West Virginia Public Broadcasting Story Archives - Page 8 of 11

The People Who Brewed Craft Beer Before It Was Cool

Peanut butter stouts, guava sours, hazy double IPAs, pomegranate ales – these are just a few experimental beers to come out of the craft beer craze in recent years.

According to the National Brewer’s Association, this expanding industry started in the 1990s but didn’t gain momentum until 2010, making it relatively new. Today there are more than 7,000 commercial breweries in the country.

In West Virginia, that growth came even later. In the state there are 30 craft breweries, but in 2011 there were just five.

All the craft breweries started with a home brewer – someone who experiments in brewing at home, and usually it’s a person who genuinely loves the science and craft behind beer.

Homebrewers in West Virginia have been experimenting with beer for decades, and they have been collaborating in community-organized home brew clubs.

A beer on tap at restaurant and bar El Gran Sabor in Elkins. Beer comes to be through six stages – milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting and conditioning.

There are 13 clubs in the state, one of which is in Elkins. It formed in 2009, and they call themselves the ‘Appalachian Brew Club.’

“When you’re around other brewers, you pick up learning how to brew in a really short time. It’s a super-fast starter for people,” Jack Tribble, Appalachian Brew Club co-founder, says.

He has been brewing since the 90s. He and several other members like to get together at one another’s homes to brew.

On this day, they have met up to brew a New England IPA.

DIY Beer

In the kitchen, the stove is covered in giant, stainless steel pots, and the counters are filled with different yeast strains and a variety of grains. There is an oversized Gatorade cooler nearby for pouring beer into, which allows the liquid to steep in the grains.

Scott Biola lifting the grains out of the wort. After this step the liquid will be transferred to the giant pot on the stove.

The room is filled with a distinct, yet polarizing smell. Jack gives his thoughts on the aromas.

“I think it has a sweet cereal smell that has a grainy backbone to it. It smells great,” he says.

But longtime club member Rick Newsome says it is an acquired scent.

“Brewers love the smell. Walk into a big brewery and they’re brewing a porter and it smells heavenly. Unless you’re my wife,” Newsome says.

While the club brews, they sample other regional beers.

A lot of people enjoy beer, but these guys love beer. For Rick Gauge, it is like a creative science.

“It’s a great bunch of people to hang out with and talk about beer and they, like me, nerd out about the specifics and the details and not just oh this tastes good, but why? What hops are used and what’s the malt bill like?” Gauge says.

There are six stages in the brewing process – milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermenting and conditioning.

The Elkins club is at the end of the mashing stage, where the enzymes from the grains are converting to sugar. At this point, it is not quite beer, but a sugary liquid called Wort.

They are trying to get the Wort to an exact temperature. Too hot or too cold and the beer changes type.

“How geeky do you want to be?,” Newsome says. “There are two enzymes that convert those starches into sugars – alpha amylase and beta amylase. Beta works in a range from 140 to 150 degrees. Alpha works from 150-160.”

In simpler terms, he is saying in order to convert the yeast to sugar the liquid needs to be between 140 and 160 degrees Fahrenheit.

As a club, they get together several times a year to brew, but they meet up once a month just to talk beer. Clinton Hamrick, one of the members, says home brewers tend to be on the cutting edge of new styles.

“The home brewers I think are a little more on the leading edge of what’s going to be popular this summer or the following year,” Clinton says.

Tammy and Clinton Hamrick enjoy a beer on the bar crawl. The Appalachian Brew Club members all say Tammy can “out-brew them all.”

It is a lifestyle. They even plan their vacations around beer, calling them “beercations.”

“We go with brewers and meet brewers over there and have a really good time, and all of a sudden they are pulling out stuff from the backs of their refrigerators and we have a really good time,” Jack says.

They also brew beers for competitions.

Homebrew Competitions

Homebrewers recently competed in a competition in Morgantown, called the Coal Cup Homebrewer’s Competition, which featured stouts and porters from regional homebrewers.

Inside the hotel conference room where the competition was held, judges quietly sip beers. They are voting on several categories – most boozy, coolest growler and weirdest flavor. In another room, memebers of the public gather to taste beers for the people’s choice competition.

