So, I’m at Valley River brewery, one of my favorite places for a beer you see, and I’m up to a couple new things today. The first is that I checked in here with the Pint Pass app, which (they say) pays you to check in at breweries. I’ve had same for a while now, but always forget to use it. Today I made it a point do so, and sure enough it did credit my account $2 for the check in. The proof of the pudding, though, will come when I go to use the money in the account at some future date.
New thing two is that I ordered a pizza here. I’ve always heard good things about their wood-fired brick oven pizza, and after enjoying one I can heartily recommend them. The basic 10-inch medium pie (I finished about half) was $10.95 with mozzarella and red sauce. I added mushrooms and sliced fresh tomato for $.75 each, and sautéed spinach for $1.50. The sauce was tangy, the toppings plentiful and the crust chewy inside and crisp and toasty on the bottom.
Pizza and beer go hand in hand, and far be it from me to break up the two. As I am often wont to do, I ordered a sampler of four beers ($5.50) with the intention of bringing a growler of the lovely Dawn Mild back to the hotel. My plans went awry when one of the beers in my sampler was so wonderful, I decided to get that instead.
The second beer I sampled was Amber Knight Ale, an amber Ale in style. Amber ales are a pretty generic classification for malty, lightly to moderately hopped ales that are smooth and easy to drink yet still flavorful. Or should be, anyway (Amber Knight certainly was).
Amber Knight Ale has an alcohol content of 6.3% by volume and sells for $4.50 a pint, $2.25 the half pint.
My taster glass of Valley River Amber Knight Ale arrived with a light head formation and a beautiful deep caramel color. The nose was inviting with malty goodness, and a sip revealed a smooth caramel malty palate and balancing bitterness at the last. Decidedly emphasizes the malt, and that’s what I want in the style.
I have seen this beer here fairly often, and yet this is the first time I've tried it. What was I waiting for? I'm sure I don't know. As I sipped, I thought how well a pint of Amber Knight would go with the delicious pizza I was enjoying.
Very tasty indeed, but Dawn mild had not been displaced as the beer to fill my Drink Tank growler. Stay tuned to see which beer would.
And remember, try a new beer today, and drink outside the box.
*Pricing data accurate at time of review or latest update. For reference only, based on actual price paid by reviewer.
(B)=Bottled
(D)=Draft
(G)=Growler