.

Mountaineer Brewfest 2025 sits at the very pinnacle of beer festivals in its ability to truly stand for the positive values of community and camaraderie. It presents the very best side of the craft beer industry and of what it can do for its hometown. The fest not only offers an exceptionally fun event, but it extends its significance to charity.

With the culmination of their annual festival last Saturday, Mountaineer Brewfest will have raised over $300,000 through the years for important local charities in its region. For a city the size of Wheeling, with a population of 35,000, to host a beer festival this successful is a testament to the vision and passion embraced by its festival leadership committee. These folks make the impossible possible.

This year’s featured charity

This year, House of the Carpenter was selected from among 30 applicants to be the festival’s charity beneficiary. For more than 60 years, the House of the Carpenter has stood as a beacon of hope on Wheeling Island — and recently has performed important work in regional flood relief efforts. Launched by the United Methodist Church to combat rising poverty in the Upper Ohio Valley, the nonprofit has grown to now serve over 1,400 individuals every week.

Festival president credits the team

Under the leadership of festival founder and president Jeff Hayes, this fest brings it, year after year. Now in its eleventh year, it’s truly one of the bright stars of our state.

The enthusiasm shown by everybody who works on the festival is incredible. Just how they keep this level of enthusiasm going is amazing. When asked how he keeps things fresh and on target each year, Jeff replies, “It’s the people behind me,” he says, talking about the credit deserved by the Brewfest Committee.

“I think the community has really accepted us and think of this as one of the best events in Wheeling every year. We just want to do Wheeling good.”

Volunteer commitment exceptional

Brewfest Committee members put in the hours, recruit local business sponsors, organize fest events, oversee the set up, manage the participating brewers and beer distributors, manage the volunteers, sell festival tickets, and so much more.

The festival committee works hard to keep folks fired up to volunteer. One group that always plays an important part of the volunteer operation is the Circus Saints and Sinners service organization. They staff the beer garden area where the distributor tents and main music stage resides.

Jeffrey Yourkovich, the Brewfest Committee member who serves as beer garden chairman, relies on Circus Saints and Sinners to pour beer and raise money through the tips they receive. He says they typically have between 40 and 50 members working the brewfest.

Jeffrey says a big reason why the festival is successful is the support and sponsorships it receives from the local business community. “We have a lot of people who support our festival,” he says. “The support of the businesses that are partner sponsors, brewer sponsors, and the like helps us generate a better festival every year. We always strive to do better than last year.”

Another group that provides key support is the Wheeling Alers, the local homebrewers club. Club member P.J. McDermott also serves on the festival committee and helps organize beer pourers for the West Virginia brewers section. The newest group signing on to help are the The Wheeling Lightningbirds women’s amateur ice hockey team.

The photos below feature just a handful of the many volunteers who poured the beer and worked to make the 2025 fest a success.

Brewers come out to support fest

West Virginia’s craft brewers love this festival. It’s not like we don’t have other good beer festivals in the state, but this one is golden. Just ask any of the brewers who bring their beer to pour and you’ll hear praise for the festival leaders and its volunteers.

Pictured below are most of the West Virginia brewers who had their beer poured at the 2025 festival.

More fundraising events

The Brewfest Committee is creative in its fundraising efforts. It’s much more than just selling festival tickets.

For example, each beer tent has a local business or organization sponsor whose name is posted on a big banner inside the tent.

Another popular activity is the pre-festival banquet, an event held each year on the Thursday prior to the festival. At the banquet, the right to tap the festival’s opening firkin is auctioned off. This year, Jody and Beth Prather’s bid of $5,000 won the Tap The Firkin honor. The Prather’s operate Gumby’s, a regional beer and beverage store chain.

A new fundraiser this year is local artist Mindi Yarbrough donating her beer fest painting for a silent auction. The auction took place during the festival and all the proceeds from the auction go directly to the House of the Carpenter. Her painting features the historic Wheeling Suspension Bridge seen through a beer mug. Pretty cool, huh.

West Virginia is very fortunate to have a such a well-run beer festival that has a charitable focus. I’m proud of all the men and women who work so hard to make this fest the beauty it is. Cheers to them all.