A beer entered in the People’s Choice at the Coal Cup Homebrewer’s competition. Some of the categories included most boozy, coolest growler and weirdest flavor.

Jason Croston, a homebrewer in the Morgantown club, is competing with a Christmas porter and Bourbon barrel porter. He says brewing beer is something that has been passed down in his family..

“My dad actually grew grapevines on the side of our house and used to make wine. And one of my grandfathers was a brewer way back. It’s in our family history and it’s in our blood,” he says.

There are two types of homebrewers – those who want to pursue opening a brewery and those who do not. Jason is the former. He hopes to open his own brewery one day, and even has a name picked out.

“I grew up in the backwaters in Cheat Lake, hence the name of my brewery when I do open –‘Backwaters Brewing,” Jason says.

But not all homebrewers want to take that path. Chris Eberlin from Cumberland, Maryland says brewers can lose their freedom with regulation. He gave an example of his friend who makes experimental beers.

“He’ll just grab roots off the ground and throw them in and maybe some bark off a tree, and sometimes you get duds and sometimes you get really good flavors,” Chris says. “The big challenge with commercial beer is you have to appease a big group of people. As a home brewer, I have the ability to go crazy because I’ve only brewed one to five gallons of beer. So I can make something horrendous and dump it and it’s only a little bit of time and money I wasted. But as a commercial brewer that could be the difference between life or death.”

All the home brewers spend the day tasting each other’s beers, waiting to hear how they placed in the competition.

Overall, the Appalachian Brew Club place second in the Coal Cup competition.

From left to right, Lindsey and Chris Eberlin and Tammy and Clinton Hamrick. They were competing with their beers at the Coal Cup Homebrewer’s competition.

The Bar Crawl

Back in Elkins, the brewers club members go on a bar crawl to taste some of the local beers on tap. On this day, they start at a local restaurant and bar El Gran Sabor.

Clinton Hamrick tastes a new beer on tap.

“It tastes like figs, little bit of raisin, woody, sweet, slight caramel – it’s good,” he says.

The Appalachian Brew Club members during their bar crawl in Elkins. They like to try all kinds of beers to keep their palates up to date.

Whether it is making their own beer, trying other beer or taking part in competitions, home brewers simply love beer. Unlike commercial brewers, these guys are not in it for the money. They cannot legally sell you a beer, but they will try to excite your palate.

“I genuinely believe there is a beer out there for everyone,” Rick Gauge says. “People who say they don’t like beer, I make it my personal mission to find them a beer they like. Beer can taste like anything. The people that say they don’t like beer just haven’t tried the right one.”

Rick Newsome has brewed beer on and off since the 90s. Today’s burgeoning craft beer industry had yet to take off in the 90s.

This story is part of an Inside Appalachia episode exploring the alcohol culture and industry in Appalachia.

Researchers Uncover History of Former Coal Community

West Virginia University researchers recently completed a year-long project exploring the history of a coal community in Monongalia County, using photos and oral history to create an exhibit.

Scott’s Run is a five-mile area that stretches along the banks of the Monongahela River, about four miles from West Virginia University.

Today less than 2,000 people live there, and the former towns in Scotts Run – such as Osage and Cassville – are all unincorporated.

But, in the early 1900s the area was booming from the coal industry. Its main economic advantage was its proximity to the river, railroads and coal resources. But, by the 1930s during the Great Depression, like much of the country, Scott’s Run hit hard times.

School children at Osage, a town within Scott’s Run, with their Sunday school teacher in the 1940s. When researchers showed this photo to Scott’s Run elders one said, “As youngsters on Osage Hill we all played together. No difference in color. We didn’t know a difference until we went to school.”

Consequently, the community banded together, creating a family-like bond that still exists today.

“There’s this community that is a completely different world from what you’ve seen of Morgantown that has this history that’s very much the history of West Virginia,” said Kristina Hash, a professor of social work at WVU.

Hash was one of six researchers on the team that studied Scott’s Run. Other researchers included Catherine Gouge, Lori Hostuttler, Tamba M’bayo, Christine Rittenour and Tyler Redding.

