What's the deal with "Ann?"

I know HF is ISO heavily but it seems ann is pulling crazy stuff. Looks like a saison that im guessing is very limited. What am I missing

160 bottles, brewery only release and there were about 200 people in line when they opened.

Saison with honey and microflora added, aged in wine barrels. 160 bottles released. Many are saying that it's shaun's best beer yet. I mean check out the ratings..

"Not really my style, but this one transcends the styles and is a work of art."

"If I could drink one beer for the rest of my life, I might very well chose this."

"One of the best beers I have ever had."

"Our favorite beer at the tasting tonight (and there were some great beers) and definitely another masterpiece from Shaun at Hill Farmstead. Keep up the great work, glad I got to share it!"

"This is when beer becomes an art and everything is working in perfect harmony. One bottle will not suffice."

"I can say with confidence that this is one of the best beers that I have tried to date (easily among my top 5). Its quite simple: everything in this beer works, and it works REALLY well."

"A favorite of the weekend for me, can't wait for a release of this."

These are the last lines of the 7 reviews posted. Hyped or just simple praise is going to be subjective but it certainly sounds like a beer that I would love to try.

What is up with Ann is it is apparently the best beer I will never have the pleasure of drinking. Think that sums it up for 99% of us very nicely.

I think that number is a little bit higher.

Agreed....my pseudo fake math gave me 99.92473% but it seemed a little pompous to post that specifically.

INSTAWHALE

i dont even know what it is...160 bottles? not interested as ill never trade for it.

There IS a reason 7 reviews won't trigger a score.....

walez.

her?

Agreed. And I'd like to see a few reviews from people outside of the East Coast before anointing Ann the Next Chosen One. Although that's not likely to happen the way it's trading.

So I could land it with King Henry???

Dunno. We know a BA Vanilla DL landed one, so convert that to KHTU and go from there.

She's really funny...

Mayonegg

Looks like someone traded a KH 2xCBS and an 09 BCBS Bomber for one http://beeradvocate.com/community/threads/iso-ann-ft-kh-2x-cbs-09-bcbs-bomber.30030/

I saw that after searching some more. On the surface it seems silly.

I agree, hopefully whoever is getting that haul is going to hook him up with some nice extras for the generous offer.

Kbs would probably get it done

I think the hardcore traders will wait a bit before they throw up Ann FT, wait and see what they ask for. All the newbs ISO need to chill out and realize that they can drive 1hr away from their house and find some delicious shit. The 'gotta have it' attitude around here lately is a bit crazy.

It really is because it's that much better. I made the 8 hour trip to HF. So worth it. You really can't get locals that are anywhere near as good if you live most places in my estimation. I know "local beer" is all the rage, but I just don't get it. I'm gonna drink what I like the most as long as I can get it. So an occasional trip to VT, why not? And this is, of course, just IMO.

How did you calculate your estimation?

By having good beers by good breweries and having nothing be as consistently awesome as HF. Like I said, my opinion. I like Weyerbacher, they're my most local brewery. I wouldn't say that they are in the same league as HF, however. I just think that truly amazing beer is more hard to come by than people realize. Just because it's local doesn't make it good, and the HF hype isn't baseless. I wish it wasn't the case, because it's not like HF is something that's easy for me to get, or Heady Topper (probably my favorite beer).

Not that anyone asked, but my opinion on what appears to be the two questions causing the most consternation...

1) Is Ann that good? (i.e. ~perfect average here, similar on RB after doing the conversion of BA.avg*5/9+32= RB.avg)
2) Is the debacle of this beer in the trade forum since release solely a byproduct of homerism, the creeping death of LIMITED BOTTLE RELEASE hysteria suffocating the trading forums lately and/or the building slow burn of "hype" for HF over the past two years.

1) For me? Yea, I was blown away. Partly by exceeding expectations (I like Anna well enough, but it's not my favorite saison and I thought I knew what it would taste like aged in a wine barrel. Ha, simple, naive yourefragile) and second by being the first thing since Rare DOS to transcend what I expect for its "general" style.
2) Hell, I don't know, who cares? Am I a HF homer since I live on the East Coast (DC) and make the 20 hour round trip there a few times a year? If so, shame on me. I haven't seen many ridiculous FTs posted for this beer, just an escalating crush of unfulfilled ISOs.

Maybe this beer is just that good? I mean, Rare DOS turned out to be legit despite the initial skepticism, right?

I will be glad when all 160 bottles are consumed so we can move on to the next greatest beer ever.

What I find the most interesting is, where are the ISO's for Anna? Like, the base beer must suck right, no need to try that one?

I dare you, go out and see how many ISO: Anna posts there are. Ann isn't a hype train, it's a hype bullet-train.

Edit: Yes, let's assume everyone ISO: Ann has tried Anna, that wasn't my point.

Anna has also been released three times in the past year each time a ~1000 bottle release and is available for a few weeks+ at a time. If you want Anna, it's not that hard to find and might've already had it.

I've had growlers of Anna sent to me, that one I think is on tap fairly regularly. You still need someone to go down and get a growler (or, bottle in the rare case it's available) of Anna at HF, which is no small feat in itself. However, my point mainly is that Anna is an amazing beer in it's own right. However, not much in the way of ISO's for Anna.

THIS.

Some beer obsessives enjoy trading, going to releases, &c. to find things they love, and stick with them to whatever degree is actually plausible. Not everyone is a ticker.

Sounds legit. I'm not hating on HF at all, but people still need to chill out about their releases. They are meant for locals, not for bros from abroad.

I came to post the very same thread, it's amazing how crazy it is so quickly.

One review says bottle 250 of 300. Any idea how that came about?

Like Norma, labels say out of 300. But apparently 160 bottles of Ann were actually released (and 200? of Norma)

I think Norma was also 160 released outta 300.

Just my opinion, but I have had a couple bottles of Anna and a growler from the last couple months and the bottles were far superior. I honestly do not know if there was even a difference, but I got a lot more funk and fruit in the bottles based on what I remember. The bottled Anna is drinking great right now and I definitely recommend it to anyone that wants to get a good idea about what HF saisons are about (even the more straight forward ones).

I'm going to have my last bottle side by side with Ann hopefully. I'm not sure it will live up to the early hype, but I ahve no doubt it will be anything short of great.

So theres still 140 bottles sitting somewhere at hf? The way things are going on the trading board I wouldn't be surprised if some fools raid the place at night

"This too shall pass."

Today's Hill Farmstead is tomorrows Founders.

Ride that motherfucker!

In Shaun's personal "library/cellar", I believe.

Here's what confuses me. Anna is "amazing", Ann is "amazing", E. is "amazing", Damon is "amazing"..... how do I know which one is better?