(Greensboro, VT) – A new Vermont brewery ships out its first beer on Monday.

Hill Farmstead Brewery will make its first impression on Vermonters on Tuesday with the release of what is expected to be its “only true year-round beer,” Edward India Pale Ale. In a way, the brewery has been in the making for years, the completion of a circle that began in Vermont, crossed through Belgium and Denmark, and landed right back in the Green Mountain State.

Shaun Hill is the well-learned brewer at the helm of Hill Farmstead. The Burlington Press detailed his travels in a story last month:

“Hill’s exploration of beer after college included home brewing as well as stints at Trout River Brewing in Lyndonville and The Shed in Stowe [both in VT], where he spent two years as head brewer. A couple of trips to Europe, however, greatly shaped his view of brewing: one six years ago to the beer Mecca of Belgium, where he sampled that nation’s famed lambics and saisons; and a 20-month stint in Denmark where he worked at a trio of breweries, including one, Grassroots Brewing, that he started himself and that continues to operate under a new brewer (the Belgian and Danish flags hanging in Hill’s brewery pay homage to both nations).”

It was actually one of those three Danish breweries, Nørrebro Bryghus, where Hill earned some of his greatest accolades. Three of the barrel-aged beers that he crafted won medals (two golds and a silver) earlier this month at the World Beer Cup. Steve Koenemann of the Hop Press took tasting notes of the three winners and a few others at an event earlier this year.

Six months removed from his time in Denmark, another chapter now begins for Hill. So far he has brewed two IPAs, Edward and Abner (named after his grandfather and great grandfather, respectively), and The Bird’s Eye Maple Smoked Baltic Porter. More info about the availability of those two IPAs and the opening of a retail shop, can be found on the Hill Farmstead blog. He’s also got some Saisons and other things up his sleeve:

“Mitch Steele is coming through, while researching for he and Steve Wagner’s “IPA book” and we’re discussing an unofficial Black IPA collaboration. In Denmark, Ryan is hammering out the details of a Cigar City collaboration while we also finalize the details of a special Grassroots/Mikkeller collab for the Italian beer market. Our Grassroots Citra IPA and Double IPA will hit Copenhagen and Italy within the coming weeks. I’m also working on the details of the sour barrel project with Chad Yakobson and should begin brewing the first of that release series by next weekend.”

Additional details from Hill . . .

On the brewing system: “It’s approximately a 9HL (900L) brewhouse – all pieced together from different sources. We try to finish with slightly more than 7 barrels worth of beer at the end of the process – if we could source some larger fermenters, we could produce 10 barrels worth of beer on this system.”

On the subject of hops: “We’re using many different hops in the brewery itself – and every beer has a different profile. As a whole, we tend to use a lot of Simcoe as a backbone, and build off of it with Centennial, Columbus, Chinook, and Nugget.”

On the IPAs (are these similar to the IPAs from your previous gigs? What influenced the recipes?): “These beers are similar in spirit to all of those beers – but my own vision and understanding of what is or should be has changed dramatically since then. The closest approximation of anything else that I have done would be the beers coming out of the Grassroots Project in Denmark – which was no doubt an offspring of everything that came before… I suppose I’m influenced by everything (ie. great beers and great brewers) around me – anything that shapes or refines my palette also redefines my beers.”

On the sour barrel project: “We’re discussing different organisms in different barrels in a scientific method. Different strains of Brettanomyces coupled with a similar backbone of Lacto and Pedio but in different variations, different oaks, different treatments… also, configuring how to proceed with the spontaneous fermentation and how to capture the local terroir. We’re going to be using organic malted barley and organic raw wheat from a local farm in Northern Vermont as the basis for the spontaneous project – should be interesting to say the least. Chad [Yakobson] is providing the Brettanomyces strains and we’re working together in order to experiment with different treatments, organisms, mashing schedules, coolship techniques, etc in order to basically turn this into a science project and further our own knowledge and understanding… stepping beyond the laboratory (flasks and autoclaves) and into the field (oak barrels and terroir)…”