September 29, 2012

Hill Farmstead 2012 Harvest Festival – Recap w/ Pics

Dan Events, Festivals, Hill Farmstead Brewery 0

Our friend Kyle got to do what many of us enthusiasts dreamed of doing last weekend: attending Hill Farmstead’s 2012 Harvest Festival. Read Kyle’s well thought out recap along with some pictures capturing the vibe of the day. Cheers

It’s only an 800 mile drive to Greensboro Bend, Vermont from Ann Arbor, Michigan, but when you’re looking to enjoy some of the best crafted beers in the country, distance is no concern. Having visited the area for the first time in May for Hill Farmstead’s Second Anniversary Party, I knew what I was getting into and I couldn’t wait to be back. A pilgrimage back to Hill Farmstead was in order last week after managing to score some VIP tickets for their annual Harvest Festival.

Hosted at the brewery, the festival celebrates the harvest season through live music, local food and world-class beer. Attendees can camp for the weekend and sample many of Shaun Hill’s offerings from elegant saisons to bold imperial stouts. There’s even a chance to win limited run bottles for donating canned goods to the local food pantry.

The incredible list of beers poured during the weekend would satisfy any discerning palate. Limited to seventy-five tickets, the VIP party the Friday night before the fest featured some of the more rare draught offerings as well as food catered by Mad Taco and Jasper Hill Cellars. Small batch blends like Abner without Principle, Ephraim, Society, and Solitude and Civil Disobedience 4.5 were flowing alongside such guest taps as Jackie O’s Paw Paw Berliner Weisse, Cigar City Dirac, Virtue Cider Redstreak, and Cantillon Rose de Gambrinus.

Saturday welcomed many more visitors to Greensboro Bend with 500 Harvest Fest tickets sold out and hundreds of people eager to pick up growlers of Ephraim, an intensely hopped imperial IPA at over 10% ABV, and various bottles from the retail shop. Cases of Arthur, Everett, and growlers of Society and Solitude 5–the newest experimental double IPA in the series–weighed travelers’ cars down unmercifully.

Festival day taps included Arthur, Abner, Edward, and Simcoe along with rotating taps of Ephraim, Society and Solitude 5, Florence, Holger Danske, Vera Mae, Clara, Riwaka, James, and finally, limited timed releases of Fear and Tembling Bourbon Blend, Birth of Tragedy, and Art.

Recently tweaked summer saisons such as Vera Mae and Arthur were noticeably more complex, tart, and sour due to a newly cultivated house yeast working it’s magic. Meanwhile, the more malt forward beers like Birth of Tragedy and Fear and Trembling were more subdued from age. Art and Arthur stole the show for me with their soft construction and complex flavors you can dream of drinking all day long.

Things started to wrap up by early evening and after five hours of beer pouring at the fest, people started retreating back to their campsites to share beer and continue the fun. Thankfully, the weather cooperated for the majority of the festival. Plenty of angry, dark shaded clouds teased the sky, but waited until nightfall to unload on campers. Those still around were too preoccupied in sampling more delicious nectar than to worry about the rain though.

Shaun Hill and the entire staff at the festival deserve a lot of thanks for running such a successful event. Hill Farmstead isn’t the most convenient place to enjoy a beer, but it makes it easy to visit when there’s an assortment of exceptional beer to experience one after the other on a beautiful landscape. The passion, creativity and hard work can be seen and tasted in Greensboro Bend.