Samuel (1820-1899) was Edward’s great-uncle and Ephraim’s brother. Industrious and innovative, adventurous and kind-hearted, he was a Renaissance man who loomed large in 19th-century Greensboro life. As a carpenter and builder, he had a hand in constructing many of the houses that still stand in the area, and he helped lay the first road connecting Greensboro and Greensboro Bend. Like many of the family members for whom beers have been named, Samuel was a dairy farmer, and he developed and patented several new technologies to assist with milk cooling and cream separation. He was also one of many Vermonters who fought for the Union in the Civil War, participating in the Battle of Gettysburg.

Like the man himself, Samuel’s namesake beer is marked by its ability to evolve over time while maintaining its essence and vitality. Brewed with organic buckwheat and spelt, Vermont wildflower honey, and American and New Zealand hops, it rests in oak barrels for the duration of slowly changing seasons and then bottle conditions for between one and three years before release—although evidence demonstrates that it will continue to improve and mature for at least a decade, with an optimistic eye toward two decades.

With a robust raw grain backbone and a smooth, floral brightness, Samuel has its roots in Shaun’s attempts to harmonize and build upon two foundational Farmstead® ales—Le Sarrasin and Vera Mae. 

Brewed in June of 2013, Le Sarrasin was one of the first Hill Farmstead beers made with buckwheat, and observing its development provided Shaun with key insights into how the composite nature of raw grains can influence fermentation and the trajectory of bottle development during conditioning. Around this time, Shaun also began to modify Vera Mae’s barrel conditioning process, putting it in puncheons for the first time, allowing for the beer to achieve and display a new type of complexity and depth that stainless steel had not formerly provided.

“2013 was really a transformational year, where I started to learn a lot more about how to work with wood while, at the same time, I was coming to recognize the way that buckwheat, spelt, and other raw grains were working for us,” Shaun said. “So, I took what I learned from Vera Mae and Le Sarrasin and began to experiment with what became Samuel.”

Shaun brewed and filled two wine barrels with the first experimental batch of Samuel in October 2016 and incorporated it into Civil Disobedience 25, blended on January 26, 2018, and released in July 2019. In November of 2016, Shaun brewed Samuel again, bottling the first batch in December of 2017 and releasing it in February of 2019. In the years since, Samuel has been released annually, and the taproom periodically features select vintages.

2023 vintage Samuel is available by the glass in our taproom and in 750ml bottles for takeaway from the bottle shop.