Hill Farmstead (2024)

Damon ‘13 on draft last week was pretty fantastic.

 

Unbelievable beer, would love to have that again.

 

Is it normal to have a beer on draft that’s not for on site consumption but is available for growlers to go? Was just performing another cross reference analysis and noticed that abner is listed on the retail/growler section on the website but not on the taproom draft section. I’m assuming one of the lists just hasn’t been updated

 

Double IPAs are only to-go.

 

that explains it!

 

Anybody know what next week's release is? Saw them ghosting something waxed on IG.

 

Looks like Aaron Riserva, but not positive.

 

I have pretty much lost all interest in NE ipas, but last night had Of First and Last Things on draft at Publick House and was immediately reminded why I loved these stupid beers in the first place. Super bright, pithy and juicy. Not overly sweet in the slightest. One of the best beers I've had in years.


Then I had three of them and was immediately reminded a large reason why I stopped drinking them was because of how fucking filling they are.



Every time I try a NE IPA, this is what I'm hoping it will taste like. Not sugary or malty, not sticky or syrupy. Just bright, juicy, dry and bitter.


Wish I had a growler in my fridge for tonight!

 

3-4 full pours of beer is filling no matter the style, for me. Still, I hear ya, have really been leaning very heavily in the WC direction the past couple years. Balance is hard to come by in NEIPAs outside of a few trusted sources.

 

Went today and arrived a little after opening. it appeared that they still had Aaron but the “daily allotment had been allocated already”. Anybody know if this is something new? I was pretty sure at the $50 price point that that stock would last at least to day two. Probably for the best as I really don’t need a $50 beer. Has a pour in the taproom and it is damn tasty.

 

For the “more limited” releases, this being one, they allocate a certain number of bottles for sale per day to allow it to last the week. Once that limit is met via preorder, they don’t sell any more that day. They usually indicate a given bottle will be allocated this way at release, not sure if they did with this one, but glad you got to try in the taproom!

 

Any feedback on the recent DIPAs. Heading over tomorrow and unsure if I should pass on some of the DIPAs. They have a lot available right now. Will get double Nelson for sure, but I’m not sure about S&S 4 and 6. Also motueka is not my favorite hop as a single hop, but that one looks quite right as far as being pale and hazy. I know their DIPAs have been a bit inconsistent recently.

 

It is probably just HF bias, but both 4 and 6 are 5-star ratings for me on Untappd. So, they’re at least pretty decent.

 

Awesome visit to hill farmstead. Autumna was awesome, and all the hoppy beers just taste that much better on site. I will say that the prices on vintage draft and bottle pours is a bit ridiculous in my eyes. $14-18 for a 15cl, which is less than 6 ounces, pour of draft is beyond what I would have imagined. Damon riserva was $20 for 10cl which is like 3.3 ounces. Nothing could justify that pricing for me. The pricing of their IPAs at $6/8 for 9/14 ounces is right on. I’m totally cool with that. That being said i had a plan in my head going into it to try whatever saison they had on draft and then maybe dip into the bottles. As soon as I saw the menu prices I immediately pivoted and got the lager and some IPAs. Everything tasted absolutely amazing. So I’m more than happy with the experience and what I drank while I was there. Just a bit of sticker shock. The his is coming from someone who left with 2 cases of cans and a case of bottles, so I’m not shy to drop some dough on beer per-se, but damn.

 

Agree with you on the bottle pour prices. I'm up there every couple weeks and the only time I ever dip into the bottle pours is for Ann, Art, and the like. Not usually worth the price for such a small amount of beer.

 

It's one thing if you're up there so frequently, quite another if it's once a year, or less. It's really a drop in the bucket on the beer budget to try something you probably have never had and probably won't ever get a chance at again. Then again if you were able to get bottles to go, or have had it before, then sure, passing makes sense. I just don't see how it's "not worth it" when it literally can't be had anywhere else. It's not like it's $500, it's just a couple bucks more than any other pour.

 

people unfamiliar with hill farmstead often have sticker shock both ways.

where else can you get a 750ml bottle of some of the best farmstead ale in the world for $12 retail?

when I was there this summer you could get 15cl of Samuel for $28.

you could also get 15cl of Self Reliance Motueka for $7.

I don't recall what the price of the Self Reliance was retail. But using Arthur as an example...

Arthur retail - 750ml/$12 = 62.5ml per dollar
Arthur onsite - 400ml/$13 = 30.77ml per dollar

Samuel retail - 750ml/$75 = 10ml per dollar
Samuel onsite - 150ml/$28 = 5.36ml per dollar

You're actually getting a slightly better deal with the Samuel in terms of the ratio of retail/onsite price.

Just in case anyone was wondering.

HF did a breakdown in an ig post one time, explaining why certain bottles are a higher cost, and essentially it boils down to the extensive amount of time and effort involved in their higher end beers. We're talking years in barrels (sometimes multiple barrels), and then subsequent years in bottle conditioning. The time and resources to produce those beers are much more significant than maybe some realize. There's really no brewery out there that's consistently making beers that take 5+ years to go from inception to consumption.

 

I believe HF still donates 10% of their proceeds from pours by the glass to charity. This is noted on their menus. They have a new designated charity each month, often local VT orgs.

 

Hill Farmstead's not totally unique in that regards - you'll see it with places that produce spontaneously fermented and barrel aged blended beers.

The Referend has some beers that are either aged that long, or between aging and bottle conditioning. https://www.thereferend.com/results (look at the current "Bier To-Go" pages)

 

And prices of such are almost universally higher than other beers.