Smoke and Barrel Tavern Keeper Matt Heffernan hails from the Green Mountain state, and so when he took a recent vacation back to his homeland, he was sure to take a vehicle with a lot of carrying capacity with him.

Tonight, the #DCBrews community gets to reap the benefits of that trip because the Barrel will have Hill Farmstead Edward on tap as well as offerings from Rock Art and The Alchemist.

Hill Farmstead, for those who are unfamiliar, is a brewery that has been getting lots of acclaim recently. It’s a tiny brewery (just 1,500 BBLs a year) with a very limited distribution (mostly just locally in Vermont with a select few accounts in New York City and Boston). The brewery’s beers are extremely highly rated, and not a single one has an overall score of less than 90 on Ratebeer.

Smoke and Barrel will be tapping Edward, an American pale ale that is currently the third ranked beer in its style on Ratebeer. Hill Farmstead describes the beer by saying:

Edward (1917-2002) is our grandfather; Hill Farmstead Brewery rests upon the land that was once home to him and his five children. In his honor, this American Pale Ale is dutifully crafted from American malted barley, a plethora of American hops, our ale yeast and water from Edward’s well. It is unfiltered, naturally carbonated, and dry hopped. Aromatic and flowery, with impressions of citrus and pine, this is the ale that I dream to have shared with Edward.
Ingredients: Pale and Caramel malt; Cascade, Centennial, Chinook, Columbus, Simcoe, and Warrior hops; Ale Yeast, and our Well Water.
13ºP
85 IBUs
5.2% abv.

Sponsorship

Heffernan says that Shaun Hill told him that this batch of Edward was kegged less than a week ago, and that this is the first batch that Hill considers perfect since the brewhouse upgrade.

In addition to the Edward, cans of The Alchemist’s Heady Topper (the number seven double IPA according to Ratebeer) will be available; these were canned ten days ago. Bombers of Rock Art’s Vermonster (of energy drink litigation fame) and Black Moon will also be available.

The Edward will go fast, so get there for a bit of it if you’re an APA fan, and really, who isn’t?

Editor’s note and full disclosure: I recently became an employee of the Smoke and Barrel. Where applicable, I provided links to external sites above to back up the high ratings of the beers mentioned. Cheers!