Greetings West Virginia Craft Beer Appreciation Society, and thanks for letting Big Swiss Brewing & Appalachian Sprits blog in your space!

First off, let me introduce Big Swiss: David Kucera of Lewisburg, WV, and Adam Patnoe (me) of Charleston, WV are working to establish a production brewery in West Virginia. Although our goal is to produce beer, the path to our brewery might include a brewpub. We are also working on some ideas that will help us create our brewery AND help other craft brewers in our state reach further through the state and beyond. But we're keeping some stuff up our sleeves for now...

What's up with our name? First, our friend John at www.Huntingtonbeer.com provided us with some insight into West Virginia's past brewing glory. We chose Big Swiss to give respect to West Virginia's sometimes title of "America's Little Switzerland" and the once great Little Switzerland brewery in Huntington, WV.

The Appalachian Spirits part of our name comes from the fact that we will instill the spirit of West Virginia's Appalachian heritage into everything we make. Oh, and we were trying be clever with the name too: one step along or beyond the journey to establish our brewery may include the distillation of spirits.

Finally, it didn't hurt that www.bigswiss.com was an available domain name. The site is a true work in progress, but please check it out and "like" Big Swiss Brewing & Appalachian Spirits on Facebook.

So what are we going to talk about in this blog? We would like to give you the opportunity to follow us in our adventure to open our brewery. So far, our efforts have led us to some great folks and experiences in West Virginia and beyond, and we hope you can share in the good and not so good with us along the way. And hopefully we'll be able to get our great beer-to-be into your hands soon!

We look forward to reading your posts and sharing more with you soon. In the meantime, please get out and support our local craft breweries!

Keep on keepin' on!