We’re sort of having a long blizzard this week where I am snowed in for 72 hours after taking 2 weeks off work for Christmas break. Oh well, I can work from home and then have a few beers. It’s a brisk Thursday at -5 outside. I’ve rated two of these already. Not a bad day for some photo opps though.
Hill Farmstead Phenomenology of Spirit (2013)
AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 8/10 PALATE 3/5 OVERALL17/20
adamjackson (1788) – Lyme, New Hampshire, USA – AUG 11, 2013 [delete] [move]
S – Nose is similar to august’s tasting with a combo of Peaches, Cherries and Mild Oak. I get a lot of very juicy tree fruits like Plum and some fig. A minor orange ’tang’ nose as well and just a hint of balsamic vinegar.
T – Taste is nice and tart. Lovely throughout. No residual sweetness and lingering grapey or pear tastes that really are resilient. Drinks sort of like a sour cherry apple juice. I get more backbone than the last time I had it like chewing on a peach seed or the woody notes you get from eating roasted chestnuts. Cherry juice is totally what I would go with here. There’s a minor brett taste but nothing out of the park.
M – It’s a fairly oily body and very similar to an unblended lambic. A nice carbonation forms only on a heavy mouth-swish. Does down easy adding a ’craisin’ like taste with cloves
O – Really nice. I wish I had another bottle to try this again in a year as I imagine this will age very well for some time. Also, I’m dumb and I opened this up thinking I had not already rated it. Oops.
Hill Farmstead Civil Disobedience (Release 7)
AROMA 9/10 APPEARANCE 5/5 TASTE 7/10 PALATE 4/5 OVERALL 15/20
adamjackson (1788) – Lyme, New Hampshire, USA – JAN 2, 2014 [delete] [move]
S – The nose is raw mashed grape skins with lemon head candies and fresh cut grass. Musty oak and zest tangerine skin.
T – This is perhaps the most oak-forward beer in the Civil Dis series. Very musty, leathery and funky. The citrus explosion is unmistakable. I get a tad bit of copper penny on the back-end of the palate. If you were to tell me there was Lambic in here, I’d disagree. It doesn’t have the tartness you’d expect and having had 2-year unblended lambic, I consider it oaky, funky and almost earthy. This has that but without the tart I expected. Lemon and hay are totally present. Musty, earthy just really nice.
M – Nice burst of carbonation that fades quickly. Leaves behind an effervescent tree fruit and bark taste paired with the copper penny.
O – This was a great beer to have tried. It didn’t meet my expectations but I was probably wrong to go into this with expectations at all. Still, a top quality beer but not my favorite in the series. I still can’t believe Shaun got the lambic to throw in these :)
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Hill Farmstead Anna…from the first batch to now, this beer has changed considerably. Still not as good as Arthur but the honey and oak notes now make it an incredibly delicious brew.
Yep, a nice night to be stuck indoors:
