This review was written when I had this beer the first time on Wednesday. I had it again on Saturday in an HFS tulip so the photos don’t quite match up with the tasting notes.
AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 4/5 TASTE 10/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL19/20
adamjackson (809) – Canaan, New Hampshire, USA – NOV 14, 2012
S – The best aroma from a beer I’ve ever encountered. The depth is remarkable. Overall, Brett dominates the nose. This barnyard irrefutable Brett aroma is unmistakable. It’s present and there to impress. Hints of lemon, oranges and white wine are present as well.
T – Tart from start to finish. Bready and Bretty throughout. Hints of grape skins, melon, cucumbers and sweet orange zest with a handful of grape skins. The tartness is so pleasurable and would be perfect on a hot summer day. It’s not sour..just tart. The very common taste of Shaun Hill’s Saisons is easy to detect. Like Arthur, Anna and their barrel aged versions of those two saisons, this beer is very close. Perhaps most similar to a “juicy” version of Flora? That’s probably the best way to describe it.
M – Medium body and carbonation. Exceptional balance and enjoyable now. i’d love to try this again in 6 months to see how it progresses.
O – Is it the best wild ale I’ve had from Shaun HIll? No. For tart characters and overall quality, I’d say Mimosa, Flora and Art take the cake. However, Juicy is unique. It stands on its own and it’s perfect in it’s own way. Is it like other HFS beers? Sort of. The terroir of the Hill Farmstead is strong in this one but it’s unique and you can’t assume it’s exactly like other barrel aged beers from this tiny brewery in Vermont. It’s a fantastic beer and one that I wish was available in 750ML bottles. 375 is just enough to make you beg for more.
Picked up a bottle of this myself last weekend at Hill Farmstead. My second visit, Hector’s first (he was my friend when we met up at The Pig).
Overall, meh. It was good, but nothing worth seeking out. It didn’t blow my mind in terms of what a sour beer can be. I felt it could have used more time in the barrels, it was still not quite as dry as I’d expect, could have used a bit more sour funk. But I guess it depends what Sean is going for… given how sour and carbonated it was, I would say he was going for a Gueuze.
Next time I’ll spend the $10 on a bottle of Drie Fonteinen if I can find it, or even Boon Gueuze which is much easier to find.
It was my first HF sour, and I’m still convinced that Russian River is making the best sour beers outside of Belgium.
Interesting but I think it was intended to be a saison with some tartness. Their first sour beer that’s intended as that style will be ready in January.
I also had Aurthur for the first time the other night. Sour and/or tart saisons seem to be their thing… completely different from any saison I’ve ever had. It was quite lemony… I didn’t really like it.