Flora - Hill Farmstead Brewery

dragonWhale

New York

3.58/5  rDev -15.6%
look: 3 | smell: 4 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Cloud of gold fills the glass.
It stares back at me, judging.
We all fall short of the glory,
Under stars and a lemon tree,
The slight funk of the night
Wafting through, just right.
The fields of wheat blazed through
Cut down by an angry beast -
A foul-tempered yeast - The barrel
Gives a bit of itself, not too much.
Keeps some for itself, no doubt.
Through the clean tart finish
I lick my lips clean, desirous
Maybe just a pinch more.

Serving type: on-tap

04-12-2011 01:48:22 | More by dragonWhale

largadeer

California

3.53/5  rDev -16.7%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Rating is a composite of the two batches.

Batch 1:

Milky pale blond with a tall lasting white head.

Smells great. Very floral, perfumey. Nice fruitiness, very berry-like, specifically blackberries. Vinous notes, citrus, strawberry.

Palate has a sharpness to it up front, a nice blackberry-strawberry fruitiness. Citrus, too, along with vinous notes and a mild lactic character. Very light with a dry and tannic finish. Exceptionally good.

4
4.5
4.5
4.5
4.5

Batch 2:

Same appearance as batch 1. Tons of cheesy funk on the nose here. Very bretty, a bit metallic. Tastes cheesy, lactic, funky, vinous. Dry finish. Not great, this batch has an overwhelming blue cheese character. It's drinkable, but it doesn't live up to batch 1.

4
2.5
2.5
2.5
2.5

Serving type: bottle

01-23-2012 20:48:45 | More by largadeer

maximum12

Minnesota

3.5/5  rDev -17.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3.5 | overall: 3.5

Thanks to the eager, fast-shipping baconsausage for one more bottle of Hill Farmstead. I think I'm almost ready to get off my hiatus, my friend, because I need more of these excellent beers you send me! (though I still owe him a box, hurry up, Surly Five)

Flora comes in a plain, big bottle that looks bigger than 750ML. Not only capped, but corked, too - my first encounter with this was earlier this week, now two, man, I suck with a cork, I hope this isn't a trend. Poured into a cute matched pair of snifters, this is pale to the point of shut-in. Clear. Nose bring lemon spritz, funk, waving fields of grain. Good start.

Flora brings the funk hard, first & foremost this is a buried-in-the-ground beer that is high on sour lemons, earthy hops. There's also a big wood component that's seriously drying. Wheat, grass. My wife is digging this & she isn't wild about sours or saisons...me, I think it's pretty good.

Pretty good brew, but not quite the killer that previous Hill Farmstead beers have been for me. But hey, expanding my wife's already broad horizons? Worth the price of admission!

Serving type: bottle

05-29-2011 03:46:04 | More by maximum12

Soonami

Pennsylvania

3.48/5  rDev -17.9%
look: 4 | smell: 3.5 | taste: 3.5 | feel: 3 | overall: 3.5

Thanks to BrewerDan23 for sharing this bottle.

This beer pours a very cloudy gold with just a little island of lazy white foam. The beer smells overwhelmingly bretty with huge funk that's like bad breath. The beer is very dry and thin, low in carbonation and has little hopping. The beer tastes mostly like funk with over ripe papyas, buttery oak and cracker-y malt. To me, it's a fairly one-dimensional brett-bomb and I was looking for a bit more complexity.

Serving type: bottle

08-27-2011 15:58:44 | More by Soonami

AgentZero

Illinois

3.25/5  rDev -23.3%
look: 4 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 3 | feel: 2 | overall: 3

Thanks to Chris for opening this one up at our Strikeforce: The Fall of Fedor tasting.

A - Murky dark yellow color, looks a bit like juice. Nice white head with great retention and lace.

S - Thought this was a saison when it was given to me, but execptionally fruity and tart, almost like a wild. Great smelling tartness combined with some funk and belgian yeast. Not sure I've ever smelled anything quite like this, smells awesome and different.

T - Complete letdown on the taste, after all this unique and cool buildup this beer is quite boring. There just isn't much going on here, seems like-watered down earth notes with a lot of oak and some grass. Finishes quite watery. It started out with such potential on the nose too...

M - This beer is too thin and feels watered down.

D - This beer was particularly polarizing at our tasting. A few liked it, but I was one of the ones didn't care for it in the end. It may have suffered from following Anna in the tasting order, which was an amazing saison, but I kind of think I'd feel the same about this one regardless of what I drank before or after it.

Serving type: bottle

02-15-2011 05:13:51 | More by AgentZero

jrallen34

Illinois

3.2/5  rDev -24.5%
look: 3.5 | smell: 4.5 | taste: 2.5 | feel: 2 | overall: 4

Corked bottle thanks to Chris poured into my Hill Farmstead glass... A cloudy murky dark straw, doesn't look very good. Lots of bright white head at first with good carbonation, but its watery. Good retention and lacing... The aroma is pretty nice, sweet candy wheat, honey, floral finish... The taste really is disappointing, borderline bad. Almost totally dead, what I do get is bad peppery floral hops. Finish really kills me as bad oaks comes off... Mouthfeel is the true downfall of this beer, watery light with no depth... Easy to drink but not good enough that I would.

Pretty disappointing for me after such a great aroma. I can't recommend this.

Serving type: bottle

02-13-2011 02:10:20 | More by jrallen34