“Pub Grub” and Canned Beer…
I couldn’t resist snapping a photo of my lunch today. All the “good energies” were aligned; a fresh baguette from Charleston Bread Company, nice black forest ham, swiss cheese, garden grown pickled-peppers and a very decent canned British ale.
Tetley’s Pub Ale is smooth and creamy. The beer is part of the Carlesberg empire, but brewed in the UK. You can thank the “nitrogen widget” in the can for the creamy head. Those of you that read this blog regularly, know that I am really bullish on the use of cans for packaging beer. The can is like a little keg, keeping away the damaging effects of ultra-violet light and staving off oxidation better than bottles.
Also, not revert to pessimism, but simply to further prove my point about West Virginia’s ”Status-Quo” beer distributors. Tetley’s is a perfect example of a beer that is currently legal in West Virginia but I dare you to find it. I purchased this at Leo’s in South Point, OH. Why should I be optimistic about my future “in-state” beer selection prospects?
April 19th, 2009 at 1:08 am
You’re not being pessimistic. You’re being realistic. I was enjoying some Troeg’s HopBack Amber Ale last night and thinking the same thing. At 6% abv, it’s also legal under current WV law. I thought about how ridiculous it was that I had to leave the state to get it. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. When most of the local population’s idea of a microbrew is Yuengling Lager, how can we expect to ever see real craft beer on the shelves?
April 20th, 2009 at 9:13 am
Has anyone actually even seen an in-state Yuengling yet. I haven’t. Don’t really care that much, just thought it would happen before now. An unfortunate indicator of how not-so quickly things happen here in the “heavenly” hills. I’m still holding out for a surprise craft find some rainy afternoon in the near future.
April 20th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
IIRC, Yuengling will be appearing in West Virginia
in May.
April 20th, 2009 at 6:00 pm
Almost forgot, the AB Distributors Of WV will
be marketing Yuengling in WV.
April 21st, 2009 at 12:00 pm
Tetley’s is my favorite of the canned English beers. Boddington’s is good, Greene King IPA and Old Speckled Hen are better, but Tetley’s, man, that’s good stuff.
April 21st, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Of those Rob, I’ve only had “the Bodd”. Liked it, if I’m in the mood for something like that. Of course now I’ll have to have one tonight.
April 21st, 2009 at 7:25 pm
I forget, can we curse on this board? Cause, what I meant to say was “Tetley’s, man, that’s the $#!t.”
Your homebrew bitter’s really freaking good too.
April 22nd, 2009 at 10:06 am
Thanks Rob! I guess I will have to make a fresh batch of it…
new ad:
Tetley’s… We’re the $#!t…
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:07 pm
Quick WV new beer update-just saw on a
post at BeerAdvocate that Starr Hill
Beer will be coming to WV, by July at
the latest.
According to the post, as with Yuengling,
the WV AB Distributors will be the Starr
Hill vendor.
April 23rd, 2009 at 1:41 pm
Is the governor going to sign the craft beer bill?
April 23rd, 2009 at 4:19 pm
Alan, What I don’t understand is how Proud Eagle arrived at picking Star-Hill out of all of the other possibilities out there. Star Hill is OK and they have supported Bramwell Octoberfest in the past, but again why them? I missed a chnace to taste a few of the beers. The Proud Eagle sales folks offered me a chance to sample, but it was during lent and I gave up beer, otherwise I would never turn down a decent beer…
And BP, I dont know when the bill will be signed. I read an article where the Gov was swamped with over 200 bills. The Legislature granted hime some extra time. He is sining at a rate of 15 per day, if I understood the article.
April 23rd, 2009 at 5:44 pm
Starr Hill is (relatively) local, hailing from Charlottesville, VA. Perhaps that’s the reason. And the lager is a pretty good Vienna style, so it’s got that going for it. Seems like there was an amber or pale ale too but it’s not overly memorable. Still, I’d like to see some progress with the PA crew: Troegs, Victory, Stoudts, Weyerbacher, et al.
About HB 2719: As of Wednesday it hadn’t made it over to the Governor’s office. The harried-sounding woman who answered my questions said it could be a week or two before the final two days worth of bills makes it there. Wow, efficient system there, fellas. She gave no indication as to whether he’d sign it or not but really we probably shouldn’t worry.
April 24th, 2009 at 7:24 am
The reason the AB distributors chose Starr Hill is because Starr Hill wanted to come here. They are the official beer sponsor of the All Good music festival which takes place just outside of Morgantown. They will sell more beer that weekend than they will the rest of the year in WV.
Rich, I want to say thanks for this blog and all you do to spread the word of craft beer, but man, are you ever gonna be happy about something?
When the craft beer bill was introduced you had a negitive attitude about its chance of passing. Then when it did pass you had the attitude of “so what the beer is still not going to come”. You never had a good word to say about Yuingling (I know it is not craft beer, but at least it is another choice). And now we are getting Starr Hill and you want something else.
For the love of god could you not just be happy the the beer situation in WV is getting better by leaps and bounds, and it is only going to continue. I realize we aren’t going to have Three Floyd’s or Russian River in Go Mart next week, but at least we are getting some new stuff.
