★ Review: Hill Farmstead Peleg (2014)

   AROMA 9/10   APPEARANCE 4/5   TASTE 7/10   PALATE 5/5   OVERALL14/20

Picked up 3 bottles on July 11th at the brewery. Kept them upright and safe on the 1 hour journey home and stored upright in the keezer at 45 Degrees F for 5 hours. Enjoyed split 2 ways in HFS Stem-ware while watching Luther on BBC (great show, BTW). When I opened it, it didn’t gush but left un-checked, this beer will foam and depart the bottle at a slow steady pace. Get your glassware ready!!!!!A – This looks like a darker Old Stock, mahogany hues, with a touch of dark blood color. Caramel and darker-esque but no where near black or grey. Looks like a standard old ale.

S – The nose is fantastic. Smells like Cherry Cola, a faint bourbon back-end with funky leather brett and caramelized malts from a long boil or extended oak aging. Very similar nose to some of the darker wild ales from Crooked Stave.

T – Taste is incredibly difficult to pin-point. It is certainly and undeniably an old ale but the brett and other wild yeasts really do strange things I mean maybe in a good way? If the description wasn’t that they intentionally added micro-flora, I’d think infection because I’ve never had an Old Ale that intentionally received that funky goodness. A lot of sweet, a lot of sour / funk with leather and raw sorghum with tobacco. Funky in a dominating way, some clove and spice. Finish is an oaky port wine tannic w/ obviously more funk.

M – Fantastic bottle conditioned mouthfeel. Dry and not too sweet finish

O – This is hard to rate. I like it certainly could drink a lot of it but the American in me that wants to categorize what this is…it’s so hard. I love Old Ales!!! but I’ve never had one with this much funk presence. I could drink a lot of this. My mind is telling me no…but my body, my body is telling me yes.