Sun Valley Brewing Company

fun little mountain town brewpub here, underrated based on my excellent experience and having only heard negative things about their beer before i went in. they have a great space, right off the main drag in town there, and a nice airy open feeling, perfect on a warm early summer afternoon. they have a pretty big space even though the bar isnt huge, looks like they do some live music here, and they had a solid food menu, it all looked delicious but i only had an asian salad that was fresh and delicious. they had maybe a dozen beers on tap, a lot of pretty standard fare options, but i thought their ipa was fine and their honey weizen extremely good, an ideal beer for the season. they have some enthusiastic locals in here, and i can see why. i guess the beer must have gotten better recently, compared to what i have head around town, but i liked what i had here a lot. the service was awesome, friendly prompt bartender, but another guy, maybe a brewer or a kitchen guy, called out my hefe as being too cloudy and brought me a cleaner pint at no charge, just first class right there, and it endeared this place to me immediately, as if the charming, old school, small town vibe hadnt already. i need to get in here when i have more time to drink through the beer list, but i was stoked on my experience here and can see no reason at all to not be a big fan of this place. low key, good beer, nice people, whats not to like?!

edit: years later another good experience, cozy in the winter in the sunlight beaming through the windows in front of their little fireplace on big couches, great vibe. service was a little more average and so was the beer, this time a stronger than normal irish stout and a belgian wheat type, both decent but not epic or anything. still, this place is mellow and fun, its what beer used to be, without pretension, and i enjoyed my second visit as much as my first!

Only thing saving this place is the food (reasonably priced and decent portions) and their regular live music. Service is terrible and the beers are stuck in the 90's. The place is pretty dingy and needs a face lift. Definitely skip this place if you are thinking of going.

Had higher hopes. The beer was mediocre at best, as was the food. Nice atmosphere, you get the feeling everyone knows everyone else in this town. 8 taps and one barrel, and they now do flights. Saved me from getting a pint of something terrible. Looks like a solid music venue also. Too bad about the beer though.

 

Was in Sun Valley for vacation this week and decided to hit up this place for lunch and some beers. Boy was I disappointed.

A - Very dingy bar like atmosphere. Everything had an old feel to it. Only s handful of people scattering the place.
Q - Average at best for all aspects. Decent selection (12) on tap with a variety of styles, sadly none were very good. The pale ale was the best of the bunch, followed by the weizen bock, but that's not saying much. The spiced apple ale was an abomination.
S - Service was TERRIBLE. Our waitress was uninterested from the start, was confused when we asked about tasting or sample flights, and claimed to not have enough glasses. All in all, we didn't feel wanted, like it was painful to have customers to wait on.
S - Selection was decent for a brew pub. 12 on tap with a range of styles.
F - Food was not bad, but forgettable at best. Certainly not worth coming back to.

O - Overall, I realize this is a small vacation town, and I'm probably not going to get world class beer, but everything about this place was just bad. The service especially. Avoid.

Sun Valley BC is on the main drag of the oh-so-swanky town of Hailey. To be fair, it is significantly less chi-chi than Ketchum to the north. The whole pub (two dining rooms separated by a small bar area) is decorated with retro-style skiing and beer posters. Even so, the devotion to local mountain culture feels a little trite and underdone at best.

They had seven beers on tap when I visited, all the usual suspects of English and American styles. I had their "White Cloud," which is not a wit but an 'English amber.' I didn't even realize that such a style existed, and I'm not sure that I'm any better off knowing that it does; the beer was flavorless, served too cold, and pricey, at $3 for a ten ounce glass!

I didn't eat, but the menu was a mix of traditional pub fare, and this place was doing decent lunch business for a Tuesday. There were a lot of other restaurants on the main street through town that looked quirky and inviting; next time I'm driving through Hailey (whenever that might be), I'll be sure to stop there and skip Sun Valley BC; ultimately, it just wasn't that memorable.