Self Reliance: Southern Cross
Hill Farmstead Brewery

Bottle: Poured a clear golden color ale with a large pure white foamy head with good retention and some lacing. Aroma of light funky ester with some floral notes and dry Brett notes. Taste is also amix of hoppy dry floral undertones with some funky ester and dry Brett notes with light oak. Body is about average with good carbonation. Solid hopped saison with non-typical hops.

 

 

 

 

 

This one pours a moderately hazy golden yellow color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like lemony funk, spicy hops, pine, and light acidity.

This is mid-level for this series, which still means that it's absolutely tasty. There's a light acidity and lemony funk to it, with a very clean piney/spicy hop bitterness, and some lightly sour citrus character.

This is light bodied, clean, and very crisp, with a fantastic drinkability.

I'm doing my absolutely best to try every one of the beers in this series - it's an exhausting but delicious endeavor.

Poured from the 750 ml bottel into the test glass.
A - Golden straw color, superb and staedy carbonation, feeds a lasting cap of white froth.
S - Lemongrass, earthy aspect is a treat, a bit of musky rime,and pine. The aromatics shift from lemon to more earthy as the offering warms a bit. An excellent transition.
T - Fruit forward with lemon, and pith being the driver, base malts are light and offer some cracker/biscuit touches. Lovely touch of white pepper, and apricot skin
M - Medium in body, excellent carbonation keeps this a bit crisp. Semi sweet start then the hop application moves toward the beautiful bittering balance, all the while displaying lovely citrus.The gentle kiss of pine is a pleasant suprise.

O - A really good deep dive into a single hop, Not having had to much experience with Southern Cross, this is a treat.
Lemon and pine

 

 

From a 750ml bottle, bottled 01/31/20. Served in a tulip.

Pours a lightly hazed, super-pale honey-yellow with a big frothy head of foam. Retention is excellent, eventually settling back to a rich, bubbly cap with thick chunks of lacing.

Aroma is bright and tart, lemon and cherry, sharp and earthy with just the vaguest hint of a puckery fruit-infused vinegar.

Taste follows the nose in two waves: first slightly grassy, with bright and puckery lemon and infused vinegar and then muted under an earthy, damp wood and berry-like layer. Notes of soap, balsam and cherry.

Feel is slick and soapy, medium bodied with gentle tingly carbonation. I didn’t see abv stated on the bottle but, from taste and feel, I’m perceiving it as something-like 7.5%?

Overall, a tasty pleasure! Presented as a ‘Farmstead’ IPA but, had I met it in the wild without a formal introduction, I would have placed it as a particularly meaty saison.