The project was funded in 2018 through a grant from the West Virginia University Humanities Center.

Many photos were taken of the people of Scott’s Run during the Great Depression years, Hash said. Using these photos, she and her team documented stories from West Virginians who were children during the early years of Scott’s Run.

About a dozen of the original residents of Scott’s Run still get together every weekend. Hash said the sense of community is strong.

“People that had a really diverse community that lived in harmony that centered around coal and together faced major tragedy,” she said.

All the research was compiled into a video and an exhibit that has been donated to the Scott’s Run Museum where it will be permanently on display. The museum is open every Saturday from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

National Park Tourism Boosts S. W.Va. Economy

A National Park Service report released Sunday, details the economic benefits to Southern West Virginia last year. According to the report, tourism to the region’s national parks helped spur the economy by almost $70 million.

More than 1.3 million visitors explored the New River Gorge National River, Bluestone National Scenic River and the Gauley River National Recreation Area in 2018.

Economic benefits from the tourism affected spending and jobs in the region, which includes Fayette, Nicholas, Raleigh and Summers counties.

According to the National Park Service report more than $60 million was spent in these communities. Additionally, this spending helped support 847 jobs.

Lizzie Watts, superintendent of the New River Gorge National River, said for every $1 invested in the National Park Service $10 is returned through national park tourism.

“We are happy to be a part of helping to sustain so many local communities,” Watts said.

The report also cites lodging expenses as the largest portion of visitor spending, with food expenses being second.

National trends show that the majority of money created through national park tourism is spent within 60 miles of a park.

More information and interactive data can be found at the National Park Service website.

The Sports League of Preston County's Past

The tall, red brick building that was once home to Rowlesburg High School still stands after surviving the historic 1985 flood.

After the flood it was no longer used as a school, but today it remains the heart of the community of Rowlesburg – it’s where people meet, festivities are held, weekly dinners are made, etc.

Above the basketball gym on the second floor, visitors can find another mecca of community. For six years, the Preston County Sports Museum has preserved sports memorabilia from the original 10 high schools of Preston County, West Virginia, located in the northern corner of the state, bordering Maryland and Pennsylvania.

In the process, the museum has also preserved memories — of sports rivalry, team spirit and of community — that faded as the county’s high schools closed their doors.

Beginning in 1957, 10 high schools across Preston County closed. Over the years they consolidated into fewer schools, and in 1991 the entire county merged into one high school – Preston High School located in Kingwood.

School consolidation plays a large part in both West Virginia’s history and present. In the 1990s the state closed over 300 schools in attempt to save money, which proved unsuccessful according to a Charleston Gazette investigation.

But for former students of consolidated schools, the loss of a school is intertwined with the loss of their history.

“There was a lot of weeping and mourning going on, especially from the elders and people who graduated from here,” says Anna Nassif, a former student of Rowlesburg High School. “It was a terrible loss, and I don’t think people have gotten over it.”

Siblings George and Anna Nassif stand with Charles Wotring who helped construct the Preston County Sports Museum. They are outside of the former Rowlesburg High School.

The Museum

Anna graduated from Rowlesburg High in 1951. She helped design the Preston County Sports Museum, which features memorabilia from the former high schools — Arthurdale, Aurora, Bruceton, Fellowsville, Kingwood, Masontown Valley, Newburg, Rowlesburg, Terra Alta and Tunnelton.

In closing those 10 schools, the county lost 10 competitive sports teams and the rich sports legacy each team built over the decades. That is something Anna’s brother, George Nassif, is familiar with. He played baseball, basketball and football at the now-shuttered Rowlesburg High.

George graduated in 1958. He still remembers almost every game and every player.

Framed photos of war veterans line the walls of the stairs leading up to the sports museum. George remembers the veterans as legendary athletes.

“And this fella was the best basketball player to ever come out of Rowlesburg. James Ayersman. He’d give demonstrations dribbling between his legs and so forth,” he says.

At the top of the stairs the hallway opens into a big hall of memorabilia. There are mannequins sporting the original sports uniforms. There are 10 banners on the museum’s wall recognizing each of the schools in their “hall of fame.”

