The West Virginia Craft Beer Appreciation Society has been asked to take the lead on organizing a Home Brew Competition for the Monongalia County Fair.

After a five year hiatus, the Mon County Fair is back. This year the fair, which kicks off on August 9th with a parade, will be held at Mylan Park which is just a few miles off the Star City Exit of I-79. In order to add new flair to the fair, organizers have planed a ameture homebrewed beer and wine competition. The wine competition will be lead by Jerry Deal and Forks of Cheat Winery while the beer side of things is being organized by the WV Craft Beer Appreciation Society and the WV Craft Brewers Society, a homebrew club located in North Central WV.

The Beer competition will be sanctioned by the Beer Judge Certification Program (BJCP) and will follow their guidelines for a competition and judged according to the BJCP style guidelines. Those wishing to compete may enter up to one beer in each of the 23 BJCP Style Categories.

Judges will be grading the beers on Aroma (up to 12 points), Appearance (up to 3 points), Flavor (20 points), Mouthfeel (5 points), and Overall Impression (10 points) for a total of 50 points possible. Gold, Silver, and Bronze Certificates will be awarded to Beers that achieve the appropriate amount of points (Gold = 38-50 points, Silver = 30-37, Bronze = 25-29 points). Additional prizes will be awarded for 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place in each of the judging categories (Final judging categories will be determined by the number of entries). First place winners in each category will move on to the Best of Show round where prizes will be awarded to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners. The 1st place winner of the Best in Show round will have the oppurtunity to have their beer produced and sold by Morgantown Brewing Company.

Entry Deadlines and Judging dates will be announced in the near future, but will most likely be in late July.

Stay tuned for the rest of the details

In the meantime, for more info, contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

I found this article via Facebook, and it reminded me of some comments both on the forum here at WVCBAS.com and on the email list for my local Homebrew Club. Why is it that Brewpubs (or Bars, or Resturants) tend to have either excellent beer or excellent food, but rarely do they have both. Obvoiusly this is not just a local problem, because the NY Times ran a story about it a few months back.

I also feel that I need to add that Morgantown Brewing Co. may be one of those rare treats that have both beer and food that are well above average. Dare I say even excelent? (In the intrerst of full disclosure, I must inform you that I am the webmaster for MBC, and may be slightly biased)

Anyway, enjoy the article and as always, chime in with your opinions.

A Beer, Please, and a (Good) Menu

ALL seemed right on this misty Thursday evening. The rain was holding up, and at Studio Square, a sleek 21st-century German beer garden near Kaufman Astoria Studios in Queens, the reggae-funk band was setting up outdoors, where people could sway to the rhythms from a field of picnic tables or multiple covered bars. I stepped up to order a Pilsner Urquell from the menu of good German and Czech beers on tap, supplemented by a few American craft beers.

“You didn’t look like the fruity-beer type,” the bartender said as she handed me a perfect pour. The beer was pale gold, crisp and bracingly bitter, the archetypal refreshing pilsner. She was a fine judge of character, I told her.

I moved on to the food station. Weary of the numerous variations on the sausage that I had consumed in a recent survey of New York’s latest crop of beer bars, and wary of the slightly forlorn-looking sushi — yes, 21st century — I ordered a burger, medium rare. “We don’t take temperature orders for burgers,” the server told me. “They all come out medium anyway.”

I would have been so grateful if it had. Instead, the prefab burger, as flat and tasteless a patty as any ever slung at a company picnic, was cooked dry, perhaps to compensate for the wet bun on which it rested. The choice of vegetables consisted of French fries or tart, acidic sauerkraut. Needless to say, I did not order a second beer and left Studio Square hungry.

No, Morgantown Brewing Co is not getting into the St. Patty's Day Spirit early, but they are going Green. Check out this report from WBOY about the recycleing efforts made by MBC. From recycling all their bottles, cans, and cardboad, to sending their spent grains to a local farmer for animal feed, MBC is doing their part to make our world a little better.

WBOY.com (Text)

WBOY.com (Video)

Morgantown Brewing Co.

Last year Beer Geeks across WV were glued to the State Legislative Proceedings so we could find out if the "craft beer bill" was going to pass. Well, as we all know, it did, and now many of us have went on with our lives and not looked back at the Legislature.

Well, last night I decided to check out the Legislature's website to see what was new under the golden dome. It turns out that there is at least one bill that could effect Mountain State Beer Lovers.

HB 2681 is "A BILL to amend and reenact §11-15-3a of the Code of West Virginia, 1931, as amended; to amend and reenact §11-16-13 of said code; and to amend and reenact §11-17-3 of said code, all relating to taxation; eliminating the consumer sales and service tax on food; increasing the tax on nonintoxicating beer per barrel from $5.50 to $6.35; increasing the rate of tax on cigarettes from $0.55 to $1.35; increasing the excise tax on noncigarette tobacco products from seven percent to fourteen percent; and providing for the dedication of $5 million of the revenue for the first year to the Department of Agriculture."

That's right, they want to raise taxes on Beer and Tobacco. Now realistically, if you break down the proposed increase it comes out to less than $0.01 per 12 oz serving, but that is not what bothers me. What I don't like about the bill is that it does not increase the taxes on Wine or Hard Liquor. I understand "sin taxes" and feel that they are necessary, but I think what is good for the beer drinker  is good for the wino.

I also saw a comment on The Liquor Company's (a good beer store in Charleston) Face Book Page that said "trying to get beer samplings passed w/the state during legislation...wish us luck!!" I cant seem to find any info on a bill that proposes this on the Legislature's Website, but I am trying to find more info. This would be awesome if it is happening and it would be worth us starting a letter writing/calling/email campaign to help push it through. I will keep you updated as I find out more, and please, if any of you find out about this, let us know.

From MariettaTimes.com

Article from Draft Magazine

Beer: Now scientifically better than water

You always knew it. You just couldn’t prove it.

Well, now sciences backs you up: beer is better at post-workout rehydration than water.

According to a study in Granada — that bastion of scientific inquiry — rehydration was “slightly better” in beer drinkers than those who were given only water after a grueling treadmill run to exhaustion in 104-degree heat.