Clover (Batch 1 - 3/12/2015)
(Batch of Clover)
Hill Farmstead Brewery in Greensboro, Vermont, United States 🇺🇸
Farmhouse - Saison Special Out of Production|
Score
7.37
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In her honor, we mindfully blended barrels of Ann, Art, and Flora that had been aged for 12 to 22 months—guided by her lingering spirit towards a beer of elegance, grace and patience. As often as our Clover would, this beer took its own path and its own time to become what it is now; an effervescent, refined reflection of both our melancholy for her departure but, most importantly, our joy in traveling with her.
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Appearance - 10 | Aroma - 9 | Flavor - 9 | Texture - 10 | Overall - 9.5
375mL bottle shared by Nelson on 4/13/17, thank you!!
Brassy, pale-golden body shows good clarity. White head is initially full but falls to cover quickly.
Smells tart. Lactic acidity with light Brett filling in the edges. Very Flora-like, with some Art in there, as well. Red wine, chalky, mild minerality and a long lactic finish. No alcohol or flaw. With warming, honey-vanilla notes emerge as the malt comes more to the front. Fruitier Brett notes help build complexity and take away some of the dominance of the lactic character.
Quite a bit different in flavor than expected! White wine, kumquat and other strong tropical fruit from the Brett. And here I thought this was going to be heavy on the lactic acidity. But rather, that’s very well-integrated and softened by the honey-like, rich malt character and instead there’s a bevy of passion fruit, lime and hickory. Very engaging carbonation and I’d consider it fairly sour overall, though certainly not heavily so. While the aroma is somewhat dominated by the lactic character, the flavor and texture more than make up for it. Every bit as enjoyable to drink as Art, Ann and Flora. Would love to try it side-by-side with those (like that will ever happen....).
375mL bottle drunk 5/26/17 at the brewery.
Drinking this alongside Ann and WoL Sante, which are probably my other two favorite sours from HF really helped put this thing in perspective. First, it’s still quite young and actually maturing/benefiting from aging. So that’s encouraging. Strong lactic character with lots of intense, rich oak and caramel-tinged honey-like maltiness is still a bit on the strong side, overall (though it’s still highly enjoyable). Both the nose and flavors are woven tight and pack a very dense, rich wallop as white grape, kumquat and unripened pineapple/nectarine take quite a bit of time to breath and warm before opening up. Much like a very young riesling or gruner. I think this thing is really going to hit its stride in another year or two and probably be a real delight for many years to come. I think it shows more potential than even 2014 Ann or WoL Sante.
gave a cheers!