Displays in the room featuring sports teams created during the years of consolidation. In 1991 the schools were consolidated into one high school, Preston High School in the town of Kingwood.

Hinting at the rivalry that still exists today, Anna says they intentionally painted the walls of the museum a neutral shade that would not favor any one school’s colors.

“To insist on we’re going to have this hall and it’s going to be painted this color – not green, not purple. Gray – so all the colors could come out,” she says.

On the left is a room dedicated to the high school teams that formed during the years of consolidation. On the right, is a room featuring all the original schools.

Pre-consolidation years

It is a dark room, with spotlights shining on 10 different sports displays, each representing one of the schools.

The structure of all the displays is the same, yet again not to prioritize any one school. They are handmade, including a table with a wooden backdrop to hang things on.

There are awards, photos, letterman jackets, shoes, jerseys, etc – all donated from former players and their families, people who at one point were fierce competitors. Even without the schools the rivalries remain alive, so keeping all the memorabilia in Rowlesburg was contentious.

“To ask people to bring their things to Rowlesburg – I didn’t think it was possible,” George says.

There is a CD featuring former students singing their school’s song. Anna even sings the Rowlesburg fight song with a line that includes, “Comrades old and comrades new, cheer for Rowlesburg High we say…”

Walking through the museum, different memorabilia sparks memories for George.

“When we played the first football game under the lights September 6, 1957 in Kingwood – the whole town came out,” he says. “We played Terra Alta and our nemesis Ron Lewis – his shoes are over there and I’m sure I got a few cleats in me from those shoes.”

He points out a 1957 basketball team photo in the Rowlesburg display. The photo is gray and white, not quite in focus and weathered from time, but George can still name each player, including himself.

“We were going to play against that darn team Aurora. They beat us by three points and went all the way to the final,” he says.

He finds a picture in the Aurora display. It is of Bucky Bolyard. He was one of the top athletes in the whole county, and he only could see out of one eye.

“I got to play against him my freshman year. He was a senior,” George says. “When he jumped, he went way up there. And he knew where the ball was going if he missed.”

A cutout photo featuring Bucky Bolyard, one of Aurora’s top basketball players. He was blind in one eye.

Bucky averaged 30 points a game.

There are records of the score from almost every sports game between the 10 high schools in the museum.

George says every game was packed with the high school’s respective towns. It was like an entire sports league all within one county. In fact, it is believed that the organized basketball league among the 10 high schools was the first of its kind in the state.

George recalls one basketball game at Fellowsville High School.

“It was famous. It was a very tight stadium, very close in, it was hot, tempers were fired up,” he says.

The bleachers were positioned right behind the one basket net, and the crowd did things that would never be allowed today.

“So when you shoot a foul shot they’d shake the ball out,” George says.

There are also stories of people pulling player’s pants down or throwing a coke bottle at them.

“But it was all in good fun, nobody ever got hurt,” he says.

There was also a lot of chanting from the crowds. George and Anna sing some of the old Rowlesburg cheers – where their colors were orange and black.

Some of the lines include, “Orange Black, set em’ back, way back.”

And, “You can, you can, you know you can, you must, Beat, beat, beat, beat Kingwood High School.”

The display for the former Terra Alta High School. The consolidation years lasted from 1957 until 1991.

The way Anna speaks of the original 10 high schools and the towns they were in, it is almost as if they are synonymous. She uses the words “town” and “school” interchangeably.

“If you look around in here there are 10 mascots for each of the 10 original towns,” she says.

Post-consolidation years

Anna says a bit of each town died as the 10 high schools closed.

“The feeling of loyalty toward a place, toward your roots, I don’t think it happened with those kids that graduated in the last 20 some or 30 some years,” she says.

It is not necessarily that students in Preston County do not care, but rather they just do not know about the history. The glory days of the 10 high schools and their sports teams was over 60 years ago.

George says he was surprised while leading a tour of the exhibit with some sixth-graders from Aurora last year. He showed them the picture of the Aurora sports hero Bucky Bolyard – the one-eyed basketball player mentioned earlier – and none of them knew of him.

“They all looked quizzical and they didn’t know Bucky Bolyard. So that’s what we’re talking about,” he said.

