About a year ago, a small group of us started talking about doing a HF-themed tasting. We finally got it organized and opened some wonderful bottles yesterday. Much thanks to
SocalKicks,
BngrngRufio,
ThePerk,
angry_lobster,
JonathanAmes,
LSUPT,
SmartyPints,
benbikes4beer,
Sage,
stanmarsh,
phantastiic,
dannyboy, and others not on TB for carving out the time, sharing some great beers, and making this happen!
Some highlights:
Anna vs Ann vs CD11: Ann is admittedly a phenomenal beer, and the soft wine character really opened up as it warmed. At the same time, I have to admit that the barrel-character was much subtler than I imagined it'd be. In comparison, CD11 had a brighter, citrus funk that was great as well.
Art vs Arthur: Art had a more pronounced wine character that also provided a soft finish vs. Arthur. Arthur is probably my favorite of the base HF saisons, so I was surprised that Art was actually noticeably better.
Florence vs Flora b6 vs Flora Cuvee: I have to admit I enjoyed this bottle of Flora b6 much more than previously as the plasticky-off flavor I've tasted before seems to have cleaned up. Flora Cuvee had a more prevalent earthy and oaky character in comparison.
Flora Fruits: Flora Plum was my favorite of the fruited variants as the plum was well balanced with a pleasantly tart finish. Flora Blueberry became incredibly wine-like as it warmed up. Flora Cherry had a pleasant spice character but I wasn't a fan of the finish (I picked up a bit of the bandaid-y flavor). Flora Blue/Black is still not very good.
CD15 vs Mimosa: Two completely different beers (not surprising though given how old Mimosa is). The mango and tropical character of CD15 shined as it warmed up. Mimosa was actually opened blind and most people guessed it was a Biere de Garde of some sort (not surprising given the ABV). It did still have a nice bright character with a hint of citrus, but I imagine it was better years ago.
The Lily: My favorite out of all the beers we opened and one I had really hoped to try someday. The grape character was sublime and I felt it was very well balanced (I've never had it fresh before). Simply an incredible treat.
The full line-up:
Other random thoughts/observations:
- Le Sarrasin, CD10, and CD14 were all great as expected.
- I was surprised by how much I liked Sue. It had a lemon zesty quality that was very refreshing.
- The HF BA Maple Syrup is super delicious. We took sips of it on its own and had fun blending it with the various stouts/porters we had on hand (hooray for adjuncts!).
- As others have stated before, the rarest HF beers really aren't worth emptying your cellar for considering the shelf saisons are already world-class and the barrel-aged variants don't improve upon them as much as one would think.
Thanks again to everyone for the great beers and even better company!
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