Roanoke, So Far, So Good: Three Notch’d Craft Kitchen and Brewery, Roanoke. Dave’s Golden Ale brewed in Charlottesville, Va.
Date: May 12, 2019
The Story— On our March visit the brewery was not yet operational and the “Craft Kitchen” was serving beers brewed in Charlottesville. The upside was an impressive range of beers that included several we had not previously tasted. We think they are now brewing. Virginia law requires them to brew 20% of the beer they sell in Roanoke at their Roanoke brewery. The seven barrel system they’ve put there is large for a pilot brewery and should enable them to meet the minimum by year’s end without a problem.
The Craft Kitchen offers a modest menu of mostly pub food, but with some specials. While a bit hit and miss, the hits on our visit were spectacularly good including a superb carrot soup — an item that does not normally thrill me. We’ve chosen the Dave’s Golden Ale because that’s a style that I normally don’t like much, but here it was extremely good. I would have bet plenty that the combination of carrot soup and gold ale would leave me unimpressed– and I would have lost the bet hands down.
We discussed the satellite breweries of Virginia in yesterday’s post about Starr Hill’s “side stage” project and we’ll take a look at Deschutes’s entry tomorrow.
The Beer— We assume the Dave in Dave’s Golden Ale is Dave Warwick, the head brewer in Charlottesville; Dave has been a fine brewer for many years and the ale shows an exceptional level of professionalism. It comes across as something of a top-fermented Helles: clean, pale and sweet, but not so much malt sweetness to make it cloying. A kiss of late hops is enough to balance and a bit of late fruit emerges as it drinks. The blend creates enough interest to be moreish without ganging up on the palate as it drinks. I wish I could get this beer close to home.
Value — Very good. It’s six bucks — but served in a UK pint glass that’s about 20 ounces. At 5.5% abv, it’s big for a session beer, but I could have happily spent the night with it
Values: “fair” is a good beer at an above market price, “good” is worth the money, “very good” is a bargain, and “excellent” is a steal.
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