Fox Farm Brewery (2021)

Some recent snippets from my last FF visit.

This recent batch of Burst has the perfect balance of bright citrus and a bitterness that I've come to know and love. I really need to get my hands on some Double Burst.

Quiet Life has a nice biscuit crispness with a sweet and mellow malt backbone. It reminds me so much of Suarez's Qualify.

Woodline is a really enjoyable smooth roasty stout. It's a bit one note though, and I think prefer the coffee from Ashlawn.

Pe'a unfortunately is subjectively not a winner for me. It has the overripe mango/melon thing that Equilibrium does with every single one of their beers. I'm pretty over this in IPAs.

I'm really looking forward to still digging into Burrow, Quiet Night, Pebble, and the two Avalonia bottles.

Happy New Year folks.

 

To add on, Pe’a was also a rare FF miss for me. Overripe melon and kumquat with a bittering machine oil note (weird descriptor, I know). A very odd flavor from an apparently polarizing hop varietal.

All that aside, Avalonia Overture was an absolutely phenomenal beer. I look forward to their 2021 wild ale and saison offerings.

 

How well do FF farmhouse and wild styles age in the bottle? Is it worth picking up multiples as to sample now with one or two for the cellar?

 

I did this with Annata from 2017 and it held up great over a couple years

 

Honestly just curious but have you had many farmhouse style beers that don’t age well? Or got significantly worse over time?

 

It depends on what you mean by "don't age well." Have I ever aged a saison and ended up pouring it down the drain? No, but I have had a few where they had definitely lost something when compared side by side to fresh iterations.

 

Anyone tried the current batch of Virid recently? Was thinking of grabbing some with my order today but looks like it was released a month ago now, curious to hear how it has held up

 

Picked some up last week and really enjoyed it. Canned date 12/9.

 

I stopped by today and grabbed some bottles and a few cans. While I was picking up I asked about their bottle releases and aging. According to the fellow working at the pickup window their fruited beers (like Avalonia) should be consumed within the first 2 months because after that the fruit flavors will start to fade. Regular farmhouse beers like Husk and Rove will be good for up to 2 years in the cellar. I was also told that there is no secondary fermentation happening in any of their bottle releases.

 

Thanks, I did end up getting a few cans and I agree that it's still tasting great!

 

what do you mean exactly? I find it hard to believe that their mixed ferment bottles aren’t bottle conditioned.

 

I found that a little wierd as well. I didn't ask if they were bottle conditioned, just if there was secondary fermentation happening in the bottle and he said no. Maybe he didn't know what that meant. I will ask again when I go back and report in.

 

I had a child in the back seat so I was kind of in a hurry.... Otherwise I would have been more inquisitive.

 

FWIW on the fox farm to go site, in the description for pebble, it references it: “Naturally carbonated in the bottle...” With that said I didn’t see it mentioned with any of their other current bottled offerings.

 

Quiet Night is quite perfect

 

Making Tree House look bad one day at a time.