I don’t think we should be content with Yuingling and Starr Hill, but it is a good start (at least Starr Hill is).
Relax, have a (home/craft/good)brew, be thankful that WVis coming out of thee beer dark ages, and help fight to get even more good brews here.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:08 am
I would imagine Starr Hill is coming here,
since like Yuengling, a lot of their beers
are distributed by AB Distributors, along
the East Coast, according to Starr Hill’s Distributor info on their website.
Hopefully this will be a trend, as a lot of
craft beers in OH and PA are distrubuted by
AB Distributors, especially now, since InBev
no longer pays it’s distributors to handle AB
products only.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:15 am
From what I could tell, Starr Hill uses
a lot of AB distributors to handle their
beers, according to their website, as does
Yuengling. I see this as a trend, as a
lot of the craft beers in OH and PA use
AB distributors to handle their distribution.
The AB distributors in WV will probably become
the biggest players in new craft beers coming
to WV, especially, since InBev no longer pays
their distributors to only handle AB products,
as AB/St. Louis did in the past.
April 24th, 2009 at 8:22 am
Travis, Hold on there Bro! Yes, I can whine as good as the rest of them, true… I just call it as I see it. I actually talk with these wholesalers and that’s when I get all pessimistic. I really don’t think they get it and if they don’t get it, we WON”T GET IT (The beer, that is!)
This change of law is simply an opportunity to change, not change itself. If the beer distributor picks up a relative no-name craft line (Star-Hill?) and then finds that he is buying back unsold stale cases of the stuff, he is simply going to say “OK, lesson learned, I’ll stick with what I know”… Macro-Swill!
As for my Yuengling rant, well I just couldn’t stand there and listen to some people “make silly” by thanking the legislature for allowing Yuengling to come in the state or thinking to themselves that “Finally, my beer woes have come to an end; Yuengling is here!”
The reality is that we have a small market. It will be very difficult to get it going. We are going to have to help it along, like protecting that small spark from a flint-stone on wood shavings; we need to get the fire going, hoping that the spark carries us through.
I have been working at this a pretty long time and the task of nurturing a healthy craft beer market is not an easy one in this state. Forgive me if I am a realist that is speaking to other believers.
I am afraid to even think of how these brews are going to be served if they actually arrive at the local pub. (I thought I would throw that out there and end with a little pessimism̷
Really, I do undertand your critique, But I think you can surely find some positive things in my body of work over the past 2.5 years!
April 24th, 2009 at 10:35 am
Rich,
Sorry for the double post-I was at a public machine
when I was writing my reply. According to the BA
post on Starr Hill this morning, SH was in the pipeline
to begin distributing to WV prior to WV HB 2719’s
passage.
I’ll start emailing Wheeling area distributors to see
what kind of craft beers they plan to add in the future.
Hopefully, it’ll be more than a few, since I see cars
from WV in the lots of beer distributors in the Pittsburgh
area.
April 28th, 2009 at 9:48 am
Hey Rich,
Sorry it took so long to get back to you. I live in the Middle of nowhere and do not have internet access other than my BlackBerry and I hate typing on that damn thing.
I understand that you are being realistic. We are a very small market and most quality brewers will not be jumping at the chance to come here. But I am thankful for any improvement. Not content, just thankful.
I also know what you mean about the distributors “not getting it”. A friend of mine picked up some Starr Hill in Summersvill a few days ago, so I called Mona Supply (the Morgantown AB distributor) to find out when I could expect to see it here. I was told it would be about a month. So I then called Valley Distributing in Fairmont to ask them about it and I spoke to 3 people and NONE OF THEM knew what the hell I was talking about. It is listed on the Starr Hill site that they will be distributing their beer, but the distributor knows nothing about it. So I don’t expect them to effectivly market it when it does come.
Which brings me to a the day before I made these calls…
I sent a very legnthy email to the founder of Starr Hill questioning their decision to go with AB (turns out it is a national deal). I expressed my concerns that they could care less about their products and they are not going to get pushed by the AB distributors because they are more concerned about shelf space for Bud Lite.
But I guess the point of my original comment is this…
Your blog is one of very few public faces for beer culture in WV. Imagine you are the distribution manager for a brewery such as Dogfish Head or Bells and you decide to do a little research on the Beer Culture in our great state. A little Googleing will lead them to your blog where they are going to reada about how shitty our state is when it comes to supporting craft beer. Your recent commments and posts actually give them many reasons to decide NOT to come to WV.
So I am not saying you should paint some rosey picture that WV is going to help the craft beer industry overcome the BMC triad, but a little positivity could go a long way in helping improve our situation.
Cheers,
Travis
April 30th, 2009 at 7:38 am
Quick Yuengling in WV update-was listening
to WWVA on the way to work today, and a bar
in Glendale,WV was advertising that they
would have Yuengling in bottles beginning
May 1st, with draft becoming available in
August.
Also, while out to dinner in Wheeling/Elm Grove
on Saturday, I saw a shiny new Yuengling Beer
delivery truck parked in a lot, just off of US 40,
with WV commercial tags.