The Valley Tap House (Apple Valley, MN)

The Valley Tap House from far end of bar
towards kitchen

8/21/13

A vegetarian walks into a tap house that specializes in "Baltimore Style Pit Meat" aka The Valley Tap House, situated nicely across the street from the Ford dealer where our new hybrid is being updated. Surprisingly, VTH has more vegetarian offerings than Old Chicago down the street, so decided to check out the beer as well.

Pretzels with cheddar and mustard

As it turned out, the stop became a Stone tasting. Started with the Stone Smoked Porter as my appetizer and then moved to Arrogant Bastard for dessert.  In between, I had the pretzels with cheddar ale and honey mustard sauce.The cheddar ale sauce was very thin but had ok flavor.The sweetness of the honey mustard went much better with the soft and chewy pretzel sticks. Several other veggie items on the menu, and with this tap list, I'd happily stop in again to give them a try with friends.

Not much of a lunch crowd today, so I had some time to chat about the place with the bartender. She mentioned that the lines cleaned recently, so the fact that I had one of the best drafts of Arrogant Bastard in a while—fresh and fell with a full lace—isn't surprising. My primary concern in a multi-tap, especially one in the suburbs, is whether or not the beer is moving well enough to give a good experience for the edgy beer at the end of the tap line that I will be ordering. Drinking familiar beers today, both Stone beers were very good, so it seems that VTP is selling enough beer to keep it fresh and presenting it well.

Present tap list.  Black lettered
$3 at lunch

I made an argument to the bartender that I almost didn't come in because their website doesn't have a list of taps at all, much less an updated one. Also, at the Apple Valley location (another is on Lyndale in Minneapolis), thirty beers are being poured (even more taps since the heavy movers like Fate Tire and Honey Weiss have two lines) instead of the twenty listed on the website. Being that I live locally and had a reason to stop, it's no big deal. However, as I mentioned in my recent post on how I research a beer trip, the lack of a beer menu online is often a reason for scratching a bar from my to-drink list. Of the thirty taps, there wasn't a new beer among them for me, so no entry on the database for VTP; however, there was more than enough choice of old favorites to keep me happy today.

While not a beer destination, Valley Tap House is a perfectly fine stop that has a solid range of drafts to satisfy most beer geeks for a night out with a group of friends or family, especially those that lean towards the carnivore end of the eating spectrum. I've been meaning to get here for nearly a year because some meat eating friends recommended the place, so I think the food is as safe a bet as the beer.