Crisply cryogenic Citra-Cashmere hop combo forwards spritzy (Citra-like) orange peeled tangerine tang to gin-soaked (Cashmere-like) green mango, gooseberry, guava and papaya tartness. Vanilla-daubed oated wheat creaming secures lightly pined tropical fruiting (as well as tertiary dried apricot-cherry snips).
Musky straw-yellowed Czech-styled lager brings hay-like barnyard leathering and herbal hopped lemon rot to pilsner-grained alfalfa meadow sidling sourdough breading.
Not discernible as a Canadian-style lager unless light, crisp and politely pilsner malted is all that’s expected. Clean watered lemon spritz fizzles for light herbal hop musk, dried maize phase and mild floral spicing.
LAHASKA, PENNSYLVANIA
In the storybook town of Lahaska at Peddlers Village, FREE WILL BREWING set up a nifty taproom October 2016 – four years after its initial facility opened January ’12. Its white-marbled tile floor contrasts the bar area’s tin-foiled brown ceiling tiles and the white book shelving adds to the quaint charm.
A small serving station with twelve taps supplies the wood tables and private mirrored side room. A front deck overlooks Peddlers Village.
My wife and I grab seats at the green back window to engage in a confectionery nightcap while enjoying the Winter Lights & Ice Sculpture show on a cold Saturday evening, January ’25.
Wintry Snowdrift Mint Chocolate Stout certainly delivered the goods as refreshingly sharp green mint menthol leafing surged alongside chewy dark chocolate richness, perfectly emulating a Junior Mint or Peppermint Patty candy bar.
Caramel apple-glazed brandy entry greets beet-sugared dark fruiting and cellared fungi musk of a Belgian quad as bourbonized molasses drapes fig, date, raisin and dark cherry pleasantries soaking into cognac-sweetened vanilla midst. Perfect brandywine-barreled nightcap.
Offbeat sour saison peculiarity aged on oak with spruce tips (!) utilizes mixed culture brettanomyces yeast funk to add ammonia strength to dry lemon-limed parch, champagne sparkle and ambitious herbal spiced foraging underscored by acidulated wheat. Minty spruce tips amplify zesty lemony white wining as capacious pink peppercorn, fern, thyme, fennel, tarragon, dill, cardamom and mustard seed illusions penetrate musky mineralized rusticity.
Fine variation on brewers’ Charcuterie IPA features sweet ‘n sour apricot tartness and lemony Citra-Mosaic hop dryness. Syrupy apricot sweetness dominates mid-palate to contrast oncoming citrus-soured pineapple, passionfruit and mandarin orange undertones.
Elegant oak-aged brown ale successfully expands upon Free Will’s Coffee Oatmeal Brown Ale with yummy rum dousing. Rich tawny-browned full body adds coffee beans to molasses and cane sugar while aging in Caribbean rum barrels. Mellow spiced rum warmth serenely sweetens persuasive dark-roast coffee overtones and polite whiskey snip. Ancillary black chocolate, dark cocoa and pina colada illusions swing by the molasses-sapped oats spine of rummy dessert treat.
On tap at Cooper’s Seafood, inspired by popular Speculoos cookie, vibrant Imperial English brown ale evenly spreads cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg spicing across vanilla-creamed gingerbread cookie sweetness and brown-sugared caramel malting to its oats-honeyed Graham Cracker spine. A buttery nut cookie alternative.
On tap at Poor Henry’s, “assertive West Coast India Pale Ale” allows tangy grapefruit-pineapple-orange-mango glisten to gain affluence above resinous piney bitterness and mineral-grained pale malting. Lemon zest brightens floral-spiced sweetness. Brisk citra hops framed by carbolic Seltzer-like fizz. In the can, pristinely clean-watered “assertive hop-forward” barrage brings juicy orange-peeled grapefruit, pineapple, mango and peach tang as well as zesty lemon licks to sticky hemp-oiled hop pungency above mild rye breaded spine. Lingered citric acidity recedes as pine-combed bark dryness and floral accents increase.
PERKASIE, PENNSYLVANIA
Perched between Philly to the south and Allentown to the north, Bucks County’s rural industrial village of Perkasie blends old farmhouses with small mills outside its red-bricked downtown perimeter. Inside a basement warehouse, FREE WILL BREWING CO. opened for business during January 2012.
Originating at a tiny 800 square foot garage before moving into its current spacious 8,600 square foot Walnut Street walkdown, Free Will now sells a heap of growlers, kegs and bottles to the surrounding community.
Established by brewmaster John Stemler and managing partner Dominic Capece, the capacious microbrewery serves free samples to walk-in customers at its raw, cement-floored, 14-draught tasting room. The windowed left side brew tanks occupy only half the remaining space but expansion seems imminent.
Stopping by mid-January ’14 in the late afternoon, I got to enjoy healthy 6-ounce samplers as the place filled up quickly with enthusiastic local minions and travelling beer geeks like myself.
Tasting room manager, Michael Standish, offered friendly tidbits and helpful flavor illusions concerning each beer. He claimed, “I’m a Scotch and bourbon man by heart, but now I also enjoy the art of drinking craft beers.”
His favorite Free Will offering, 7 Course Red, an easygoing Irish-styled medium body, brought roasted coffee and sweet chocolate to wispy caramel-spiced red fruiting.
A few more soft-toned brews captured my attention thereafter.
Destiny’s Wit, a reliable Belgian white ale, scattered mild white-peppered orange and lemon peel bittering across coriander-spiced candi-sugared Belgian yeast and banana-chipped lemon meringue pie.
Another well-rounded moderation, Saison De Rose, gathered lemony pink grapefruit, black-peppered pink peppercorn and ginger-leafed hibiscus for its herbaceous floral-fruited climax.
Despite loading 200-plus IBU’s and 10% alcohol volume into its soft-toned veneer, Sputnik 17 Chasing The Dragon managed to stay deceivingly laid-back for a full-on India Pale Ale. Tropical yellow-pink grapefruit, pineapple and lemon pick up grassy-hopped peach-pear-apple undertones.
Based on the second grain runnings of Black Friday Belgian Quad (an apple brandy-barreled elixir), Sputnik 20 worked well as a hybridized English bitter with crisply clean mineral watering countering earthen dewy musk and murky mocha mustiness.
After these libations, I bought a 6-pack of fabulous Free Will C.O.B. (Coffee Oatmeal Brown), a nutty coffee-ground roasted dark ale with dry pale-malted hop bitterness contrasting dark chocolate, vanilla, hazelnut and molasses tones (reviewed fully in Beer Index).