When it comes to recent moves in West Virginia’s craft cider and beer markets, no one is making a larger business impact than is a man from Greenbrier County named Josh Bennett.



Bennett, who started up the Hawk Knob cidery a decade ago, last summer purchased the assets of Greenbrier Valley Brewing Company (GVBC), the state’s second largest selling brewery, and has restarted its brewing program.



When the former owner shut down the brewery last spring, something tugged at Bennett’s heart. “The thing that weighed on me was the jobs,” he said.



He knew many of the brewery’s employees and didn’t want to see all those folks unemployed. Initially, he didn’t think about actually buying the brewery. He thought its building might be a good place for his cidery to expand in. But then, some sessions with those laid-off employees opened his eyes to the possibility.



Greenbrier Valley Brewing’s owner, Josh Bennett (at right) with some of his brewery crew. L to R are Jeff Frizsell, Evan Metz, Travis Canterbury, and Bennett. (GVBC photo)



While Bennett is a man with a big heart, he’s also a guy with proven good business sense. He doesn’t plan on operating the brewery as a charity. He plans to run a profitable business. After taking charge of the brewery property last summer and bringing back the brewery staff, he is now well on his way to making the changes necessary to turn Greenbrier Valley Brewing into the first-class business venture it always had the potential to be, but in the past, could never quite achieve.







Hear Josh on WV Beer Roads Podcast



On Episode 78 of the West Virginia Beer Roads podcast, Charles and Erin talk with Josh Bennett about how he got started in the cider business and, eventually, the beer business. Listen in as Bennett reveals the twists and turns of his life that have taken him to cidery and brewery ownership.



Episode 078 • WV Beer Roads • 43 minutes







Caring about tradition



A very important thing that people who don’t know him don’t recognize, is Bennett’s passion for tradition. A big factor that drove him to open a cidery was his remembrances of traditional Appalachian cider from back in the days of his youth in the Virginia mountains. Then come forward to around a dozen years ago, as he began seeing and sampling the new brands of American hard cider appearing on West Virginia retailers’ shelves. A realization hit him:. “It didn’t taste anything like what I had grown up making,” he says.



He found the big American ciders brands to be a lot sweeter and less complex than the ciders he learned to make growing up. His homemade ciders were barrel fermented and barrel aged, with wild yeast fermentation. They were much more complex and much drier than the contemporary, mass-marketed commercial brands.



Room for Appalachian-style cider



“I figured there must be quite a hole in the market,” he said, and he thought there had to be a lot of folks who would also enjoy traditional Appalachian-style cider. But it wasn’t available for them to try.



And that’s when he got Hawk Knob Hard Cidery going.



Josh Bennett pouring a glass of Hawk Knob cider at his tasting room in 2015.



In 2014, Hawk Knob cidery began producing traditional Appalachian-style ciders and slowly introduced them to the market. As people tried his ciders, they learned to like them. Yes, they’re quite different from your Angry Orchard and Bold Roc...