It’s that time again folks; time once again to sit back and pop open a great bottle of craft beer from your cellar; pour that sucker into a non-frosted, beer-clean glass and sit back and reminisce about the past year. 2009 will certainly go down in modern West Virginia history (at least to us who know) as West Virginia’s “Year of Beer”…

Think about it for a moment; this time last year there wasn’t one Trappist beer standing proudly on one West Virginia beer retailer’s shelf; not one Double IPA was legally allowed to emit its wonderful aroma of citrusy hoppiness after a quick run to the grocer to rescue it from the certain perils of trade abuse. West Virginia has come a long way baby!

Obviously the biggest news of the year then would have to be the WV Legislature passing the law to “Pop the Cap” in West Virginia. With that said, I did not and am not slobbering all over myself in thanking some glad-handing politician for this feat. I thank all of you and dare I thank West Virginia’s beer wholesalers for waking-up to the reality that craft-beer is here. They finally got the message and are surprisingly taking on many new brands!

Next on the list would have to be the creation of the West Virginia Craft Beer Appreciation Society website. Travis Carrow (A definite BTY Medal of Honor winner in 2009) has obviously put a ton of his time into developing a forum for discussion; covering craft-beer sightings, home brewing and anything and everything about beer-culture. I am glad I can help, Trav…

I am happy for John Yevuta, West Virginia’s beer correspondent for the widely distributed “Mid-Atlantic Brewing News”. John now has many more things to write about and believe me I know what it’s like when the cupboard is bare. Thanks for the write-up John!

I have to give a shout-out to George Sitler in Bramwell. He and his trusty band of steeds have been very effective in convincing brewers and visitors alike to make the trek to the old home town of the former West Virginia coal barons to experience Bramwell’s Oktoberfest celebration. Keep it up and heck maybe I will be able to make it down next year.

I give the 2009 “stiff upper lip” award to the “Friends of Clay Center” who just seemingly can’t catch a break. The 2009 Charleston Oktoberfest that they organize was not only “rained on” but freakin rained-out with rain falling sideways! They still managed to put on a great event and find a pretty descent supply of craft beer for the event.

Highlights of the year in beer for Charleston starts with getting the Star Hill line of beers. I would then move to vote Harpoon Leviathan as “Beer of the Year”… Yeah, that’s right! Why? Because it hit the streets of Charleston about two days after the law changed, almost beating that alco-pop abomination “Joose” to the market. Leviathan holds the historic milestone as the first double IPA in WV! I only hope the folks that make and distribute this ”Joose” crap will find scrutiny at heaven’s gate. I cannot believe that the WV state Alcohol commissioner finds fault with labels like “Flying Dog in Heat Wheat” but quickly approve a product like “Joose” which is nothing more than “crack in a can”…

The biggest “flop” of the year and the winner of the BTY “Flat Beer” award was Festivall’s “Festiv-ale”. The bad thing is that I was the organizer of the event. Festiv-ale was an abject failure! I need to re-think this thing. Stay tuned!

OK, this a bit of a long-winded blog tonight. I am sitting in the Boulevard Tavern sipping a few nice craft beers and the words are flowing. I will cut it off here though. I want to wish all of my readers a Happy and Safe New Year. I hope we see many more great brews on the shelves soon. This is our moment! Let’s get out there and patronize the bars, grocers and liquor stores that sell what we want! If we don’t the spark will fade and the fire will go cold and wholesalers will go back to selling what they know has worked for the past seventy-plus years.

M.E.S.S. ( I was asked to put this in my blog by a very cute, but pretty buzzed young lady from Cincinnati; I hope she gets a kick out of it)

I was casually listening to the radio the other day and a film critic’s comments caught my ear. He was talking about the latest George Clooney movie called “Up in The Air”; a movie about a guy who was feverishly racking-up airline miles all the while losing track of home life. For a moment, I thought this radio guy was reading my Facebook status updates aloud on the radio. Yes, I am guilty of the mad year-end dash, successfully attaining gold status on Delta, but more importantly interfacing with a few beers along the way.

My recent trip to the Chicago area found me in my usual place “The Map Room”, a world-class beer-bar located in the Bucktown neighborhood. My favorite beer of the night was Three Floyd’s Alpha Klaus Xmas Porter. This imperial porter was very rich with a hint of cola (yes I said cola) flavor along with an assertive PNW hop aroma and flavor. One of these beers deserved another… (And was there another one after that??)

Proving the power of logo-types and branding; my eyes immediately focused on a sign posted on the “el-train” advertising Chicago’s Christkindlmarkt , the outdoor Christmas fair that was being held at Daley Plaza. The logo was that of a German beer that I only drank one time during my most recent trip to Regensberg in Bavaria. The beer is called Bischoffshof and they brew a great lager as well as a weizen beer that we consumed in the beer-tent during Regensberg’s fall festival. From the looks of the poster, Bischoff’s beer was going to be served at the Christmas fair, which meant I would be there to help them lighten the load.

If it weren’t for freezing rain and wind, the fair would have been awesome. I didn’t let the weather ruin the evening, but I didn’t really get around to all of the craft (and food) booths because of it. Sanctuary was found in the Lufthansa beer-tent along with a few glasses of Bischoff’s wonderful doppelbock. The beer was rich and malty with clean finish in typical German style. Spiced winter wine (Glühwein) was also available which was served hot and in a little boot. I especially like the fact that Kinderwein was sold for the kinder of course…  As always, kids are invited to celebrate with the adults during German festivals and I am in total agreement with that custom. This way they learn to drink responsibly; so responsibly that after a couple of doppelbocks, I made my way back to the hotel for an evening of email.

