Avalonia
Fox Farm Brewery

This one pours a golden clear orange color, with a small head, and lots of lacing.

This smells like dried herbs, apricot, orange, grapefruit, white wine, and lemon.

This is really expressive and tasty, with tons of light and dry fruitiness, with just a hint of sweeter citrus on the back end. There’s a nice pleasant and spritzy acidity here, nothing overwhelming.

This is light bodied, clean, crisp, and really drinkable, with a perfectly manageable and quenching acidity.

A lot of the fruited variants of this beer are quite good, but the origin of all of them is pretty good, too.

 

Batch 2 (bottled in 3/2020); consumed on 11/16/2021

Pours a crystal-clear, resplendent, glossy dark golden hue sporting steady effervescence and capped with a wavy two and a half fingers of airy, soapy, white foam; mediocre head retention yields a paper-thin curtain of cap, a moderate, fluffy collar, and large splotches of firm, webby lacing distributed in spots along the walls of the glass.

Aroma brings a minerality into grapefruit peel, verging on redolent of seltzer tones if not for heavy oak and white wine evolving with the spritzier funk; the back end of the bouquet is underscored with a deeper, farmyard funk, tinges of old wood and manure finding dry moss and a brighter lemon spritz.

Taste opens with hints of peach slices and a developing funk highlighting lemon peel into a oaky vanillin over the mid-palate; tart lemon is hereon intertwined with Sauvignon Blanc grape, while distant impressions of stone fruit and an apple peel twang cut further into the finish.

Mouthfeel shows a moderate spritz of carbonation over a light-medium body, clean upfront and brightness peaking almost immediately; a moderate acidity breeds a mild-moderate tartness as background oak imparts an earthy, pseudo-bittering offering a deft, gritty texture as the refined firmness fades into the finish.

The punchy yet restrained acidic profile on display here, forward from start to finish, is matched in consistency by oak-laden undertones from which funk is pronounced and tentatively refined; a continued, simultaneous motion of these primary elements culminate in an invigorating, wholly quenching wild ale.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Drank from a 12.7 fl oz / 375ml bottle purchased at Fox Farm Brewery, Salem, CT
Batch 1
Bottled: 3/18
Served in a stemmed wine glass

Gorgeous label. Love the subtle embossment combined with the gold text. As for the beer, it poured a crystal clear, brassy yellow. The body was topped by an inch-tall, frothy, bone white crown that fell to a thick, bubbly cap. Large swaths of sticky lacing trickled down the sides of the glass. On the second pour, the liquid turned somewhat hazy.

The aroma was initially pretty interesting and intensified as the beer warmed. Bready pilsener malt notes were apparent. Good dose of dry, oaky barrel. Touch of Bretty tartness. Later, the barrel notes became much stronger. Some white wine came through as well.

The flavor profile was also terrific. Like the nose, the oaky barrel notes were front and center. Tannic and dry but balanced. Fairly winey. An aged white wine came to mind. Nice bready, biscuity malt presence on the front end. Crisp and lemony in the center. Fairly tart and Brett forward. More dry, oaky barrel and lemony tartness on the finish. The oaky tannins lingered after the swallow.

Solid frothy, fluffy mouthfeel. Medium bodied for the style. The liquid contained a larger bubbled, greater than average effervescence that reminded me of something typically found in a Champagne.

With its robust oaky barrel character and restrained tartness, Avalonia is my ideal type of wild ale. Fox Farm has quickly been gaining notoriety for their hoppy beers, and it seems like their barrel program is really coming along too. I will definitely keep these guys on my radar.

 

Sparkling yet foggy gold with a moderate, airy white foam settling to a creamy ring and bubbling center.

This one's real hoppy, smelling like an old bowl of burnt resin with accents of white wine, chardonnay oak, and grilled grapefruit.

Taste too is cannabic and herbal, but also tart with fruit flavors of apricot, grapefruit, lemon, apple and pear.

The moderate-light body features a crisp, tingly tartness before a semi-dry finish.

 

 

 

 

12.7oz bottle. Batch 1 Bottled 3/18. Pours a semi clear bright burnt orange with an inch of head. The aroma is funky with lots of lemon, green apple, white wine and oak. The taste is a blend of sour green apple, lemon, apricots, white wine, oak and funky yeast. Bready towards the end with more lemon, oak and green apple. Light to medium body with lots of carbonation. Tastes much boozier than the low ABV would lead you to believe. Overall, another great sour from Fox Farm.