New Year, New Beer: A Preview of Breweries with WV Distribution Plans

Posted on January 7, 2015 Updated on January 7, 2015

If your New Year’s resolution is to increase your Untappd check-ins, or simply to expand your beer-tasting horizons, there is hope:  more breweries will soon be distributing in West Virginia.  As several 2014 news snippets indicated, the following options should soon be available on our local store shelves:

• Bell’s Brewery, maker of the epic Two-Hearted IPA, and many other excellent beers (in spite of West Virginia’s regulations being “extremely difficult” to navigate, according to Bell’s Founder).
• Devil’s Backbone, the Great American Beer Fest’s 2014 “Mid-Sized Brewer of the Year,” will add WV as part of its large expansion.
• DuClaw Brewing, which goes by a “craft be cherished, rules be damned” motto while brewing creative favorites such as Sweet Baby Jesus, a chocolate peanut butter porter (look for it by this May).
• Kona Brewing, a Hawaii-based brewery with plans to expand to all 50 states by summer of 2015.
• Terrapin Beer, brewer of the delicious Moo-Hoo Chocolate Milk Stout, with a release party apparently coming very soon to Summit Beer Station in Huntington.

With the craft beer boom showing no signs of stopping, we should expect to see more (including WV-based breweries) throughout the year.  And if you know of others not listed, feel free to share the good news in the comments section.

Happy New Year to all!