Walden
Hill Farmstead Brewery

Draft at the Mad Taco. Cloudy golden pour, persistent thin white head. Bready, grainy aroma. Taste is malty, biscuity, bready, dry. Creamy, full feel.

 

Such a wonderful light easy drinking ale with lots of flavor and complexity of flavors. A perfect summer beer. Crisp and super clean finish as well. HF should make 15 packs of this beer!

Canned on 5/17/22; consumed on 6/24/22

Pours a barely translucent straw-gold body capped with just over two fingers of dense, fluffy, eggshell-white foam; good head retention leaves a sliver of creamy cap, a slight, frothy collar, and an array of chunky, webby lacing spread around the walls of the glass.

Aroma opens to grapefruit spritz accented with light jasmine, with a musty passionfruit subtly contrasting brightly floral overtones into an earthy malt profile presenting shades of white bread crust and fresh straw.

Taste of sweeter bread dough is overtaken with lemon zest and orange peel upfront, making way for notes of fresh grass and toasted white bread crusts over the mid-palate; a subtle jasmine interlude crosses the back end, resulting in undertones of dry moss across an increasingly floral finish.

Mouthfeel shows a medium-light body and a fuller carbonation, expressing a grassy bittering drying quickly over the mid-palate as a subtle wetness fades to taut crispness on the back end and moderate grit grazing the finish.

A vicidly floral bouquet tops off a quiet, bready crispness overwhelmwd with an earthy hop overlay, at once invigorating nuance and challenging the stylistic perceptions of a blonde ale; the refinements so common in Hill Farmstead namesake do bring the requisite balance to successfully override the more ambitious hopping initiative in this one.

 

 

On tap at Armsby Abbey. Listed at 3.7%. Session beer before driving. Literally drinks like a NEIPA, not sure how that’s possible.

Poured from a 16oz can stamped "canned 07/27/21, drink by 08/24/21", (oh well), to a Nonic at fridge temp.
Pours light orange haze with a 1/2" head with multi-sized bubbles. The head fade in a minute or so but lace nicely.
The citrus is strong with this one. Orange pith, lemonade all with a back ground of subtle must.
The citrus really hits in the taste. Its almost like the bitterness comes from citrus rind rather than hops, but its pleasant.
Mouthfeel is rather light. I think it would be a detriment to the "lemonade effect" if it were creamier.
Another excellent beer from HF.

 

16oz. can into a Founders snifter.

Great head. Hazy but at least this is more of an appropriate style for it. I get citrus, lemon zest, pineapple, papaya, and grass on the nose. Rather subtle. Beer opens spicy. I get peppercorn and clove up front. Citrus, a dry astringency, and lime in the back. Dry finish and aftertaste of citrus peel, bark, and grass. Body is light with ample carbonation. Prickly and lively on the palate and goes down aggressive and quenching. Bone dry finish.

Very good and on the hoppier end of the blondes I've had.

 

 

 

Canned 2 weeks ago.

L — Moderately hazy golden orange body with 1.5 fingers of solid white head produced with moderate pour. Decent retention and minimal lacing
S — Mostly grassy, earthy, piney hop character accentuated by a bit of dried citrus peel and garden herbs. Smells clean, dry, and refreshing
T — Quite dry with only a bit of crackery malt character to hold up the zippy grassy/earthy/peppery hop presence that is surprisingly robust for the ABV. Bit of a buttery diacetyl note coming through too, unfortunately, which docks a bit in terms of flavor
F — Medium- mouthfeel, medium+ carb. Highly refreshing and quaffable, with a level of minerality that is through the roof
O — The most lackluster offering I’ve had from HF to date, but this is still solid, especially for a blonde ale

76/100

Very solid blonde ale. Good hoppiness and a great yellowish color. Drunk from a 16 ounce can directly from the brewery. Solid foam and great to drink this.

 

poured from a 16oz can into a willi becher pint glass. pours a semi-hazy yellow with quite a lot of fluffy white head. foam clings to the glass heavily and leaves a ton of lacing as the beer is consumed. nose is lemon-forward with a subtle hoppiness to it. has that trademark HF soapy smell to it. and i don’t mean that in a negative way at all. taste is very similar. lemon, orange, subtle hops; almost has a slight must taste and smell to it. not funky or sour in the least. really light and refreshing yet full of flavor and extremely satisfying. feel is probably the highlight of this beer as it has a lower carb thickness to it that i can’t get over. exceptional mouthfeel for such a small beer. overall, very impressed with this. great for the warm weather setting in and i’d also throw in a vote to wine barrel-age this as they have done with a few of their other hoppy offerings.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This one pours a very hazy light yellow color, with a small head and lots of lacing.

This smells like citrus, lemony hops, honey and pine.

This is super full flavored for the lower ABV, with a great dry bitterness and a heavy juicy bitterness. There’s a bit of biscuity malt character, too.

This is light bodied and super crisp, with a great level of drinkability and crisp level of carbonation.

This is as good as it gets when it comes to session beers.

 

 

Tall can thanks to Eric - very refreshing

 

Pours a hazy golden but not in the NEIPA way, but in the more traditional, chill haze/oily hops way. It's not proteiny looking at all. A little lemon and strawberry on the nose. It's dry with a touch of lemon limey citrus and pith. It's got a level of crispness in it that keeps it as the type of beer you want to drink on a warm day.

 

 

 

 

It's HF, I haven't had a bad beer from them, and this is on par with thier standards!