Hill Farmstead (2019)

Was there last Wednesday, but not Wednesday before.

Not sure if on website, but was available retail. Sign on wall.

 

Hommage comes and goes for guest bottles. They rarely updated thier guest bottle on the prior webpage outside of Wunderkammer. But this round of Hommage has been there since my eariler May trip. It was 55 then, and 55 last Friday at the anniversary. Website says 40 now. Thats a good price for those bottles if accurate.

They aren't referring to the people who show up early. I guess they had people waiting at the front of the pour line, not going up when they were next in line, letting the next person go ahead pretending to "wait for a friend". Hoping for an afternoon rare, but holding up the line in the process, and lengthening the line acting as a deterrent for other guests visiting.

Some people tick differently. This is definitely not something for me. Especially after waiting 40 minutes in line already for a beer. I'm not gonna make my wait longer, so I can maybe get the chance to pay 20 dollars for 4 ounces of beer. There is so much good beer, yeah they are not all Ann, but they are only a rung or 2 below. Much cheaper, just as enjoyable.

 

<insert THIS gif here>

 

Is this actually something people do?

 

Yeah, that’s beyond shitty.

/s? That is certainly one way to do it, but about as rude as it gets. Call your friends up to the front of line...then split the 1 or 2 bottles you (actually) waited for however many ways, imo.

In any case, no disagreement on the quality levels of the rare bottles vs regulars. It’s all fantastic, and I’d be lying if I said I thought the hype/barrel aging/pricing directly correlated with any kind of best to least best ranking I could put together.

 

I always enjoy my Hill visits, but definitely prefer the off times/season to Anniversary week. I heard A LOT of complaining while in line about missing this or that, or how the employees should be doing more to appease people. It's just not the same normal happy crowd that's typically there enjoying the view, company and beer.

 

completely agree. my favorite visits have been on off hours/days when the taproom is basically empty. My favorite visit ever was in January a few years ago. My wife and I arrived about 4pm on a Saturday and got two bottles: Art Plum & DB Damon. There were maybe 10-15 people total in the taproom and it was super mellow. Those days are pretty rare, but when the stars align, it's a fantastic experience.

 

lol I think I was actually there that same week. We went up on a Thursday, had both of those bottles on-site, and someone in the tasting room bought a magnum of CD15 and shared it with the entire room. Definitely one of my favorite visits.

 

I hate everything about this.

 

I was up there recently (Saturday, GoM and LoG release eariler this month)

Flora '14


Damon: El Desarotto



Best brewery trip EVER! Tap room was dead, and the beers were AMAZING!

And its literally like that every time I go up. They always have amazing beer. None of it is worth pulling @$$hole stunts like you hear about.

I Just don't get it. When Clover ran out, I literally thought to myself, well good that just saved me 45 bucks. Granted i would have bought it, and probably enjoyed it a lot. But I enjoy almost everything up there a lot. I did not cross my mind to go offer someone $20 for a sip lol.

 

Hey...I thought you were gonna cut back on the menus

 

Hehe,

Full Truth I did not take any of those menus home with me. Thus the pictures with the menus as its sorta a joke amongst friends I was there with the menu incident day, and I guess here too. And my own little look back on the menu that day so I can leave them.

 

Page has been updated and price now reflects what you recall previously, $55.

 

Couldn't agree more. I ran the marathon in Burlington the past two years so we were up in northern VT for MDW. Last year we went on the Friday before the holiday - easily my worst experience there. I've been going to the brewery 2-3 times a year since 2011. I admittedly do try to avoid Saturdays and any crazy releases for this reason though.

This year we went on the Wednesday following the holiday (yesterday) before heading home. Perfect trip. Grabbed a table no problem, no wait for anything. Shirley Mae, Poetica 1, Poetica 2. Arguably too much beer to go.

 

What’s the general concensus for July 4th weekend in terms of crowds? Obviously Wednesday will be busy with pre-4th stocking, but what about the actual holiday itself?

 

There have also been different variations of Hommage over the past fews months. When I went up in March I grabbed a bottle of the Hommage Bio-Frambozen which was $60 I think?

 

I like the layout of the new HF website.

Under the "Visit Us" section of the site, it might be helpful to highlight Burlington or Montpelier on the map for travelers/tourists planning a visit to the brewery. Giving Providence a little love on the map might be a good idea, too.

I like the note about limited cell/data service in the area.

I think a note about no public WiFi being available at the brewery might be helpful for visitors.

I also noticed that CD Shitrus was missing from the "Explore Our Beers" section...

 

This is exactly what happened at the last Hop Jam, and similar to the last FoFA I attended a couple years ago. In both cases the volunteers / organizers / employees didn't seem to have a problem with it, so it emboldened the perpetrators and apparently now it's an accepted practice. Really too bad that basic line etiquette can't be followed by these dbags.

 

I rather enjoy these people buried in their phones wandering around the porch and lawn frantically trying to find a signal to check into Untappd.