Hill Farmstead Art

Brewed by Hill Farmstead Brewery
Style: Saison
Greensboro, Vermont USA

Serve in Tulip

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Picked this up at the bottle release a few months back. Stored at 60 Degrees then placed it in the fridge an hour before serving. Enjoyed in a Hill Farmstead glass with friends.

A - Bright golden orange with lots of haze. 4-finger solid white head with tight bubbles

S - It’s really nice on the nose. Very floral and grassy. Mild level of lemon zest and oakiness.

T - Taste is up front very citrusy and a mild level of peppery spice. Hints of lemons and cloves. Finish is tart and somewhat funky.

M - 60% carbonation on the mouth swish. Light body. Tart finish.

O - Art is easily twice as good as Arthur but I gave Arthur a big rating I certainly can’t double the rating so I’m just gonna give it the best I can.

Bottle shared at The Kernel with Evin and Nate, thanks to Shaun. I was focused on enjoying this beer with the Kernel lads so didn’t focus on notes until the dust had settled, as it were. Some recollections, which don’t necessarily do the beer justice: Lovely appearance. Clean. Maximum complexity. Grass, fresh funk. Watching Nate drink this was a treat. He would alternate from complete silence to basically jibberish as he enumerated the myriad ways in which this beer was perfect. I mostly stayed silent, enjoying one of the best beers I have ever tasted.

On draft at Blind Tiger for the Hill Farmstead event with James. Pours a blisteringly bright, yet hazy, neon yellowish orange with a tall, two-finger, bubbly white sudsy white head. Aroma is marked by tons of sharp, savory farmhouse funkiness, along with some zesty orange, lemon, and peach tang, some soft pineapple and guava notes, and a lovely wash of soft oaky, vanilla, earthy notes. Sipping this beer, the first tastes to roll over the tongue are lemon, honey, and tons of tart, lactic acidic notes. Hugely juicy, yet stunningly dry and tongue sappingly dry. Very, very special beer.

UPDATED: AUG 29, 2011 My Bottom Line:
This Wild Saison dazzles the senses with white wine complexity, matching citrusy, herbal hop notes to levelled brettanomyces in a dry and highly drinkable vehicle. What an appropriately named beer.

Further Personal Perceptions:
-A creamy tower of foam decorates the shiny yellow.
-The citrusy character is also redolent of citrusy thyme and citrus peel.
-Carbonation is adorably fluffy.
-The oak character blends into the well-developed flavor spectrum. Works perfectly with the wild yeast and fruity hop spiciness.
-The herbal hop bitterness is balanced with the rest of the brew’s medium intensity.
-The white wine is more apparent in the first half of the bottle if you don’t pour any yeast in your glass.

On tap at Hill Farmstead and from a few bottles.

Le liquide ne m’attend pas pour sortir, il dicte les règles dès le départ mais sans faire de dégât. L’arôme de vin blanc sauvage envahi la pièce rapidement. En bouche c’est aussi complexe que facile à boire avec sa corpulence vineuse, son zeste d’agrume et le chatouillement des houblons herbacés qui nous propulse vers une finale sèche et surette totalement approprié. Dans l’ensemble, un niveau de buvabilité et de complexité rarement atteint dans le même liquide.

Maybe the best beer I’ve ever tasted? Dry, subtle, apricot, tart apple, pear. low spice, but fantastically balanced lactic tartness. zero acetic acid forming, slight rustic grassy hay flavors.oak character is refined and completed. possibly the best beer I’ve had to date.

UPDATED: JUN 27, 2012 On tap at Hill Farmsteads first anniversary celebration. A hazy golden straw body sits under a magnanimous white froth. The nose holds awesome lemon acidity, fruity dough, and cheesy brett tartness. The flavor holds woody yeast, citrus acidity, and more delicious brett inoculation. The palate leads to dangerous drinkability- I found myself on my 4th consecutive glass rather quickly...

Poured into a Hill Farmstead tasting glass. A clear, straw-yellow body holds up a thick, foamy, white head. Each sip leaves some beautiful lacing on the glass. Wet hay and earthy oak rise up from a few swirls of the glass. Light fruits and a touch of yeast spice on the nose. Faint white wine grapes and a light brett presence add to the complexity. Dry, oaky, earthy malts mixed with light wine barrel fruitiness compose the taste. Faint orchard fruit, apple, hay and earthiness. Malts, yeast and barrels in perfect harmony. Exceptional. Mouthfeel is earthy and musty with a touch of sweetness, but mostly dry throughout. Feels great for the style. Overall, this is an amazing saison. Essentially flawless in every way. From the nose, to the flavor, to the mouthfeel, Shaun has nailed this one on the head. The wine oak barrels plus the house yeast make this a truly unique and exceptional saison. Probably in my top 3 for the style, if not my favorite. Highly recommended.

pours hazy light yellow with a nice white head, good retention and lacing. fresh cereals, lightly spiced apple, pils, peppery, light but present acidity, white wine, lightly oaked. lively and soft carbonation, superb lightly acidic and herbal-citrusy finish. wow, again.

Vintage 2011.

A soft pour into a tilted tulip immediately spurs a huge pillowy white head of four fingers. The head leaves massive, thick and large-bubbled lacing, softly settling into a finger and a half. The beer itself has mezmerizing clarity (like Anna) on first pour - the tangerine body is clear and luminous.

A nice bouquet of citrus, oak, and some mineral character. There’s some wet hay and pineapple from the brett. The citrus runs deeply through it, with just a hint of sourness. (This reminds me a lot of good bottles of Sanctification, with the addition of oak.)

The oakiness gives way to citrus that’s more orange than lemon in expression. There’s a little bit of white pepper here, along with a constant mustiness and earthiness that envelops the citrus on the front of the palate and the minerality on the finish. A light sourness cuts through the must. The lingering bitterness on the finish whets my palate before the next sip. The tiniest bit of sulphur / rubber in the mid- and late-palate keeps this from a perfect score.

Medium-light in body with high carbonation (though the body feels slick and oily on the front of the tongue). Medium dryness on the finish.

This saison is drinking elegantly right off the bat, and I’m glad I opened this one early, since it displays such a restrained balance (though I would like to dry it after the brett has worked itself more overtly into the beer). A very well imagined saison and likely my favorite to date. I need more of this.