For George, knowing about the county’s sports heroes like Bucky is a must, and that is why George and Anna are so passionate about the museum. They want today’s kids growing up in Rowlesburg, or Terra Alta, or any town in Preston County to understand and cherish that history. To have a love for their small town and the sports heroes that came before them.

This story is part of an episode of Inside Appalachia that explores school consolidation through sports. Listen to the episode here.

March 25, 1992: West Virginia Public Broadcasting Pioneer Harry Brawley Dies at 82

Broadcaster Harry Brawley died on March 25, 1992, at age 82. The Charleston native was a polio survivor. He eventually learned to walk but struggled with it his entire life. After earning two degrees from West Virginia University, Brawley became a teacher. At Charleston High School, he had the novel idea of incorporating the radio into the classroom. In 1945, he became the director of public affairs for Charleston’s WCHS radio station and won an award for his “School of the Air,” a pioneering program for high schoolers.

Brawley played a key role in forming West Virginia educational television and later public radio—the forerunners of today’s West Virginia Public Broadcasting. He worked closely with his friend Congressman Harley O. Staggers to craft federal legislation that helped public broadcasting stations throughout the nation acquire the necessary equipment to get on the air.

After retiring, Brawley volunteered his time to teach Charleston history to school kids through a series of popular slide shows. In addition, he served on the Charleston City Council for 14 years. A walkway in downtown Charleston is now named in honor of this broadcasting pioneer.

Traditional Handmade Furniture: Passing Down the Craft

Families all across the world pass on traditions and it is no exception in Appalachia.

Traditions like making apple butter in the fall, or celebrating Christmas morning at mamaws, or picking ramps at that secret spot in the spring, or even just going to church on Sunday.

But for one family in Lincoln County, West Virginia, the tradition is building furniture.

Jim Probst has spent over 40 years hand making furniture. Over the last 20 years, he has passed down that tradition to his son-in-law Eddie Austin.

Jim Probst in his house, which is filled with his traditional furniture. He started building furniture in the ’70s when he moved to West Virginia.

Jim is now retired, but he built himself a “retirement workshop” at the end of a muddy road down a small hollow in Lincoln County.

Inside it smells of fresh ash wood. It is cozy with a wood-heated stove. West African music plays softly from the stereo.

At the back of the room there is a smooth finished, spiral wooden staircase that leads to a loft. The steps are patterned with a dark, walnut wood; all of which Jim built.

Since Jim is retired, he still maintains a shop for work on the occasional piece, but mostly just for fun.

“There’s a woodworking tradition that seems to have started in Lincoln county,” Jim says. “And who knows, Eddie’s got two kids and his son says he’s gonna be a woodworker, farmer.”

Although Jim loves woodworking, the work is not easy. He puts hours upon hours of labor into each piece of furniture, and it shows.

A chair Jim built. His chairs typically sell for $800.

The pieces are exquisite. Smooth finished curves, often in a deep cherry wood. But that hand crafting makes the pieces expensive – money that not a lot of people have.

One of Jim’s chairs can retail for $800.

He moved to West Virginia from Indiana with his wife during the back-to-the-land movement in the ‘70s when many young, artsy people moved and bought land in the state.

Jim loves West Virginia – the nature, solitude and low crime rates. He considers it his home and says he would not live anywhere else.

As a child, he had learned basic woodworking skills from his father, but the craft of furniture making is something he’s largely taught himself.

“I was accustomed to that if you wanted something you could build it yourself,” he says.

During his 40-year career, Jim became a nationally- recognized furniture builder. He has been featured in magazines and two books.

His sleek, minimalist style caught the eye of wealthy buyers and several high-end furniture festivals. These things helped put him on the map.

“We were in shops in Seattle, one in Colorado, a shop in Chicago, shops in New York, Atlanta, out in Martha’s Vineyard,” he says.

Passing it Down

Today, most of the work is done by Eddie.

Eddie Austin using his dovetail machine. The machine is a 1920’s model, and it is one of Eddie’s favorites.

“It started with a girl,” Eddie says.

He is referring to Jim’s daughter Emma.

