Flowers Infusion

Willibrew Flowers Infusion
1 5oz sampler, 6.8% ABV

Purchased at Willibrew, Willimantic

willBREWS1_5”Creative.” That’s a word that never really applied to beer or brewers until maybe a decade ago. These days, more and more craft brewers are getting more and more creative.

(And more and more macrobreweries are getting more and more creative with pretending to be creative. Credit where credit is due.)

And sometimes, some brewers get a little carried away with their creativity and bludgeon us with stuff like cannoli or hot chile beer. There is a very happy medium and Willibrew found it years ago. These days, they are simply perfecting their creative vision.

Seriously, read the following description…

Willibrew says:
“Unfiltered French farmhouse beer brewed with Sterling and Hallertau hops and enhanced with Hibiscus, Calendula, Chamomile, Lavender, and Rosebud flowers.”

Sounds… delicious…? To me, no, not really. But that’s why we live this crazy thing called life – to experience new things and open our eyes (and palates) up to things we’ve not known before.

This. Beer. Is. Great. I see they change the flowers in the mix (slightly) from batch to batch, but I’m sure it turns out nearly the same. It is a floral beer, yes, but when we talk about floral IPA’s, that’s a good thing. So why not a floral saison(ish) beer?

The saison style really lends itself to this sort of thing. They have that unique sweet tartness already, right? Right. I’m not sure the Belgians or French would be on board with this beer, but that’s okay.

All this talk of “Flowers” and “creativity” forces me to bring up the current (2013) situation with Flower Street in Hartford. In short, Governor Malloy’s much maligned busway from New Britain to Hartford needs to cross Flower Street. For those who don’t know, Flower connects Broad to Farmington. It’s a fairly important pedestrian route from Aetna and the Courant building to parking lots and local businesses.

The busway is slated to eliminate that walking/biking route entirely. The city doesn’t seem to care, nor does the Courant via its editorials on the hot button topic. (Those same editorials forget to mention the concessions the Courant got from the project… or so I’ve heard.)

Skip everything and just read my friend Kerri’s articles on her unmatched site, Real Hartford, on the Flower Street issue. Here’s a good start.

So what’s the solution? “Creativity” in the form of the most ridiculous looking conceptual piece of art I’ve ever seen:

hc-busway-transportation-project-pkg-001

Note: this monstrosity probably won’t happen, but still. Look at that thing.

Overall Rating: A
Rating vs. Similar style: A
Beer Advocate’s Reviews of the Flowers Infusion
Willibrew
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