Today I visited King River Brewing in King Valley. This is a lovely little brewery in a delightful setting that opened in February this year. They make beers that are Belgian influenced, even going to the extent of importing yeast strains from breweries in Belgium.
The beers that I sampled were:
1. Smooth Alt, 4.1% abv, this golden amber coloured beer has a sweet fruity aroma. It has a wonderful sweet malt flavour and a lovely crisp finish with a smooth mild bitterness. Delicious!
2. King Valley Kolsch, 4.9% abv, this is a light straw coloured lager style beer with a spicy sweet yeast aroma. It tastes sweet and fruity on the initial palate and then has a great crisp dry finish. Very true to the style and very easy drinking.
3. Summer Porter, 6.5% abv, this kettle soured Porter has a hazy brown colour and subtle fruit and malt aromas. It is a light bodied beer with a slightly sour citrus-like taste. It is quite a refreshing beer for a Porter.
4. Slippery Saison, 6.8% abv, this farmhouse style beer is a hazy straw colour with aromas of fruit and yeast. It has an initial taste of bananas and fruit then gives way to a mild malt finish.
5. We Want You American IPA, 5.7% abv, this golden coloured IPA has strong citrus fruit aromas. It has an initial palate of tropical fruit followed by a lovely strong hop bitter finish that lingers long. True to the style.
6. Cliffhanger Hefeweizen, 4.8% abv, this is a straw coloured wheat beer that has a fruity malt and yeast aroma. It has lovely taste of wheat with hints of bananas. It is smooth and delicious.
7. Waiting for Godot Belgian Tripel, 7.0% abv, this light golden coloured beer has a aroma of spicy fruit and bubblegum. It gives a full mouth feel and a wonderful complex taste of sweet malt that slowly transforms into a well balanced hop bitterness on a lovely clean dry finish. A great beer!
8. Wet Hopped IPA, 6.0% abv, this golden coloured ale has a mild sweet fruit aroma. It has an initial palate of subtle maltiness followed by a huge hop bitterness and then quite a lovely crisp finish. This IPA is all about the hops!
For a relatively new brewery King River Brewing are doing a wonderful job of producing some fantastic beers and are definitely worth the visit if you are in the area. I strongly recommend this brewery.