Sunshine IPA

Review Date 6/19/2025 By John Staradumsky

  Style: India Pale Ale   Brewery: Valley River   Country: USA   State: North Carolina   $ Per OZ: $.44 (D)   ABV: 7.5%

Vacation week! After a Saturday Father’s Day brewery outing, I headed to Murphy, North Carolina with my wife and sister-in-Law on Monday afternoon. After getting settled in at Harrah’s Casino (we stayed in the brand-new Valley Tower Hotel), it was off for more beer adventures. I picked up some great local beers to take back home at the Ingles market just down the road (if you go to Murphy, this Ingles has a great local beer selection).

Then, a very short drive in my new EV and I was downtown, location of one of my very favorite brewpubs in the world, Valley River Brewery. There are two level 3 EV chargers in the downtown parking lot behind the Native American museum, so you can recharge your EV while you recharge yourself at the brewery.

Valley River does classic English styles, and they always have their core beers on tap. Don’t come here looking for a million differently named hazy IPAs, all pretty much the same. You won’t find them. What you will find is great beer, food, and friendly service. It brings me here every time I come to Murphy. This is why I love Valley River Brewery so much.

I had not eaten since breakfast and it was almost 4PM, so I ordered a Gyro with onion rings for about $14 and a half pint of Green Dragon ESB. I love that they offer half pints here. A sampler is not enough, and when you want to enjoy a few but have to drive, a pint can be too much.

Next up was another half pint, this time of Sunshine IPA, a classic American/ West Coast IPA. Classic American West Coast IPAs of the piney resiny variety are all over western North Carolina, and I love them. Sunshine IPA is a tasty one, with a firm caramel malt backbone and moderate notes of citrus and resiny pine. It finishes mildly bitter. It has an alcohol content of 7.5% by volume and was running $7 a pint when I visited.

Next time I here if it’s on again, I will drink it again. I encourage you, too, when in Murphy to stop here for a few beers and an enjoyable meal.

Glad I tried it?  T

Would I rebuy it??