Quote:
Originally Posted by TimBone
So, with all the talk about Hill Farmstead around here, I found this in Lafayette this afternoon, and bought it knowing nothing about it. It's a saison collab between Hill Farmstead and The Braugies brewery in Belgium. La Vermontoise is the name. Anybody know anything about it?
Also, how do collabos work? I've seen quite a few of them in the past. Do both breweries brew their own with assistance from the other brewery? Or do they brew together and split batches? I saw a collabo between three breweries last year, and they all three put out their own releases. |
Here's how this collaboration worked -- I know because I've been to Brasserie de Blaugies during a brewday for this beer:
Shaun Hill of Hill Farmstead went to Blaugies to brew the first batch with the Carlier family of Blaugies. Essentially it is a buckwheat saison (Blaugies specializes in old-school rustic grainbills in their traditional farmhouse ales). It absolutely tastes like a Blaugies beer, particularly like Saison d'Epeautre (their classic spelt saison which Shaun loves so much), only it uses Amarillo hops. The Amarillo hop schedule was Shaun's major contribution to the beer.
In this sense it tastes like Boulevard Tank 7 if Tank 7 were brewed more traditionally (weird grains, complete dryness). It's an awesome beer. Blaugies brews it once a year now.
It doesn't at all taste like a Hill Farmstead saison, for what its worth. It's a Blaugies beer all the way. So expect a beautifully dry beer with slightly brackish water and not something with lactic sourness and that smooth Hill Farmstead well water.