The Fox Farm brewery in Salem, CT is located on a thirty acre farm. The building is a barn which was built in the 1960s, and for many decades was a small dairy operation.
After the dairy closed its doors, the barn began to deteriorate due to lack of use and poor upkeep.
In come Zack and Laura Adams, who purchased the land in 2012. The idea of a brewery was always on their minds.
Zack had won the 2012 Samuel Adams Longshot American Homebrew Contest with a batch of beer called Magnificent Seven IPA.
With a lot of planning and even more hard work, the barn now has been brought back to life.
Daylily is a double IPA. A double IPA, sometimes called an imperial ipa, is an American style that adds typically double or more hops than a typical IPA recipe.
It also requires more malts to balance out the beer. A higher alcohol by volume is a great side effect of those changes to the recipes.
IBUs typically around 100 or above and ABV levels start around 7.5% but usually 8% or higher.
This is a style that is not to be taken lightly.
Donated by a friend, Eric Wenzel, in a half gallon growler, when I sampled the beer it was only five days after being filled.
As the growler cap was turned it let out a little “psssst”. Obviously the beer was speaking to me, telling me to pay attention, that something special was about to happen.
It poured a nice cloudy straw gold color. Minimal head on this, but could definitely be attributed to coming from a growler.
The aroma was great, loaded with big tropical notes and the hops were also blasting through.
I wish they made a candle or car air freshener after Daylily double IPA!
This beer has been generously hopped with two waves of galaxy, simcoe, and mosaic. I personally find that the beers I most enjoy contain simcoe, almost every time.
So now it was time to taste this brew. This double IPA tasted so fresh,with a generous amount of hops present and also a nice blend of light tropical juiciness just as good as the aroma.
Gorgeous color, amazing aroma and ridiculous flavors make it almost a perfect score for me.
All this, and 8.1%, you have to be kidding me. Daylily was so well balanced, nothing in the beer was overdone.
In no way does this come off tasting like a big 8%+ beer. In a blind tasting I would think it was around a 6.5% ABV.
As you can see from our video on French Hawes Beer Reviews (embedded above), I knew I was going to write this one up here. It was that special of a brew.
Currently, Fox Farm is not canning, and a few special selections are bottled. The majority of their beers are poured fresh from the taps into growlers.
Fingers crossed that canning is in their future. The brewery is now at the top of my list to visit. Daylily double IPA is an absolute home run, a grand slam actually.
This is easily one of the best beers I’ve tasted to date.
- ABV: 8.1%
- IBU: 90
- Style: Double India Pale Ale
- Rating: 4.8/5
- Untappd Reviews
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