What is Valley Beer?

We’ve been brewing “sour farmhouse” style beer for a little while now, and we think it’s important, and fun, to talk about what we really mean when we say “farmhouse ale.” The style is vague and sometimes used almost interchangeably with other Belgian-inspired beers. For us, the most interesting part of a very old tradition of small, local brewing, especially in the Belgian tradition of great saisons, grisettes, and other farmhouse ales, is the ability of breweries to develop what we call a “house character.”

A house character in beer is the signature of the brewery itself. It’s a reflection of brewing processes, ingredients, fermentation, blending styles and so on. It’s refined by patience and time, and it can represent the attitude, the style, and the ambitions of a brewery and its brewers.

While we work hard to carry our house character into all of our farmhouse ales (and to an extent into all of our beer), we think of Valley Beer as a distilled version of our work in the barrel program. It’s often the base beer for our other sour farmhouse ales, but on its own it’s a blend of the barrels that best represent our “house character.” It’s tart, funky, nuanced, and always in balance. It’s bright, delicate, and pretty. We hope you like it.

Valley Beer will be released on Friday, October 27th at Hudson Valley Brewery beginning at 5:00pm.