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 third beer I sampled this visit was Olde Marsden Ale, an old ale in style. Now, old ale is an English style, a bit similar to barleywine. They're quite malty with yeasty dark fruit notes and stronger than your average ale. In England, that's relative, and rare indeed is the English old ale as strong as Olde Marsden. I was very excited about this beer when I saw it on their website.
Valley River Olde Marsden Ale has an alcohol content of 9% by volume and sells for $5.50 for a 10-ounce glass. I got a 4-ounce taster of it in my sampler. If you're wondering where the name comes from, the brewer's name is Mike Marsden. Do the math.
My taster glass of Valley River Olde Marsden arrived with a light head formation and a beautiful deep caramel color. Taking a whiff, I got spice cake and perfumey aromatic hops in the nose, dark fruits of raisin and plum, toffee, candied fruits, and a warming alcohol finish. The malt on this runs all day long and into the night, and the flinty dark fruity yeasty notes are superb. Just beautiful. How could I not take a growler of this home?
I asked the price of the growler fill, and was not at all deterred by the $26.95 price for 64-ounces. That works out to $6.74 a pint, but this is an exceptionally rare treat. Then too, with m drink tank growler I enjoyed it over several nights, recharging the tank with CO2 after each draft. My drink tank holds a little more than 64-ounces and they filled me right to the brim, too.
If you are lucky enough to see Valley River Olde Marsden Ale on tap, don't miss it.
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