Brewery Review: Knee Deep Brewing, Auburn, California
Earlier this week, I mentioned that Greyson and I spent Valentines Day mountain biking near Auburn, California. Well, what's a long mountain bike ride without a satisfying post-ride beer? Things were pretty busy in downtown Auburn, so we decided to check out the new-to-us Knee Deep Brewing.
Knee Deep Brewing is located a ways out of downtown Auburn - near the airport. That worked out pretty well for us, because that meant plenty of parking where we could check on our bikes locked on the back of Greyson's car (always a good feature for post-ride beers).
In addition to being thirsty, we were also very hungry. So when we pulled up and spotted the No Pho King Way food truck, I was stoked! It smelled delicious, but we wanted to get our beer situation sorted out, so we pulled open the doors to the HUGE Knee Deep Brewing tasting room, and saw this:
While the space was large and there was plenty of seating, there was a HUGE line for beer. We decided on a division of labor, and I ordered food and Greyson stood in line for beer. I gave him the instruction "Lean more toward IPAs and less toward Belgians", and I went back outside to order food from No Pho King Way.
Now, I don't know about you, but when I order from a food truck with “pho” , I expect them to have pho. No Pho King Way did not. It's not like they had pho and had run out because it was super busy, they just...didn't have pho on the menu. Well, technically they did, but it was an old menu and they didn't offer it any more. Working off the outdated menu, I ordered the two of us pho, pork belly tacos, and banh mi fries. (What? We were hungry.) The man working the counter seemed confused by my order. "We don't have pho," he said. Perplexed, I assumed they were out. I changed my order to vermicelli noodles with garlic lemon chicken. Next, I ordered the pork belly tacos. "We don't have those," he said. At this point, he realized that I was ordering off an outdated menu (to be fair to me, they were placed outside of the food truck) and I decided to settle for the noodles and banh mi fries. I was annoyed, but the food was really good so I can't complain too much.
The timing ended up being just about perfect; I got the food just as Greyson was getting the beers. When Greyson told the bartenders that we wanted more on the IPA side, he poured us a four beer sampler of different IPAs and pale ales. Also - the sampler was only $6 - great price for really good beer! The bartender also assured Greyson that this was the busiest it had ever been, and we had no problem finding seats - though it meant sharing a long family style table with other patrons.
Here's what we tried (Photo and Description from Knee Deep Brewing):
Breaking Bud IPA (4.75/5) Old school meets new school in this fresh approach to the classic IPA. At 50 IBU’s and 6.7% ABV, Breaking Bud features the restrained bitterness and alcohol of a classic IPA with newer tropical fruit hop flavors and aromas of Mosaic. Also in the hop mix are Simcoe and CTZ, creating layers of mango, passion fruit, pine and dank. A malt bill with a pinch of crystal malt and a hefty dose of flaked wheat keeps the beer crisp while adding flavor complexity.
Hoptologist Double IPA (3.75/5) An American Double India Pale Ale that packs a punch when it comes to hops. The aroma and flavors will give you citrus and pine with a slight malt sweetness that finishes dry.
We also tried the Spring Sipper Double IPA (3.5/5) and the Aviator Series Pale Side (3.75/5). I really enjoyed all of the beers we tried at Knee Deep Brewing. Greyson and I both agreed that it was the most consistently good round of beers we've gotten at a brewery in a while. The tasting room is family and dog friendly with games and outdoor seating. I'm not sure if the No Pho King Way truck is there all the time, but, menu mixup not withstanding, the food was really good! While Knee Deep Brewing is a little off the beaten path, it's worth the side trip.