Spirits Story Archives - West Virginia Public Broadcasting

Pepperoni Rolls And Kentucky’s Spirits Industry On This West Virginia Morning

On this West Virginia Morning, the pepperoni roll is probably West Virginia’s most well-known food. You can find them at most grocery stores and convenience marts, but Folkways Reporter Zack Harold says their path to popularity came from getting on the school lunch menu.

On this West Virginia Morning, the pepperoni roll is probably West Virginia’s most well-known food. You can find them at most grocery stores and convenience marts, but Folkways Reporter Zack Harold says their path to popularity came from getting on the school lunch menu.

Also, in this show, the doors recently opened at the University of Kentucky’s James B. Beam Institute. As Shepherd Snyder reports, a school initiative there aims to get students trained to work in Kentucky’s spirits industry.

West Virginia Morning is a production of West Virginia Public Broadcasting which is solely responsible for its content.

Support for our news bureaus comes from Concord University and Shepherd University.

Eric Douglas produced this episode.

Teresa Wills is our host.

Listen to West Virginia Morning weekdays at 7:43 a.m. on WVPB Radio or subscribe to the podcast and never miss an episode. #WVMorning

Brewers Celebrate More Than Beer During W.Va. Craft Beer Week

Several breweries across the state are hosting events as part of West Virginia Craft Beer Week, which kicked off this past weekend, June 15-16. Some in the craft beer industry are celebrating new regulations that the state legislature passed earlier this spring.

This week — to coincide with West Virginia Day — breweries and restaurants across the state are celebrating the state’s steadily growing craft beer industry.

In 2016, there were 15 breweries in the state. That number has nearly doubled in just three years, despite regulatory challenges and the state’s dispersed population.

Even though West Virginia doesn’t have big cities to draw crowds, brewers have found a small but loyal customer base here, said West Virginia Brewers Guild President Aaron Rote.

“There’s a lot of cultural centers like Fayetteville, Thomas, Davis, Morgantown, and I really think the breweries you see in those areas really tie into their local culture really well,” Rote said.

Some craft brewers brand their beers with names and logos that reference local folklore — like Zona’s Revenge, made by Greenbrier Valley Brewing in Lewisburg. That witbier is named after Zona Heaster who was murdered in the late 19th century and ultimately became the basis for a popular ghost story in the area.

There’s also Big Timber Brewing Company in Elkins, and Stumptown Ales in Davis, which both feature imagery that celebrate timber, a major economic driver in the region.

Across West Virginia, many craft breweries are closely tied with their local, host communities. The regional nature of the state’s craft brewers required event planners for the first state-wide craft beer week to think creatively.

Some breweries will be releasing special beers, some will give tours, and others are featured in tap takeovers, events in which a restaurant only serves a specific brewery’s beer for a night.

Summer Kickoff

This week’s events are also helping to kick off the summer season, said Kevin Ayers, the owner of the Wheeling-based brewery Brew Keepers.

“Think of it like the Memorial Day of craft beer,” he said. “Memorial Day kicks off the summer, even though it isn’t summer yet. Summertime is the most popular time to drink.”

Ayers said a lot of breweries in the state are located in towns with tourist destinations or are near entrances to the state, and that’s no accident. He said craft breweries could play a role in boosting tourism.

“The more things we can bring into this state to do the more people are going to stop, and they’re going to hunt craft breweries down,” Ayers said.

Rote, with the West Virginia Brewers Guild, said to cap West Virginia Craft Beer Week, beer drinkers across the state are encouraged to participate in a “beer toast” on Friday, June 21 at 5:00 p.m.

“Whether you’re at a restaurant or you’re on your back porch drinking a beer at 5 o’clock there’ll be kind of like a beer toast,” he said.

Regulatory Changes

According to Rote, craft beer fans in West Virginia do have something to toast about this year. Earlier this spring, the Legislature passed Senate Bill 529, which increased the cap on alcohol by volume — from 12 to 15 percent. The new law also removes a limit on growler sales.

