For those of you who know me, you know that my family is originally from the great (really not) state of West Virginia. My ancestors were there before the state even existed and played various important roles throughout the state’s history.  My father recently passed and had wished to be buried up the road from his family’s home in the mountains of West Virginia. Of course, this meant a trip to Charleston, the state capital.

I didn’t really intend on ending up at the only brewery right in town, but, of course, it called to me. A fellow beer lover and I tried to go to the Charleston Brewing Company on New Year’s Day but the establishment was closed. Therefore, I had to make it a point to get back a couple of days later.  I am glad that I did. I was really impressed by the quality of beers coming out of this brewery. While as my friend pointed out, they are not always true to style, the beers are overall of high quality and quite tasty.

The Raj was recommended to me by my beer loving friend and was classified by him as their best flagship beer. I did enjoy this IPA. It had a very nice citrus nose with good hop flavors that were a bit bold. Overall, however, this was a good solid IPA.

The Montpelier was touted as an east coast style IPA. It had a very light nose. The taste was a bit odd at the end, like a slightly sour candy; however, the bitter flavors of the hops still prevailed. The beer was also very light in color. Overall, an interesting beer.

Europa was touted as a pale ale but I found it to be a bit on the malty side. It had very caramel flavors up front and those malty flavors prevailed through each sip. Overall, this beer was way too malty to be considered a pale ale and I really didn’t get much of any hop flavors.

Sweet Pot was the pumpkin ale. Pumpkin ales are generally either very good or very bad in my opinion. This one was a bit too sweet for my taste. The beer didn’t have much nose but had good pumpkin spice flavors that were unfortunately hidden a bit behind the sweetness.

The Citra IPA was my favorite beer here. This was a light colored IPA that exploded with the grassy and citrus flavors of the Citra hop. My favorite hop, I rarely come across a Citra IPA that I don’t like.

A surprising find here was the Grisette. Touted as a farmhouse ale, it really wasn’t but did have a great combination of flavors.  A friend absolutely could not get enough of this beer! It had a nice spice nose with a lot of citrus, the beer also was largely sour, citrus flavored. There were light herbal undertones but the citrus and sour prevailed.

As a testament to the quality of the beers (and food) here, this was the only place with a substantial crowd on a Saturday night in downtown Charleston. We went looking for another place to go, but found empty bar after empty bar. When we left this place, it was still hopping.  Let’s quickly mention the food, the burritos and sandwiches are huge and quite tasty but reasonably priced. This is a must stop if you should find yourself in Charleston, WV.