Valley Forge Brewing Company

Brewery, Eatery

267 East Swedesford Rd.
Wayne, Pennsylvania, 19087
United States

// CLOSED //
BEER STATS
Average:
0
Beers:
0
Ratings:
0
PLACE STATS
Average:
3.28
Reviews:
8
Ratings:
8
pDev:
7.93%
View: Beers | Place Reviews
Recent ratings and reviews.
Ratings by BJC:
Photo of BJC
Reviewed by BJC from New Jersey

2.93/5  rDev -10.7%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 3 | selection: 2.5 | food: 3.5
I stopped in for lunch on a Saturday afternoon.
The place was empty. I had two pints of Regiment Pale Ale and a sausage platter. Both were good. The ale had a nice Engllish hop taste and was served cold, but not ice cold.
However, the prices were high; the beers were $3.75 and the sausage plate was twelve bucks.
I live in Jersey and was nearby hence I stopped in (My family and I had lunch here in 1997.) but it might be five years for a return visit.
Feb 02, 2003
More User Ratings:
Photo of weeare138
Reviewed by weeare138 from Pennsylvania

3.43/5  rDev +4.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 3 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4
The atmosphere is really quite nice in this place. I remember when it was the Gateway Theater( I saw the original Batman movie there). The ceilings are a bit high but the ambiance and overall cleanliness is good compared to many other establishments. Lots of cool paintings and some decor of the Revolution. It probably wouldn't be such a bad idea to redo the men's room facility but other than that, no complaints. The area itself caters to the business crowd from the numerous industries in the area and some of the items are on the pricey side.

I don't, however, find it outrageously priced compared to other brewpubs and restaurants in the area. Considering the area, I'd consider it fair but don't expect a bargain by any means. They do have good specials during the week and many of the items on the menu are very delicious. The beer is pretty good but I believe that they could use a facelift and take a gamble by redoing their selection. In talking to the brewer(I believe his name is Ryan), it seems that they aren't shooting for anything spectacular to knock people's socks off...or perhaps I should say they don't need to impress anyone. If you like their stuff, more power to you. They have a budget and try to keep things quality, yet simple.

The folks here do make some good seasonal brews...IE. The Drunken Monkey Alt, The Milk Stout, The Imperial Stout etc. are usually above average brews. Everyone seems to be very friendly in this place and helpful when the time arises. It is a bit hard to figure out though, as some nights they are super packed and other nights the joint isn't a quarter full. Granted, the place is huge with lots of seating. They tend to put people who have reserved partys and banquets underneath the covered bridge, which is meant to replicate the historical covered bridge in Valley Forge National Park.

Yes, there are other places that you can go to have a killer beer but if you take this one as it is, you get a pretty decent restaurant with some fresh, made on the premises brews.
Apr 13, 2005
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Reviewed by PopeDX from Pennsylvania

3.13/5  rDev -4.6%
vibe: 3 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3 | food: 3
It's really sort of a sad thing being in VFBC. You're sitting in this bar, which is really huge and beautiful inside, and you're one of the only people there. You're literally less than 2 miles from 4 different major regional highways (and only about 5 miles from a 5th)...and almost right around the corner is the largest shopping mall this side of the Mississippi and a major tourist attraction (for which the brewpub should be named) and you know that this place should be packed, that it should be a goldmine...and it just isn't. And I found out why.

Like I mentioned before, this place is big inside and beautifully decorated. There's a little sitting room with couches labelled "beer garden", a huge bar, probably 30 seats, with another bar with another 30 seats on either side behind the main bar. Behind that is the spacious dining room, part of which looks like it's under an old covered bridge. There's pool tables in the one corner.

As soon as I walked in there was a woman in front of me waiting at the hostess stand to be seated. She said she had been waiting 10 minutes. A couple of minutes later someone came over and sat her and directed me to the bar with a menu. The service from the bartender wasn't bad, however.

I ordered a sampler, which surprisingly had 8 different beers on it, their 4 house beers plus 4 seasonals. The sad thing is that there is only one of those beers that I would classify as a really solid brew. The others tended to be either astringent or bland.

The food was damn expensive. $10 for a burger and fries, and that was one of the cheapest menu items. The burger itself was overdone and thin, and the tomatoes that came on it had nasty spots on them that should have been cut off before being served.

