Mosaic IPA
Hill Farmstead Brewery

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Solid IPA - came in a six pack purchsed at the brewery itself. Pours a hazy bright gold color with a finger of creamy white head. Solid lacing and a good beer.

Poured from a 12 oz can into a stemmed tulip glass.

Pours a hazy bright gold color with a finger of creamy white head. The head leaves a crown of lacing as it settles into a thin sheet.

The aroma brings notes of guava, fresh oranges, peach, and overripe mango. There's definitely some mixed berries and subtle tartness with a strong, spicy garlic note on the back.

The flavor belays the aroma a bit, bringing notes of pineapple, peach, orange rind, and mangoes with some subtle hints of lemon, black tea, and bubblegum. Finishes earthy, grassy and piney with a nice pale malt backbone.

The feel is medium bodied with moderate carbonation. Very soft and smooth with a relatively dry finish.

Overall, this is a great IPA and a wonderful showcase of the mosaic hop. It's well-balanced and extremely drinkable.

 

 

 

 

Big thanks to Alan for this one. I've wanted to try this for several years.

12oz can - dated 12/02/19 - poured into a classic tulip at 45°F.

This can is 4 months and 2 days old, so I may not be giving a fair review here if it turns out this has really degraded. Let's see.

Pours a deep, dark, juicy apricot orange - substantial haze with good translucency, topped with two fingers of pure white head - puffy and creamy, with good retention and leaving remarkable sheet lacing. Absolutely stunning appearance with a showstopping colour.

Nose: This is so pungently Mosaic, it's hilarious. Absolutely candied lychee and strawberry draped over way overripe navel orange and a faint note of pineapple. Diving a bit deeper, there's that signature herbal tea note that Mosaic often lends, but it's so intense here, it's nearly spicy. Beneath the tea note is maybe the dankest, stankest garlic note I've ever encountered in a beer. It's faint, and it's beneath everything else, but man oh man is it none other than garlic. Really complex aroma here.

Palate: Wow. Judging by the aroma, this could have been a little out there, but it does in fact go in a slightly different direction on the palate. Sodr, grainy pale malt kicks it off, with just a kiss of some crystal malt sweetness and some rustic wheat. The hops come in with a complex shape-shifting form of sweet melon, orange peel, white grape, a hint of passionfruit, and a huge explosion of classic Mosaic green, herbal, herbaceous notes. Definitely some of that overstepped rooibos tea as well. The "garlic" note is there, but not like on the nose. On the nose, it is GARLIC - the flavour though, is more subdued, and rather translates as a sort of dank fresh chive or leek note. There is a firm bold bitterness that lends a respectable IBU number, and provides a grippy pithiness that nicely offsets the malt sweetness. A little bit of hop acidity (just a whisper) brings some juicy tangerine wedges and a touch of lemonade before that pithy bitterness turns resinous, slightly dank in a more earthy sense, and even brings a touch of pine, working to give this ale a finish that is very reminiscent of a world class West Coast double IPA. This is 6% ABV? There is way more flavour and presence here than there should be. Lingering whisper of blueberry and chive.

Mouthfeel/Body: I am shocked this beer is 6%. Flavour bomb aside, the beer has the presence of an 8.5% beer. It's medium-full bodied with a noticeable malt softness to it. It isn't fluffy, thick, chewy, or stodgy, but it has a little bit of malt weight, which lends just a touch of caramel stickiness. It's so crammed with hops that it's quite oily and resinous as well. Despite its bold stature, it still drinks incredibly crisp, and you could really tip it back quick if you wanted. Effervescence is medium - squarely medium, and quite fine in nature, lending a nice fuzzy softness to it. Juicy up front, finishing with resinous dryness.

Overall: This is a truly outstanding IPA. The Mosaic used here is truly the toppest of notches, and unlike some Mosaic SHIPAs that only showcase the green grassy side, or the herbal tea side, this encapsulates everything from grass, herbs, citrus, garlic, pine, blueberries, strawberries, pineapple, melon... The whole nine. The base beer is truly a work of art, and stands outside any classification. It's not a New England or a West Coast IPA. This is a Hill Farmstead IPA.

 

Picked up a 6 pack of this when I went back to the New England area at the end of October 2019. Was at the end of a day spent at HF. Fun but pricey.

Pours a hazy yellow. 1/3" white head. Big ass dry hop aroma, bubblegum, dank passion fruit, guava, weed. A showcase of the immortals as they say.

Taste ah man, something so simplistic, yet done so right. Its just waves of that soft pillowy haze body of flaked and toasted malt, whether it be barley, oats and wheat and a heavy crashing tide of weed, papaya, orange, tangerine, passion fruit goodness. The carbonation was right where it should be. They even last pretty well. Bought at the end of October, just had one yesterday (Jan 12) and it was still delicious. Bitterness is where I like it too, the Goldilocks zone, not a flat haze trub beer, but not a 200ibu all bittering hop crystal malt 90s ipa either.

Man I wish I could just grab these at Safeway on the regular. Its world class 1st tier stuff competing in the most prolific category.

 

 

 

 

750ml growler, freshly filled, poured into a Hill Farmstead oversized wine glass.

The beer pours a bright orange color, honey hues with a bit of gold and a finger of white head that has modest retention and excellent lacing. The aroma is nice, wonderfully expressed Mosaic hops, big tropical fruit punch of oranges, pineapples and mango undercut by strong grassy and raw bitter green hop leaf with some pillowy dough and mineral water. The flavors are nice, juicy orange, tropical and tangy pineapple with a nice floral character and grassy and green hops, bitter pine, resinous and sticky with a great pale dough backbone and lingering mineral water. The mouthfeel is great, coating and thick with a medium body, super smooth with just enough liveliness and a dry finish.

Verdict: A nice IPA from Hill Farmstead. Delicate but packing a punch with flavor. The mosaic is expressed very well and it's a very clean and crisp beer.

Can: Poured a hazy/cloudy orangey/yellow color ale with a large foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of citrusy and light tropical notes hoppy floral undertones. Taste is also a mix of citrusy and light tropical floral hoppy undertones with a dry finish. Body is pretty full with good carbonation. Enjoyable but dryer and less juicy than expected.

 

 

On tap at the Mule Bar

 

 

 

 

I had this on draft at HF in Oct of 2015. I just found this on some notes I had made. I am putting in some review numbers so I can keep a list on BeerA so I can find what I have had at HF. So this rating really doesn’t count if you read this.

 

 

Perfect appearance, Golden and hazy with great retention of 1/2 finger white head. Smell is delightfully fruity with some allium, one of those where the aroma leaps out of the can when you crack it open. Flavor is very juicy up front, but aftertaste is much more west-coast-bitter than I expected for a mosaic beer, but it stops shy of being a palate wrecker and is quite enjoyably bitter. Actually kind of refreshing to have a bitter IPA again! Malt is gentle and subdued, mostly cracker flavor. Wowie, wow, wow!

 

 

12 oz. can. Reviewing the IPA, not the pale ale. Pours a hazy bright orange. Smells of pungent mosaic hops in the form of grapefruit and garlic. Tastes of grainy malt, bitter orange and garlic hops, and a tinge of doughy malt. Back end is garlic and a touch of melon. Light and very drinkable, but pretty low carbonation. This can could disappear quickly.