Blaugies: Hill Farmstead: La Vermontoise (Belgium: Saison: 6% ABV)
Visual: Very cloudy lemon juice color. Thin, white, small bubbled head.
Nose: Brown bread. Lightly peppery. Naan bread. Mineral water. Light lime hard sweets and choc lime sweets.
Body: Lemon sherbet. Sherbety mouthfeel. Mineral water. Brown bread. Slightly peppery. Light salt. Apricot. Slight watered down golden syrup notes.
Finish: Lime. Mineral water. Lemon sherbet. Unleavened bread. Golden syrup cake.
Conclusion: This, my first encounter with Hill Farmstead (admittedly in a collaboration) is more restrained than I expected from the immense reputation. Not to say bad as it is not that, but as a Saison this actually reminds me more instead of the Westmalle Extra I tried not so long ago. However, unlike that which did not 100% land for me, this actually seems no pull off that minerally meets hoppy style in a very sessionable flavor. Though this has about 1% extra abv which probably helped contribute to it having more room to pull that flavor off.
This has that same bready, mineral water styling for ease of drinking, with especially the bready aroma just spilling out of the glass. The minerally notes are very refreshing and easy drinking, what Westmalle Extra was described as having but here it feels like they have made the beer robust enough for it to work without feeling too light. Unfortunately, the abv that probably is what let them pull this off also means that it is just a tad too strong abv for the super sessionable flavor it has – if it managed this at 4% abv it would have been a session beer classic!
This offsets that main character, or more correctly works with it, by mixing in light citrus notes – lemon and lime, which combine with the mineral water character to make a very lemon sherbet influenced mouthfeel and even some of the flavour, making this a refreshing beer in a lot of ways.
It isn’t a beer that jumps out and grabs you to force you to pay attention but it is one you definitely want more of by the time you have finished it. Everything about it, from the light minerally character, the soft lemon and lime and slight sherbety mouthfeel all match that easy of drinking style – far easier than a 6% abv beer should be to drink. I could drink this over and over for far too long.
So, a dangerously easy drinking summer refresher saison.
Background: Hill Farmstead. Now that is a name I hear a lot from USA way, usually attached to raving about beer quality. That never turn up here. However it turns out they did do this collab with Belgian brewers Blaugies, so when I saw it I figured, closest I’m likely to get to trying a Hill Farmstead beer. Unfortunately I was in London about to go into a wrestling show where they would take any drinks I had off me so I couldn’t buy it. However, luckily I was back in London shortly after to see Le Tigre play live, so dropped back to Caps and Taps where I had seen it and grabbed it and a couple more beers. They have a very nice selection there and even a few taps to enjoy while you are there. Went with Le Tigre: Feminists Sweepstakes as background music when drinking in honor of the circumstances that led to me being able to grab it.
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