VFBC proves that there's more to being in business than location, location, location. And excuses can be made, about not having a liquor license (although they do make "malt-based mixed drinks", using a very bland beer and drink mix apparently...my balls ain't big enough to try one, though). Sly Fox proved that a liquor license isn't needed to have a great bar/restaurant, however. This place would make an awesome place to pop in either on the way to or coming back from either Sly Fox or Victory to anyone living in the city or suburbs, as it's literally on the way. I won't be giving it any thought as we pass by.
Mar 25, 2005
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Reviewed by Gavage from Nevada

3.3/5  rDev +0.6%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3.5 | food: 3
This place may be hard to find as it is tucked away in a large strip mall in the corner. Just off Rt 202 S about 5 minutes from the King of Prussia mall. The place is very large and dark, and the first thing you notice is the large straight bar that has about 25 stools, and just behind that another "bar like" table with stools on both sides that can seat about 50. Large count of tables for dining. 4 TVs behind the bar, and 2 pools tables near the back. There is another section of tables in this log cabin looking structure along the back wall of the restaurant. The whole restaurant has Revolutionary War decorations and flags.

Six beers on tap on this visit: King's Gold, Red Coat Ale, Regiment Pale Ale, George's Porter, Drunken Monkey, and Oktoberfest Lager. The three beers I had were very average and not overly exciting. The food was mediocre, as the Jambalaya was strangely loaded with corn, and the salads looked a little old. Overall the food prices also seemed a little high.

With all the other good brewpubs within a 15-20 minute drive, I would only stop here if you are the immediate area and need to kill a few minutes. I have stopped here fours times over the last three years, and it really hasn't improved.
Nov 09, 2004
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Reviewed by Erix from Vermont

3.18/5  rDev -3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3 | service: 3.5 | selection: 3 | food: 3
I wish I could give every local brewpub a great rating, but this is the best I can do in this case. Not a bad place, but on most ratable items I had at least one notable complaint. The atmosphere is allright, but not as nice as it would sound if I described it. The entire inside is done up to look like it is outside, but for such a dark building this attempt fails. Still, an intersting attempt. The quality of the beers is my major complaint. Average is not what I expect in this area. With the competition that any brewery in the SE PA beer triangle will put up with, average is below average. The beers which I have had here had no major flaws I could pick out, but did seem to be relatively flat, uninspired beers. Better than the "average" beer, but freshness only takes it that far. The food is fine, but my lithmus test reuben came on a hoagie roll. Come on. They're just asking for it there.
Aug 15, 2004
Photo of GeoffFromSJ
Reviewed by GeoffFromSJ from New Jersey

3.55/5  rDev +8.2%
vibe: 4 | quality: 3.5 | service: 4 | selection: 3 | food: 3.5
The atmosphere was cozy and clean. I only had one beer, which was priced cheap but wasn't very good. Their selection of beer seemed like standard British fare but somewhat limited. Despite the limitations of their selections, they did seem to have a unique vanilla porter. But it was limited. It's hard to judge the place on one sub-par beer, but it doesn't light the fire to get back there. I got the meatball sandwich, which was really tasty. If you get that, make sure you get it with the provolone.
Apr 01, 2004
Photo of oberon
Reviewed by oberon from North Carolina

3.18/5  rDev -3%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 3.5 | service: 2.5 | selection: 3 | food: 4
Went there expecting more,has a bridge in the middle of the bar.Nice menu with a decent selkection of beers,had the Scottish ale,decent not great.Service was not good at all sat awhile before getting our order.The beer is decent but not great,the food as well doesnt stick out.Better service would make this place alot better,anyways not to bad but could be alot better.
Jul 10, 2003
Photo of bmills1608
Reviewed by bmills1608 from Pennsylvania

3.83/5  rDev +16.8%
vibe: 3.5 | quality: 4 | service: 4 | selection: 3.5 | food: 4
This place is in a shopping center a couple of miles from Valley Forge Park. Nice set up inside, really long bar, several pool tables, a real long "common table" that looks down on the bar, and a really large "dining room" and pretty small "beer garden". Basically it's one real big room, with high ceilings and the decor attempts to make you feel like you are in some colonial encampment. Sounds like it could be a bit laim, but it's not over done and overall it sort of works considering the location, which use to be a movie theater. It does feel very open in there though. Maybe they where trying to go for a German beer hall feel. Who knows. This is a real good place for a large group. Tons of space.

The food is real good and the beer is good as well. Their Red Coat is probably there best standard beer and I recently tried a Pennsylvania common and an ESB that where both great. I think they have 5 standards and a few specials on tap. Beer and wine, that's pretty much it. A quality and for the most part quite place.
May 23, 2002
Valley Forge Brewing Company in Wayne, PA
Place rating: 0 out of 5 with 8 ratings