Barrel Heart ‘A Farmhouse Near’ (6.6%)

After overseeing the early October judging of the 2023 Canada Beer Cup, I wound up with a bottle of a recent release from Barrel Heart, veteran brewer and mixed fermentation specialist Mark Horsley’s “expression of love & oak’ brewery and barrel house operating out of Ancaster, Ontario. Since I’ve been uniformly impressed by pretty much everything I have yet sampled from Barrel Heart, I thought it a suitable candidate for review here even before I uncapped the bottle.

(As an aside, I love the mini-trend of breweries having ‘purpose statements,’ or whatever you might call them, such as the one above for Barrel Heart or Godspeed’s “made with struggle and love.” We need more of those.)

A Farmhouse Near is described as a bière de coupage, which is (obviously) a French term referencing a blend of older beers ‘cut’ with younger, fresher ones. While the phrase describes more a process than a style, the Barrel Heart interpretation does follow the modern conceit of blending of older and younger saisons, the fresh saison having been hopped with Nelson Sauvin from New Zealand, and the older beer aged in oak for sixteen months and hopped with French Strisselspalt.

Quite pale gold in colour, this effervescent brew sports a bright and vibrant aroma that deftly mixes elements of both component beers, fresh gooseberry and lemon from the younger saison and peppery spice and oak from the senior beer. Pulling it all together is a mild acidity and very soft hint of barnyard, just enough to keep things interesting.

On the palate, this is bright refreshment through and through, introducing itself with an appetizing mix of lemon juice and fresh pear before developing a bit of a tropical fruit character in the mid-palate, accented by the gooseberry of the Nelson Sauvin hops, for certain, but also offering hints of pineapple and papaya alongside subtle white pepper spiciness. The finish is dry and impressively quenching, with slightly tart pear notes lingering.

Although I’m drinking it on a dreary mid-November afternoon, A Farmhouse Near has transported me to a sunny spring day, just hot enough to suggest summer’s approach, and put me in mind of fresh bread and soft cheeses. And that, dear reader, makes it a beer more than worthy of pursuit.  

86 ($16/750 ml from the brewery)