“I was 17 and I had a job as a full-time dishwasher at a local restaurant,” Eddie says. “They said, ‘We’re closing the restaurant, here’s your last paycheck, we wish you the best.’ I’d just started dating Emma and she came home and told her dad. He said, ‘Well, why don’t you get him to come into the wood shop.'”

Eddie started by sweeping floors, but over time he became a top builder for Jim, and eventually married his daughter.

Two years ago, after working together for two decades, Eddie bought the shop from Jim.

Eddie now runs his own business, EA Woodworks, out of the original woodworking space.

Much like Jim, Eddie loves West Virginia. He was raised in Lincoln County, and as an adult, he has never doubted raising his family anywhere else.

He says he cannot identify with the phrase “the struggle to stay,” a phrase media sometimes uses to describe the state’s declining population of young adults.

“A lot of us West Virginians grew up without a running bathroom in our home, and we were able to overcome things like that,” Eddie says. “And so, it really irked me that people found a struggle to stay. It never was struggle for me, it was just a time to dig deeper.”

Eddie dug deeper by learning to woodwork. It has been the reason he could stay in Lincoln County.

Jim’s spiral staircase in his retirement workshop. He hand built it out of ash and walnut wood.

A lot of that is thanks to Jim.

Connected But Different

The connection between the two shows in their work. Both create pieces that are sturdy while still upscale and elegant.

The differences, however, really shine through in their work spaces.

Jim’s retirement shop is quite uniform. The focal points are the actual wood structure of the shop, whereas Eddie’s shop highlights his extroverted personality.

There’s a lot of color. His door is painted purple. There is a wall dedicated to street signs with tree names, like “Maple Street” and “Oak Avenue.”

Music with Appalachian roots is often playing. A favorite of Eddie’s is Kentucky artist Tyler Childers.

Decorations in Eddie’s wood shop. He says he likes to keep things fun to remind him of why he is furniture building.

Eddie has also changed what was once Jim’s furniture showroom for clients. It is now a laid-back room with a table, chairs, snacks and many colorful drawings from his kids.

Inside Eddie’s Space

There are three other rooms in the shop that serve different purposes in the furniture building process.

“The middle room is actually the room where our lumber comes in,” Eddie says. “We go through 10 to 20,000 board feet a year.”

That is roughly 50 average size trees per year.

The next room is where he spends a lot of his time, and it’s where Eddie first learned a lot of his wood working from Jim. Wood pieces are cut here, sanded and glued together. A lot of the large machinery is in here, like Eddie’s dovetail machine.

At about 1,000 pounds, the 1920’s model dovetail makes joints to connect drawer sides together. The joints themselves kind of look like birds – hence the name dovetail.

The machine roars when Eddie puts a wooden drawer inside of it.

A planer machine in Jim’s shop. The planer makes all the wood the same thickness.

The third room is the finishing room, where pieces are painted with a finish and left to dry.

The Tradition Lives On

A lot of Eddie’s clients are within the tri-state region including West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Ohio. His pieces are no less expensive than Jim’s, but he says the price point isn’t the focus of his work.

“It doesn’t necessarily matter how much money they make a year or who can afford it, as much as who can appreciate it,” Eddie says.

Although ultimately a lot of people do not have the money for an $800 chair, Eddie does have an order list for six months out, much like Jim did.

Still, Jim says furniture making is much a labor of love.

“You never want to look at what you’re making on the hour because it’s going to be horrible,” he says. “You have to love what you’re doing, and you need to marry well.”

Despite the aspects of financial uncertainty associated with the business, Eddie maintains that the quality and lifetime warranty of his furniture keeps customers coming back.

Jim says Eddie is enhancing the business aspect of the shop while still maintaining the history of the craft.

“I never really have enjoyed the business part of being in business,” Jim says. “I truly think Eddie is better at the business end of business than I ever was.”

The 7-foot oak table in Eddie’s finishing room. Last touches, like a paint finish, are done in the room.

Much like it was for Jim, Eddie says it is important to pass down the craft.

Eddie now teaches woodworking classes at a work training program based in Wayne County. One of his students has even gone on to work in the industry.

This story is part of an episode of Inside Appalachia that explores alternative cultures and economies. To listen to the full episode click here.