by Mark Meli
Ask craft beer lovers where the best beers in America are made, and nine out of ten will likely give you a location out West. Maybe they’ll mention San Diego, or Portland, or Northern California. Most often they will just say: “The West Coast.” After all, we do say “West Coast IPA” for the big, hoppy style that typifies American craft beer, don’t we? We also think of the West Coast for sour and complex, barrel-aged, wild yeast wonders. Yet at this moment, one of the most talked-about breweries in America is on a secluded farm near the East Coast. That brewery is Hill Farmstead in Greensboro, Vermont (population 700), about 40 km from the Canadian border.
The Hill family has been in Greensboro for eight generations—about 220 years. They hold one of the original land charters, given by the new U.S. Government to Revolutionary War soldiers in 1781. Here, amidst rolling green pastures, Hill Farmstead Brewery runs a 2000 liter brew house, which is small by American craft beer standards. They opened in April, 2010, and now brew about 260 kiloliters a year, selling roughly 95% of that on draught within Vermont. Much of the beer is sold right at the brewery. On Wednesday to Saturday afternoons, beer fanatics line up, growlers in hand, waiting hours to fill up on draught-only beer to drink at home or to share with friends.
The local landscape is important to Hill Farmstead beer for more than simply historical or nostalgic reasons. This beer is intimately tied to the land, which leads Shaun Hill, owner and brewmaster, to use that tricky word “terroir” when speaking of his beers. The concept of terroir is famous in the wine world, but people tend to avoid using it in connection with beer—do hops or barley from a particular farm really have their own unique taste signature? Yet there definitely is something of the Vermont landscape in Hill’s beers. For one, he often uses wheat, herbs, or honey from local farms in his brewing, and Hill hopes to eventually source local malt and hops as well. But the two most important local ingredients are the water from his grandfather’s well and the local microflora—wild yeasts that play an important role in the fermentation of many of Hill’s farmhouse ales.
We made the drive to Greensboro for the Hill Farmstead Festival of Harvest Ales, but we got our first taste of Hill’s beers the night before, at the Farm House Tap and Grill in Burlington, Vermont’s largest city. We strolled in for dinner, and my heart jumped when I noticed four Hill beers on tap that evening!
Edward is their staple, an American Pale Ale employing five varieties of hops. Its fruity, fragrant nose was of citrus and tropical fruit salad, and its luscious flavor reminded me of a creamsicle from my youth—vanilla ice cream coated in orange sorbet. This beer has as much flavor as any Imperial IPA, yet at only 5.2% alcohol—simply miraculous. We tried Everett, their porter, with deep cocoa flavors and an ultra smooth, silky body. Life Without Principle was a super-refreshing golden ale made with Valencia oranges and matching citrus hops, and Society and Solitude, an Imperial IPA, was sweet and cake-like, with enormous flavors of mango, peach, and grapefruit.
As we sampled these beers, two things struck us. First was the perfect balance. Each was very flavorful and complex, but none was overly sweet, bitter, or harsh. Second was the texture—their body and mouth feel. These were the softest beers I had ever drunk. Silky, smooth, and soft. It had to be the well water!
Hill’s regular beers are each named after one of the ancestors who lived on the Farmstead. Edward was their grandfather, the man who dug the well where their brewing water comes from. Everett was Edward’s older brother. Aside from these, Abner double IPA is named for their great-grandfather, Biere de Norma, in the French farmhouse style, commemorates their grandmother, while Damon, an Imperial Stout, is in memory of their family dog.
Experimental and barrel-aged beers usually bear the name of a famous philosophy text. Alongside those mentioned above, they have made Genealogy of Morals (imperial stout), Fear and Trembling (Baltic porter), The Phenomenology of Spirit (saison), and Walden (blonde session ale). It is clear from these names that Hill’s philosophical interests seem to rest in two categories: 19th Century German Philosophy and American Transcendentalism (he was a philosophy major in college). Many of the collaboration beers made with visiting brewers are released under the Grassroots Brewing label.
We arrived at the Farmstead just before noon on the day of the festival, and were able to sample 16 different farmhouse beers from Hill and their friends, evenly divided between those fermented solely with the house Belgian yeast, and barrel-aged beers that were further influenced by wild yeasts. Of the former, our two favorites were Anna, a saison made with Vermont wildflower honey, and Florence, an un-spiced witbier made with organic Vermont wheat. Anna was herbal and dry, yet bready; it was complex and very drinkable. Florence was a refreshing, fruity showcase for its wheat and lemony hops.
It was the barrel-aged beers which were the hit of the day, however, for us and the other 300 attendees. Art, our favorite, had a funky wild yeast nose and delicious, tart flavors of yogurt, grapefruit and lemon, with some barnyard funk and a bit of spice. Its sour edge was prominent but not overpowering. E. was grassier and hoppier, with a bit less sourness and a more bready, grainy character. Mimosa, one of the crowd’s favorites, was, at 10% ABV, an imperial barrel-aged saison, with big citrus hop and creamy yogurt flavors. It was unique and interesting, but a bit too sweet for our taste. Civil Disobedience #4, another crowd pleaser, was labeled “a black saison blended from four beers in five oak barrels,” the main portion of which was Everett. It had an interesting flavor profile of chocolate, lemon, and berries, all in lactic cream. Very shocking if you had never tried a sour black beer, yet it all blended together quite nicely.
We count ourselves lucky to have had the chance to try so many of Hill Farmstead’s great beers. They are possibly the most sought-after brews in America, and also some of the most hyped. Limited production and distribution along with super-high evaluations on rating sites like RateBeer keep American beer geeks frantically searching for anything with their label on it.
With this in mind, Hill Farmstead is in now in the midst of a large construction project which will increase their yearly capacity to more than 500 kl and add a pub and tasting room to the brewery. There, fans will be able sample local artisanal foods alongside beer tasting sets. But Shaun Hill is emphatically against growing much larger than that. He rejects what he calls “infinite boundless growth,” and prefers to view his beers as a craft product embedded in a local and historical landscape. That’s a bit sad for beer lovers in Japan, as there seems little chance that Hill’s beers will be imported soon, if ever.
But cheer up. Vermont is a lovely place, great for hiking and swimming in the summer as well as skiing in the winter, and with an abundance of fresh artisanal foods. It is a relatively short drive from major beer cities such as New York, Boston, and Montreal. And did I mention that nearby Alchemist and Lawson’s Finest Liquids are also two of the best new brewers in the land? What are your plans for next summer?
This article was published in Japan Beer Times # () and is among the limited content available online. Order your copy through our online shop or download the digital version from the iTunes store to access the full contents of this issue.
