Society & Solitude #12
Hill Farmstead Brewery

 

 

Sorry that is just a hot mess of beer, color is lake water brown and malt and hops out of balance little malt or hops on the nose and taste is thin .. love me some Hf bif is not a good offering

 

 

 

 

 

From a 750ml growler, filled at the brewery three days ago. Served in an IPA glass.

A thick-appearing beverage, turbid and murky, like a glass of caramel sauce. Actually, it looks like something way nastier than that but, in the interests of decorum, we're going to go with caramel sauce. Two-plus fingers of whipped tide-pool scuz, retention is very good, leaving a thick, creamy cap and huge gobs of suspended lacing.

A fairly faint aroma of mildly sweet, damp grain and something vaguely fruity, maybe lemon tea and apple peels?

There is an inexplicable burst of Welch's purple grape juice right off the bat which I can in no way account for based on the list of hops which supposedly went into this beer but which quickly fades into the background. Otherwise, the taste is a complex melange of toast and tobacco, brown sugar, lemon tea and pine bark. Earthy, seltzer-like, with a subtle balance of mild sweetness and piney/citrusy bitterness.

Feel is clean, sharp and zippy, medium-thin bodied, with bright, tingly carbonation.

Overall, this may be the ugliest beer ever commercially available, albeit on a limited basis. It was, however, delicious.

 

 

 

 

 

Poured from a 12 oz can purchased at the brewery last week, into the pint glass.
A - Brown, murky with a very thin cap.
S - Very nice, orange and pine with some notes of melon and peach
T - Solid malts, nice pine and tropical fruit tension, Melon near the rime.
M - Soft and delightful, start is sweet but quickly moves toward dry and conifer.
Very nice feel
O - Once past the appearance, the offering is quite flavorful and aromatic, That HFB tactile part is always delightful
Well Done

This one pours very, very ugly- like a cross between sewer water and apple cider. There's a small white, and lots of lacing.

This smells pretty great- there's that classic C-hop aroma, piney and slightly fruity, with tea and lemon, along with rich bready malt and a touch of caramel and molasses.

This is a big variation from the pale and hazy DIPAs that this series usually features. It's very malt driven, with a slightly and very bready malt backbone, very toasty and does wonders for this. There's a unsurprising big hop character- lots of dank and sticky pine, some marmalade and tea, honey, and flowers.

This is medium bodied and kind of slick, with a typical level of carbonation and a good level of drinkability.

Once you can get past just how ugly this beer is, you're left with a very nice hoppy red ale.

 

Can dated 10/29:
It's got that NE IPA cloudiness to it, which gives a bit of a sewer water-like look to it. To be less gross, I could go with a loose-leaf iced tea with a good bit of lemon squeezed into it. On the plus side, the lightly toasted marshmallow head is pretty strong, with nice lacing abilities.

It's looks may or may not be influencing my olfactory sense, as this has somewhat of a lemon tea feel to it. A little toasted bread, some amber malts, a citrusy (lemon and tart grapefruit) hop main note, with a slight woodsy undertone.

The beer is pretty smooth, with subdued carbonation. The hop notes actually come out up front, though they are not alone. A nice medium brown bread with a light toast to it mixes with the hops to include citrus pith, light mango, and even a little blueberry. Mid taste, the marmalade of fruit gets a little sprinkle of light brown sugar. There's a little more toast and even a very light metallic note I get with amber ale malts. A light woodsy bitterness joins a lemongrass note to close out the beer.

I'm not generally a big fan of bitter hoppy ambers, but this actually plays to me a little more like a NE IPA with it's lower bitterness level to which toasted malts are added than a more typical malty amber into which a bunch of bittering hops are thrown.

A-Pours a hazy dark amber color with a nice head and lacing
A-Aroma has subtle apple, honey and floral hints
T-The taste follows the nose with generous amounts of apple, honey and floral flavors, which is a bit different but somewhat nicer than the normal juicy beers
M-A medium bodied well carbonated beer
O-A very well balanced and complex red IPA