Published: October 10, 2009 09:23 pm      

Hundreds pour into Bramwell for OktoberFest

BRAMWELL — A fine mist of rain filled the brisk, overcast air in Bramwell Saturday afternoon, but nobody seemed to matter as hundreds of people flocked to the picturesque southern West Virginia town to enjoy good food, great music, and to taste the fruits of some of the best micro-breweries in the country at the 14th Annual OktoberFest.

“This place is gorgeous,” Sam Peters said as he looked around at the homes surrounding the Mountaineer Brewing Co. canopy. “I’ve never seen anything like this before. And the beer is good too.”

Peters works at Mountaineer Brewing in Martinsburg. It was his first trip to southern West Virginia. He continued smiling as visitors to the Mountaineer display tasted the various products made at the brewery.

“This town reminds me of some of the small towns in the eastern panhandle before all the people started moving there from Washington, D.C.,” J.J. Heminway said. Peters and Heminway both work in the bottling plant part of the brewery.

“We only go to a few of these every year, but this is definitely one of the best,” Aaron Blessing, Mountaineer’s assistant brewmaster said as he and Brewmaster Dan Maerzluft spoke with visitors. “It really is one of the best.” Mountaineer Brewing brewed its first beer on New Year’s Eve, 2007.

The brick street in the heart of Bramwell’s downtown residential section was crammed with people, while the line of folks waiting to enter the event stretched from the sidewalk in front of the New People’s Bank of Bramwell Branch all the way to the entrance to the Cornershop. “There were only three people in this line at 2 p.m., when we opened,” Adam Gianato said. Gianato of Kimball came to Bramwell to assist volunteer firefighters in Bramwell as they assisted guests.

Thomas Daugherty and Robert Scalise, a pair of Charleston area musicians dressed in alpine-style lederhosen and playing a Sousaphone and accordion respectively, provided the appropriate background music for an eclectic combination of musical styles on display through the afternoon. Crowds of people gathered at various spots along the way to enjoy soft rock, bluegrass/old time, blues and contemporary music.

However, not everyone was sampling the products from 23 different micro-breweries offering more than 80 different labels. Several students from the University of Mary Washington in Fredericksburg, Va., were busy writing notes in notebooks and photographing everything they were watching.

“We toured the Exhibition Coal Mine in Pocahontas, Va., before we came here,” Allyson Thompson, a Mary Washington senior said. “This is all very different from Fredericksburg.”

Anya Bogdanow, also a senior, said there are eight students and the professor from the ‘Field Methods in Geography’ course on the trip. “It’s an interesting course,” she said.

Hunter Joseph, a Mary Washington junior said that the trip to Pocahontas and Bramwell is the third field trip that the students have been on, including a previous trip to Tangier Island in Chesapeake Bay on Virginia’s Eastern Shore. “All of our field trips have been different and interesting,” Joseph said.

“George Sitler has done a wonderful job of putting this event together,” Bramwell Mayor Louise Stoker said. “He works hard on it and everyone seems to enjoy themselves.”

In a brief moment between responding to questions posed to him by various guests, brewers and vendors, Sitler reflected on the development of OktoberFest. “We started this in 1995 with three kinds of beer and I brewed them all,” Sitler said. “The next year, we had 200 or 300 here. I expect to see 1,000 here today.

“We have 23 different breweries here from coast to coast,” Sitler said. “It’s been a fabulous success and a great day.”

The mist of rain continued through the afternoon, but no one seemed to mind. “Everything is quiet today,” Senior Deputy R.E. “Bob” Haynes of the Mercer County Sheriff’s Department said after completing a foot patrol of Main Street in Bramwell.

– Contact Bill Archer at barcher@bdtonline.com