BREWERY: Free Will Brewing Company
STYLE: IPA
ABV: 6.6%
PURCHASE: Draft (pint), $6.00
SERVING: Chilled pint glass. Perfect 3/4-inch high crown. Much better than average retention.
APPEARANCE: Beautiful light-gold body with a spongy white head. A little translucent. Not a lot of visible bubbling. Excellent lacing.
AROMA: Hops (surprise, surprise) with citrus notes of grapefruit and lemon rind. Possible tease of orange, possible tease of caramel (likely a placebo effect at work). Hint of malt and grain. Floral.
TASTE: One of the smoothest IPAs I've had in a while. Medium body that leans slightly in the direction of heavy. Carbonation is initially mellow and only becomes sharp if held unusually long. Avoids the typical IPA trap of too much hoppiness. Nice crescendo of both hops and citrus notes, with the citrus--again, primarily grapefruit and lemon--carrying the aftertaste. Not overly complex, but very well balanced.
MUSINGS AND METAPHORS: Sometimes there's strength in simplicity. This brew doesn't try to do a whole lot. But what it does, it does well.
What I really liked about this IPA is not only that it didn't over-rely on hops, but it also didn't have what I call that "artificial sweetener" quality in the aftertaste that so many others seem to have these days. It's what separates the great IPAs from the rest of the pack.
Free Will Brewing, from Perkasie, Pennsylvania, in upper central Bucks County, brews 13--yes, 13--IPAs, comprising almost half their entire lineup. They have a tap room in the popular outdoor shopping center known as Peddler's Village, in Lahaska, which is roughly 15 miles to the east, and only a few miles west of the Delaware River. If you're in the area, I highly recommend checking it out.
GRADE: A-
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