E-Malt.com News article: USA, WV: Craft beer industry continues to grow in the US and in West Virginia

Once a thriving industry in the state of West Virginia, craft beer brewing is finally returning to the Mountain State.

In fact, craft breweries across the entire country have seen a surge in recent years, Mountaineernewsservice.com reports.

The Brewers Association, the largest brewing trade association in America, says that craft breweries are defined by three distinct traits – they must produce less than six million barrels a year, they must be independently owned, and they must employ a traditional brewing style, (“at least 50 percent of the brewery’s volume is either all malt beers, or beers that use adjuncts to enhance rather than lighten flavor.”)

One hundred percent of the breweries in West Virginia are craft breweries.

Some are strictly microbreweries, and others are what’s called brewpubs – usually smaller breweries where either all or at least a majority of the beer that’s brewed is sold on site with food in a restaurant or pub.

The Brewers Association, which also represents a majority of U.S. brewing companies, reports that 2,483 craft breweries are active across the country as of June 2013, the highest total in the United States for more than 126 years.

According to the Associated Press, West Virginia is still 49th among all states in terms of actual craft beer production, but this production jumped almost 25 percent from 2011-12.

“When I first started working here, people were a lot more apprehensive to try craft beer,” said Brittany Hubbard, a manager at Mountain State Brewing Co. in Morgantown, WV. “Even if we had a sample they didn’t want to try it. But craft beer has changed a lot. I think a big part of it is just availability. More and more craft breweries are popping up and it’s become really popular.”

In 2012, there were just five total brewing companies in the state recognized by the Brewers Association as craft breweries – Blackwater Brewing Company in Davis, Bridge Brew Works in Fayetteville, Morgantown Brewing Co. in Morgantown, North End Brewing Co. in Parkersburg, and the state’s largest brewing company, Mountain State Brewing Co, which has two locations in West Virginia (Thomas, Morgantown) and one in Maryland.

But that number will grow when updated later this year with the additions of The Lost River Brewing Company, Charlestown Brewing Co., and Chestnut Brew Works, all opened within the last year.

The Brewstel, a unique planned hybrid of a microbrewery and a hostel in Elkins and Vandalia Brewery, a planned brewery based out of Martinsburg, are two more results of an industry which appears to be furiously returning to prominence in the state, and all across the United States in general.

Founder of the Brewstel, Tim Powell, says that the growth, particularly in West Virginia, is due in part to an overwhelming rise of interest in craft beer throughout the state linked with a change in preference among newer generations.

“It’s a cultural difference, we enjoy a lot more flavor and variety,” Powell said. “My father and all those guys drank light lagers. That’s what was produced, that’s what was around. That was the big thing. But over the years breweries have been getting smaller. And these craft breweries have been ticking up and ticking up. So that interest has really grown in the state.”

Lincoln Wilkins, owner of Blackwater Brewing Co., agrees that the influx in interest alone over the past number of years has undoubtedly played a major role in the industry’s growth, but Wilkins also credits the collective cohesiveness amongst the state’s brewers as something that’s also helped further cultivate the growth of the craft beer industry in the West Virginia.

It’s even led to the formation of the first-ever West Virginia Brewers Guild, which is set to officially meet for the first time in November.

Wilkins says establishing the Brewers Guild will help establish some organizational structure to better disseminate accurate information to both producers and consumers of craft beer throughout the state, in addition to creating a solid foundation for new breweries in the state and providing a helping hand to get those establishments up on their feet and running.

But Wilkins also believes some of the growth can be attributed to residents of West Virginia trying to pay homage to their ancestors who grew up in historic Appalachian West Virginia.

For example, Wilkins himself moved back to West Virginia recently from New Orleans in order to follow in the footsteps of his family, whom he says were brewers in Keyser, WV, during the town’s inception in the 1800s.

“Our forefathers brought beer-making skills into the country and at one point in time every town had at least one brewery,” Wilkins said. “There were breweries everywhere, they were ubiquitous. And over time, for a lot of different reasons, political and otherwise, those breweries disappeared or were absorbed by the big boys. To the point where now we have a very homogeneous beer culture, or did until recently in the past twenty years.

“I think people are starting to realize that it’s part of their heritage and part of their history, so it’s a lot deeper than just a current or contemporary phase with craft beer. It’s really the reestablishment of what our forefathers were doing. It’s extremely meaningful and gratifying to be back in my home state.”

Looking forward, the prominence and popularity of craft beer in America doesn’t show any signs of slowing down any time soon.

IBIS World, a market research organization, predicts that the craft beer industry in America “will grow at an annualized rate of 7.2 percent from 2013-18.” The organization also predicts that by 2018, annual revenue from the industry in the United States will reach $5.6 billion, up a total of $1.7 billion from just 2013.



30 October, 2013