Beertopia Aims for a Lowkey Renaissance

Beertopia Aims for a Lowkey Renaissance

Troy Freels is a busy man these days.  In addition to his family life and a full-time job, he has also recently opened a beer-lover’s paradise – a beertopia, if you will – right outside of Morgantown’s Greenmont neighborhood.  The demands on his schedule have been intense.  “It’s overwhelming at times, but we’re managing,” he tells me after serving up a seasonal brew.

Also overwhelming: the sheer quantity of options.  Beertopia not only has 16 drafts, but more than 150 bottles and an entire brewing supply shop.  The location is sizeable – large enough for the long bar, a number of tables, a darts/cornhole area, lots of coolers and the supply counter.  The atmosphere is laid back and the jukebox plays at a lower volume, which Troy says was an effort to make sure customers didn’t have to scream over music or televisions to interact with each other.

Local and regional beers are a big focus for Beertopia, stocking one whole kegerator of West Virginia brews and another of regionals.  Troy says that both Morgantown and the state are poised to join the craft brewing renaissance that has been occurring throughout the surrounding region.  An important part of that process will be introducing the people of West Virginia to beer that is already made here.

“For a lot of small breweries, unless you visit their taproom or go to their regional city, you can’t experience them,” he points out.  “There’s only a handful that are even bottling and distributing across the state.  I think we have 21 breweries in the state, and a lot of people couldn’t name more than 5 or 6.”

When the Brockway Avenue location came available, he knew it was perfect: it already had walk-in coolers, a keg room and enough space for the location to be everything he wanted it to be.  Beertopia has now been open for less than two months, yet I get the impression that the idea of a place like it has been brewing in the back of Troy’s mind for a long time.

“ I feel like you can spend the first part of your life afraid to fail, then spend the second part of your life regretting you never tried.  You start sitting back and thinking, ‘I never really did the things that I daydreamed about.  Maybe it’s time to make the jump.’ ”

The jump was ambitious.  He wasn’t sure what to call the new venture, and solicited a friend for advice.  He explained that he wanted to deal in everything related to beer.  “I want people to come in for homebrewing, for a pick six, for single bottles, drafts, flights, kegs,” he explained.  “I just want it to be a whole beertopia…”

“There’s your name right there,” his friend responded.

If you’re a craft beer lover in Morgantown, Troy’s dream is definitely worth checking out.  Stop in for a pint, throw some darts, have a pepperoni roll, or maybe even pick up a home brewing kit as a last-minute holiday gift.

 Best of all, you can walk out with West Virginia brews that would otherwise require hours of driving to get your hands on. Let West Virginia’s beer renaissance begin.

D.I.Y. Infinite Custom Phone Cases

D.I.Y. Infinite Custom Phone Cases

A little project I worked up this morning. With a clear, rubberized phone case and a little work, you're always custom.

Instagram Shot:  New Music Setup

Instagram Shot: New Music Setup

Spent the day in the studio working up an entirely new live performance system. I can now perform the loop pedal's layering of guitar and vocal lines over beats and sound effects I've designed that progress underneath the loops. We turn destruction to creation, heartbreak into pages.

     

 
   Captain Catfeesh broadcasting from Gluck Theater @ WVU!

Captain Catfeesh broadcasting from Gluck Theater @ WVU!

One Year After Shooting, Monongalia Sheriffs Get Body Cameras

One Year After Shooting, Monongalia Sheriffs Get Body Cameras

Ten Monongalia Sheriffs raid a Morgantown home, killing the grandson of a WVU Hall of Fame coach.  None of the deputies are wearing the department's body cameras.  One year later, things are about to change.


When the posse of ten sheriff’s deputies quietly gathered outside the front door of David Romanoski’s home on Charles Avenue last November, he was not even a person of interest.  The deputies were instead looking for Justin Knisell, a young man that he had allowed to sleep there on a number of occasions.  Knisell was suspected of beating two men with a pistol during an armed robbery earlier the same day.

 

According to Romanoski's fiance, Karen Tackett, he often let people come and go freely, and Knisell was someone who had stayed with them "here and there".  But she also says that things had gone sour between the two men after a recent argument, and that the house had been "on lockdown" ever since.

                A plain-clothed deputy knocked on the door first, claiming to be there to fix the furnace before pushing his way in, followed closely by the rest of the team.  Tackett, another woman and her 17-year-old son were all forced to the living room floor as deputies headed into the bedroom.  It was here that they claim Romanoski was waiting for them with a shotgun and a pistol.  He was shot three times.

