A discussion about Art

1. HF makes arguably the best saisons of any brewery. Some people don't think so, but it's fairly widespread they're at or near the top.
2. Art hasn't been produced in 2.5 years.
3. This batch of Art was in barrels much longer than previous batches from everything I know/have found out from the source, so 4.35 probably isn't a number you can go off of.
4. Shaun's saisons have gotten better, especially Arthur since the last batch in 2012 imo.
5. It's a limit 1 $40 bottle.

Hope that helps

 

Part of confusion with the hype is from there being previous releases of Art, no? Horrifically generalizing things, think of first two batches of Art more like E in "rarity", "hype", yield, etc (all normalized for time and general residual level of HF desirability in the world, naturally).

Then pretend this batch of Art is actually called Art Select or Cuvee de Art (i.e. different means of production, lower limit, higher price, passage of time, death and decay) and is intangibly more like Ann or Mimosa, than a previous batch of Art.

QED, ZOMG GIVE ME ALL YOUR MEXICAN PIES FOR THIS BOTTLE

 

Also to add to this. Art is a blend of 1, 2 and 3 years of Art. So this isn't Arthur aged for a 12 months in wine barrels. This is a blend of Art barrels from 1 -3 years which blows my mind. Kinda like an " Art Gueze ".

 

People won't bat an eye at paying $40 DDG, $40 Vertias 014, $50 BVDL, $18 Beat (375), $40-$50 Hommage, $40 Chocolate Rain etc. etc. So why complain about $40 Art?

 

Hey you! Stop that! This is BeerAdvocate! (Don't you know?) Your "logic" and your "reason" are not welcome round these parts.

 

I heard a rumor of that, but didn't know for sure. Sounds like it should be awesome.

 

Ummmm....thats like your personal opinion. It is all subjective. I absolutely love most, if not all the HF offerings that I have tasted. If its not your thing that don't trade for it. I think that most HF bottles are hard to trade for and for a specific reason...sean is one of the most technical brewers that is in the craft beer scene and most of the time it is worth what it takes to get HF bottles. good times had by all... Cheers!

 

I will confirm the rumor even though I haven't heard it yet...

 

Of course I agree with this completely, this seems more like one of those cases where someone wouldn't dream of trading objectively similar beers for the beer they're interested in trying. Of course I could be wrong, but why else post a thread lamenting the high trade value of a beer from a brewer you generally dislike?

 

Someone I trade with who lives in California thinks that HF saisons are simply the best. He also thinks it will be a couple of years before SARA saisons will compare in quality. The lucky devil drinks tons of both. In a very real sense beer is his living. He's both knowledgeable & objective about it. And yet...and yet, his sentiments are wildly inconsistent with his location. How can this be reconciled??? Surely ALL opinions are rooted in geography & favor local stuff regardless of how mediocre it might be. Clearly he's either insane or stupid.





sighhhhh...off to quaff some world class, much envied Millstream brews. Praise Yahweh Iowa gets Millstream & NOT the likes of HF (or SARA)

 

Do let me know when you're gonna just hop up there. I'm sure I can come up with a grocery list or 2. (Food=Restaurants. Shopping=beer)

 

If location had alot to do with reppin' hometown brews and how good they are I'd be praising Nightshift and Blue Lobster ...... Everyones palate is different. But when the standard has been set (HF Saisons) you cannot argue quality.

 

Sidestepping the HF reputation debate...I don't think it's overly cynical to point out that, in the same way that something like DB Huna benefits from checking off all the hype boxes (Cigar City? Ding! Low bottle counts? Ding! Barrel-Aged? Ding! In two barrels? Ding, ding! Imperial Stout? Ding! With Spices? Ding!), Art does the same. Hill Farmstead? Ding! Low bottle counts? Ding! Barrel-aged? Ding! Saison? Ding! Multiple blends? Ding! The apparition of a Hill Farmstead "gueuze" style beer? Ding!

I gather the OP is distressed by Art's lower rating, compared to the likes of DB Huna, but this is essentially a different beer than previous iterations (so the ratings get thrown out the window) and when you combine that with checking off all the hype boxes above, it's not hard to see why it's trading as so.

 

To answer the OP's question: the latest batch of Art is a completely different beer, and looking at "ratings" of past versions is just looking at ratings for a different beer. Some of this batch of Art was in barrels when the previous batch was released. This latest batch should probably be listed as a new beer, but I'm not sure if it will be. I could see how people who think this is the same as previous Art's would be confused, but this is a new beast entirely.

 

Just throwing out there an observation: the highest Saison on the Top 250 beers list Fermier at 112, rated 4.37 (though, to be fair, when you look at the "total" rating it's 4.57). Sarrasin and Fermier share that top rank for saisons. 12 of the top 50 saisons are HF or HF related. There are 10+ IPAs / DIPAs rated higher than ANY saison. Zombie Dust is rated higher than ANY saison. 2 of the Mexican Cake variants are rated higher than ANY saison and a third, Tequila, is "better" than all but 3 saisons.

There may just be a little bit of a style rating discrepancy going on here. ;-)

Even at the "low" rating that the previous editions received this is still the 17th highest rated saison. Period.

Guess what the 17th highest rated Double / Imperial Stout is? Bzar Beans by Firestone Walker ... a single barrel rarity. And this sits above stuff like BA beer geek vanilla shake, BA Sump Kyoto, Hunahpoopoo, Rum BA Caffe Americano, CFH, Siberian Black Magic Apple Brandy, etc.

Take off the style biases and it's super clear why an HF saison rarity would trade high.

 

Wax top DING DING DING!!!

 

I think you are putting a little too much weight on beer ratings. If you've tried a lot of the new flavor of the month 100/100 instawhales you realize how they don't mean anything at all really...

 

I agree with this given how different this batch is from the previous 2. The ratings should be separated out as a new beer listing.

 

I agree with that, but I disagree at the same time. What are we gonna do have seperate listing for Art b1 Art b2 Art b3 ? BCBCS uses different coffee every year should we have seperate listings for that as well? I think we should just have a note under the beer much like Black Tuesday where it lists the different ABV

2009: 19.5% ABV
2010: 18.2% ABV
2011: 18.3% ABV
2012: 19.2% ABV
2013: 18.9% ABV

For Art just update it with Different info for each batch. Its sometimes difficult to do with Art since we dont know ABV or bottle count. But we can include the description of a blend 1-3 years. Art is Art. Maybe because its the best of the best it shouldve been named Art Cuvee ?

 

You've got a good point here. I suppose this is best left up to the brewer. If he's calling it Art, then so be it.