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The BTY beer drinking team recently dispatched a scouting (drinking) party to Athens Ohio to check out festivities during Jackie O’s Fourth Birthday Bash. Jackie O’s is a small brewpub, but not in typical fashion. Take one look at the beer menu and you quickly figure out that Brewer Brad Clark is a non-conformist, which is no surprise in this quirky college town.

Jackie O’s boasts a (abnormally?) large selection of barrel-aged and sour beers and on this weekend, there were over forty available along with a few “normal” beers, like a Double IPA. A “tasting package” consisting of ten tickets and a snifter for $18.00 was a great way to sample many of the specialty brews.

For those of my readers who might not be familiar with sour beer, it’s not as bad as it sounds… In fact sour beer is pretty darn good when done right. The sourness is imparted during fermentation, usually by non-traditional yeasts such as Brettanomyces instead of the normal saccharomyces strains. “Brett” usually ferments more completely, leaving a drier beer that can exhibit various levels of tartness and acidity. There are also other critters such as acid producing bacteria that are often used to enhance the acidity. The lactic or acetic bacteria usually reside in the wood of the barrel and affect the beer during aging or secondary fermentation with added fruit or younger beer. Good sour beers usually show balance between acidity, nuttiness and body to match the level of sourness. Many brewers, including Brad, find that blending various beers within barrels is a good way to apply the brewer’s art.

I am sure Brad pulled out every barrel he had in the cellar for the weekend’s blow-out. Many of the beers were labeled as “proto”, short for prototypes. So in essence, we all became human beer guinea pigs for the cause! That’s Ok; my liver can take it…

The BTY team agreed on a list of highlights for the weekend. My personal favorite was a beer aptly labeled “Kentucky Monk”, a 10% abv Belgian style tripel that was aged in a bourbon barrel. The team voted “Thorogood”, a bourbon-barrel aged Scotch ale as overall best of show. Another great beer was a slightly sour porter that was aged in a Cabernet barrel along with sixty pounds of cherries.

As always, with such prolific creativity, comes a few “near-misses”… Our opinion of the beer named “Cuvee number 2” was that it was a busy mish-mash of sour dark ale loaded with too-many spices and vanilla, like some kind of over-the-top Chai-Tea. I also found the seemingly popular “Chunga’s series of sour beers (2008 and 2009) to lack the complexity and body needed to be called “Oud Bruin” style beers.

Jackie O’s recent purchase of a new bottling machine prompted the first big “Bottle sale” during the event. I am the first to defend a brewer’s quest to make a respectable profit on their handicraft, but I must admit that I choked on laying down $18.00 for 22 ounces of beer! I guess I should either “put-up or shut-up”… 

Capitol Beverage has acquired the franchise rights to several well-known and top-rated Belgian beers recently. Capitol’s craft brands manager Joey Campbell has confirmed that brews from Huyghe (Delirium-Tremens), Von Honsebroek (Kasteel) and Het Anker (Gouden Carolus) will be covered in the franchise deal.

Excited beer-geeks need to remain cautious however; the state’s alcohol commissioner has to approve the labeling and up to this point have been a bit “stodgy” about what can be represented on a beer label. I am told that Flying Dog Brewery is fighting this issue as we speak, on their “In-Heat Wheat” and “Doggie-Style labels” though my information on this comes from hear-say. If the state won’t sign-off on “In Heat Wheat” I can’t imagine they would approve “Delirium-Tremens” and its pink elephant logo.

I am very happy though that the effort is being made by local distributors to bring these beers into our once former beer wasteland.  I may be calling my fellow beer-geeks to lobby the WVABCC to get them to loosen-up a bit on the label approval. These beers are allowed to be sold in every state that I know of except for maybe Utah…

If you already have your weekend planned, nix those plans… Jackie O’s, Athens Ohio’s only brewpub is celebrating their 4th Birthday and recent expansion with an absolute beer blow-out. The pub will feature 40+ beers on tap this coming weekend, December 4^th and 5^th . The pub brewery is gaining a pretty solid reputation with their creatively-crafted barrel aged and sour beers. Most of the beers featured will be Jackie O’s own but I am sure there will be a few guest beers and hopefully something from Kelly Sauber of the recently closed Marietta Brewing Company. Click Here for more info…

One of my very first haunts after moving to CRW was the legendary Levee Bar, the “anchor” of the Kanawha Boulevard bar scene in the day. Those old weary door hinges have seen a lot of comings and goings even after The Levee made way for the Legends Bar. Now it’s The Boulevard Tavern, a “refreshed and modernized” version of the old Levee. The bar’s owner P-G (former manager of Sam’s Downtown), apparently sports a set of gonads, totally remodeling and freshening-up the place and thank god, he removed the front mezzanine; creating a very appealing open feel. PG tells me he wants his place to be known for good beer but he also needs to serve-all (Yes, that means swill drinkers…) The bar has six taps (Chimay white is soon to be on one of them) and is flanked by two brand spanking new 3-door bottled beer refrigerators. The bar also serves food via the kitchen at The Sound Factory, two doors away. As of the opening a few weeks ago, the beer fridge was bit heavy on Stevens Point brand beers, some Harpoon and Sierra Pale and Celebration though too light on Rogue and Great Lakes was non-existent. I am told that will be corrected. Let’s hope so…

This is the first but it won’t be the last reminder that I will conducting an Adult Learning Workshop for the Clay Center titled “The Art & Science of Beer”. This will be a four hour workshop that will cover a whole range of beery topics as well as tasting and evaluation of several craft beers. Mark your calendars for March 13 from 1pm to 5pm. Space will be limited, so reserve ASAP. Click Here for more info…