THOMAS -- Although Mountain State Brewing Co. in Thomas tapped its first keg just six months ago, its beers already are served in restaurants across north-central West Virginia. And its brewers are just getting started.

Stepbrothers Brian Arnett of Elkins and Willie Leymann of Helvetia said they realized several years ago they'd each been thinking independently of starting a brewery.

Arnett, who said he began homebrewing in high school, landed an apprenticeship at Ryleigh's Brewpub in Baltimore four years ago when he was in his mid-20s.

Two months later, Arnett said, everyone at the pub had left, and he found himself head brewer. He spent three years perfecting his recipes.

Meanwhile, Leymann made mead -- honey wine -- and moonshine in college and drew up plans for a brewery to sit next door to his grandmother's restaurant in Helvetia. Although he then went to work as a stonemason, he sometimes visited Arnett in Baltimore and helped him brew.

The two knew they could work well together -- they'd restored an old building together on their parents' property -- and decided to make a go of it.

Arnett started collecting brewing equipment whenever something became available, buying everything Bare Bones Grill and Brewery in Ellicott City, Md., had when it stopped brewing a few years ago and filling his Baltimore apartment.

Then, last summer, the two got financing and put up the shell of the 40-by-64-square-foot building. They built the interior themselves -- Willie's stone work decorated the bar -- and started brewing in September.

"It's a seven-barrel brewhouse," as Arnett describes it -- that is, it has a capacity of seven 31-gallon barrels a day.

Last month, after five months in business, they brewed 34 barrels, a little more than one barrel a day.

But "this is just the tip of the iceberg," Arnett said. "It's growing every month."

The brewery offers four styles: Cold Trail Ale, an American blond, as well as Almost Heaven Amber Ale, Seneca Indian Pale Ale and Miner's Daughter Oatmeal Stout.

Arnett said he learned valuable lessons from his stint at Ryleigh's. For the Indian Pale Ale, for example, the brewers use Galena, Amarillo and Cascade hops. But Arnett said he orders the Amarillo all at once at the beginning of the season because he was shut out two years in a row at Ryleigh's when supply ran dry.

Mountain State's recipes are the ones Arnett developed at Ryleigh's, lightened up for local tastes.

"In West Virginia, people drink a lot of light beer," Arnett said. "I knew it had to be light-bodied and easy drinking, something people could drink a lot of."

As it turns out, though, the stout is their best seller, Leymann said.

Both would like to stop brewing the American blond at some point. Leymann wants to brew a nutmeg beer. Arnett said he has in mind a Belgian wit, or white, beer: a pale, cloudy wheat beer flavored with orange peel and coriander.

The stepbrothers brew on-site, and with the help of an employee, open the brewpub at 6 p.m. Thursdays through Sundays with live music on Thursdays.

They also personally deliver kegs weekly to a list of 15 restaurants and bars locally and in Elkins and Morgantown and is quickly exploding.

They expect to work with their first distributor beginning in April to get their beers into Fayetteville restaurants, too.

But, they say, all that's just the beginning.

They'd like to be bottling by the end of this summer, Arnett said, and also would like to license the half-gallon jugs, commonly called "growlers" for sale in convenience stores.

"We want to max out our capacity," Arnett said, "then buy more equipment. We want to be the brewery in West Virginia."