Rote said he’s hoping these new regulations will help lead to even more growth in the craft beer industry.

“This is just a nice way to cheers maybe a nice turning point for us,” he said.

While both Ayers and Rote both say they feel like West Virginia craft beer started a little behind the curve, they both believe the state is catching up, with no signs of slowing down yet.

To learn more about West Virginia Craft Beer Week or to find a local event, go to wvcbw.com and click on their events tab.

Bloomery Sweetshine Reopens After Two Months of Waiting

After almost two months since closing its doors, the Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery in Jefferson County reopened this weekend after a successful cry for help to West Virginia lawmakers.

During this year’s legislative session, the Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery closed after years of being classified as a retail liquor store. The distillery owners claimed this as a misclassification and said it was costing them too much money, killing their business. The distillery closed in early February and the owners said they wouldn’t reopen until the issue was addressed by lawmakers.

“It was an overwhelming heartache. It was so drastic for us to make that decision,” said Linda Losey, co-founder and one of three co-owners of Bloomery Sweetshine, “You know we’ve been funding the distillery for three years out of pocket and trying to get to profitability, and it was really affecting our relationships, our hearts to keep opening and losing and losing and losing because we absolutely, absolutely love what we do, and what we do for this community and for our fans and how they react to us. So for us to, to make the decision to close, we had to make it for the financial reasons, but it really was a drastic decision, and to put seventeen people out of work, that’s what was the killer for us.”

The Bloomery Sweetshine owners estimate it has attracted more than 50,000 tourists to West Virginia since it opened in 2011, some of which were from outside the US. All of its liqueurs are made on site and by hand, and most of the fruits and nuts used in the drinks are grown on site or are sourced within the local community. The distillery offers tastings and the option of buying their products on the premises.

Rob Losey is co-owner and in charge of sales and marketing. He says the decision to close the distillery surprised their local legislators.

“I think that it was also, it was received well by every one of our legislators,” Rob noted, “and that trying to figure out a way to help us, and really to help our county. I mean, one of the things that we do is we bring in a number of tourists, and you know, we’re someplace that people from out of state find as a destination, so they come to visit us and then they spend some time in the county and leave some tax revenue behind. And I think that, that was recognized and that we were, you know, that we were a bit of a shining star in our area, and it was something not to be lost.”

In light of the news of the distillery’s closing, legislators began putting together a bill that would help Bloomery Sweetshine and other distilleries and mini-distilleries like it. Senate Bill 574 was the answer. The bill will reclassify distilleries in the state and give some tax and management fee relief to those owners. It would also raise the production level allowed for mini-distilleries.

Governor Tomblin signed Senate bill 574 on March 31^st and it will go into effect on June 12^th.

The owners of Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery were elated by the news, but Tom Kiefer, co-founder and co-owner says their closing was not a ruse.

“We didn’t close the doors to send a message that was unintended. We closed the doors, cause we couldn’t afford to stay open, so I don’t agree that a business should close down just to make a stand and fight for reduced taxes,” Kiefer explained, “I mean for us it was, as Linda had said earlier a do or die situation, and the fact that we were dying on the vine cause we always had to supplement every month the business that occurred in the tasting room, just was not an affordable way to continue on.”

Linda says it was ultimately the response from their fans that drove the message home to legislators.

“One of the strengths we had behind us was our fan base, and so if a small business is absolutely feeling the pinch of government regulations and it’s killing the business, then I don’t disagree that you have to somehow contact the legislators and get help, because it’s nearly impossible to do it without the legislative action that is required to put laws into effect that will help the small businesses,” Linda said.

During Bloomery Sweetshine Distillery’s reopening Saturday, it offered tastings to more than 350, most of which visited the distillery for the first time. The owners say they are satisfied with the response from lawmakers and are excited for the effect of Senate Bill 574 in June.

Next year, the owners plan to push lawmakers for another bill, one that will allow them to sell their products on Sundays.