Twelve Beers of Christmas - Night Ten

Hill Farmstead Juicy

(Batch 3/December 2016)

It was only a matter of time before I reached for my Hill Farmstead shelf to crack open something exciting from one of my favorite brewers around! I remember the journey to Hill the first time Juicy was released, it was one of the first times I planned a trip around a bottle release as usually I just would plan the trip and be happy with whatever would end up filling the hatchback on the 6 hour round trip jaunt through the lakes region of maine and over and through the white mountains of New Hampshire to land at the beauty that was, cough cough, is Hill Farmstead. Its funny how over the years getting to try every bottle and worrying about bottle limits and lines have taken the fun out of beer. I still thoroughly enjoy sipping some of the worlds finest beer but have learned to let them come to me and worry a lot less about the trivial aspects of the craft beer game. I remember this and many of my initial journeys to Hill Farmstead in 2011 when it was just Phil on growlers while Shaun was busy crafting brews all while the line of 5-10 people chatted, sampled and pried as much information about the beer and the upcoming release schedules for bottles, that they would be kind enough to share. 

In fact you can find my blog post about the journey to get my first bottle of Juicy HERE !

Luckily though I have not had time to make the journey over the past couple years I still have a decent selection of my favorite bottles to sip when I get the Hill Farmstead itch.

Juicy pours a deep copper orange color with two fingers of thick eggshell foam. The aromas are full of classic Hill farmstead funk mingled together with unripe pineapple spears, hints of rosemary, pine and thyme. The mouthfeel is supple but refreshing with nice balance of bitterness, funk and acidity. The vinous aspects linger with tannic citrus pith and glimpses of citrus and stonefruit linger in the  long unctuous finish! 

Dry hay & fieldgrass, tangerine peel, cherry pits, grapefruit peel, unripe nectarine, juniper, orange wine, citrus pith, golden raspberries, earthy hops, dried pine needles.