Karen Tackett claims that the officers never identified themselves out loud, and that the shotgun was behind a door, out of Romanoski’s reach.  The deputies remember it differently.  It is impossible to know for sure, because none of the deputies were wearing the department’s body cameras.  After the incident, Sheriff Al Kisner said that deputies had stopped using the devices because they did not record well in low light and had poor battery life.  He said that the department had applied for grant money to purchase a more reliable model, but it was not approved.

Police shootings are always a sensitive issue, but particularly so in this case because someone not suspected of a crime had been killed on their own property.  Body cameras would have revealed the two most important factors in determining the legality of the killing: 1) whether deputies did indeed announce their identity and 2) whether David Romanoski was indeed brandishing a shotgun when he was killed in his bedroom.

It is easy to imagine a realistic scenario in which neither the authorities nor Romanoski were legally at fault for his death.  If Romanoski had the house on “lockdown” fearing further interaction with Knisell, and was then awakened from sleep by the sound of shouting as deputies forced their way inside, he may have thought Knisell – who had just committed an armed robbery with an accomplice that day – was doing the same to him.  Grabbing a shotgun from behind the door may have been a perfectly reasonable response to the situation; it may have been equally reasonable for an officer to respond the way he did while serving an arrest warrant for a violent criminal.

Long-time Morgantown newscaster and commentator Hoppy Kercheval noted at the time:  “[T]he circumstances surrounding the death of Romanoski are troubling. In some ways, he was like many West Virginians who arm themselves against a possible home invasion.”  Without body camera footage, we’re left to speculate, but a grand jury later found that there was no reason to charge the officer who fired the shots.

On November 26th, 2016 – a full year after the shooting of Romanoski – Sheriff Kisner announced that the Monongalia Sheriff’s Department had finally received new body cameras.  However, when Kromatic filed a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act request) for the purchase order, the department sent one that had been completed that very day: December 1.

How the department was in possession of cameras it had not yet purchased is unclear, but the fact remains:

Body cameras will soon be worn by all Monongalia County deputies.  Future cases like Romanoski’s will, Morgantown hopes, be less clouded by the doubt and uncertainty that plagued residents – especially his fiancé – after his death.

Wine Gets a Motown Makeover

Wine Gets a Motown Makeover

For Morgantown entrepreneur Randy Scott, everything seems to become art eventually.  On a cloudy fall day, I find myself invited into his home studio in the historic Chancery Hill district to learn about one of his projects, Wine By Design.  Several flat surfaces are covered in glass stemware — most commissioned by clients, all hand-painted by Mr. Scott.

“I got tired of palettes,” he says, motioning to his desk.  A large area of its surface is covered in a thick, textured layer of paint dabs and smears used for his work.  “Once the whole thing is covered, I’m going to sand it down and put a layer of glass over it,” he tells me.  Which is to say, the byproducts of his art will become art.  He is creating while he is creating.

The glasses around me (apparently ready to be delivered) depict a wide array of imagery, from emojis to portraits to landscapes.  Customers choose the subject matter, which seems to keep the styles varied and flexible.  He shows me a couple of glasses (presumably preordered for Valentine’s Day) covered in textured shades of pink except for a small, heart-shaped window left unpainted.  Through it, the words “I love you” are visible on the back, inside of the glasses.

Wine By Design has done well since its inception, serving up artisan glassware to various Morgantown movers and shakers, along with a couple of national celebrities.  (I pry about this a little, but he’s reluctant to advertise names without photo evidence.)  He has designed glassware for the Morgantown Marathon, the annual Children’s Hospital Gala, the West Virginia Wine and Jazz Festival, and Dogfishhead Brewery, to name just a few.

It has been four years since Mr. Scott painted his first wine glasses, but his aptitude for visual artistry began early on.  In fourth grade, a teacher who took note of his gift managed to enroll him in a college level painting class.  Throughout much of his young adult life, painting took a back seat to sports and learning the finer points of digital design. 


Still, his hand-wrought artistry found moments to shine, such as his bartending stint at High Street’s Boston Beanery, where he was often asked to illustrate their specials board with chalk art.

Eventually, Mr. Scott joined a Morgantown business networking group.  He had hoped to exchange referrals with other Morgantown entrepreneurs, but membership came with a catch: the group could only have one person in each specialized field, and there was already a graphic designer.  There was not, however, anyone doing artwork by hand.  In the end, this coincidence was how he returned to his fourth grade painting.

 

Wine By Design has grown beyond the boundaries of Morgantown and West Virginia, shipping to customers in West Africa, England, Dubai, South Korea and all over the United States.  But Randy Scott is still right down the street.  You can follow his work on Facebook, Instagram, or at the Wine By Design website.