Beer Valley Brewing is Oregon’s easternmost brewery, located in Ontario along the Snake River (and the Idaho border). It’s a brewery dedicated to more extreme offerings: the flagship beer is a monster Imperial Stout, and they also brew a year-round barleywine.

Neither of those have made to Bend yet, unfortunately. But I’m perfectly happy to drink the Pigskin Pale Ale, a 6%, bottle conditioned American-style, er, pale ale.

Appearance: Cap looks hand-applied, with a dimple from a standing-style hand bottle capper. The beer pours hazy golden-orange with a generous 2-3 fingers of clotted cream head.

Smell: Floral and grassy hops, mellow toasty malt. Bit of a powdery, grainy smell like fresh-cracked malt at the brew shop.

Taste: Crystal malts—caramel and nutty—with dusty, lightly fruity hops. Kind of a candy note there, though it’s not particularly sweet. I keep coming back to the “dusty” hop impression.

Mouthfeel: Medium-bodied and substantial, due to bottle conditioning. Fresh-feeling and dry, hoppy finish.

Overall: Decent, good showing for a pale ale.

On BeerAdvocate, it scores an overall grade of B+. On RateBeer, it scores 3.44 out of 5 and is in their 79th percentile.