Ella
Free Will Brewing Co.

Tastes more like an old whiskey barrel than any Quad.
Sadly disappointed.
This beer has nothing good going for it in my opinion.
All I taste & smell is sweet booze, and not in a good way.
Smells like the day after a bachelor party. Taste is the same.
This is up there on the worst beers list for me.
2017 vintage drank in 2023.
After warming, I have to say this tastes like an apple brandy barleywine more than a quad.
Warming to room temperature did it no favors.

2017 vintage, drank in 2017

Poured this from a bottle purchased from the brewery. Poured into a tulip glass. Reddish dark brown color with with thin white head and good lacing. Apple brandy smell and taste. Flavors of pear, toffee, caramel and molasses. Warm spices, cinnamon and some vanilla. Warming and comforting! Easy to drink at 13.7%!

 

Pours a haze filled dark brown. Like apple butter looking. A finger of off white head.

Nose is big, boozy, barrel aged woodiness. It's bright. Not quite what you would get from a bourbon barrel aging.

Taste has got that bitter, spiciness that comes with quads. Malt presence is strong too, kind of blurring the line between barleywine and quad. Get some dark fruits. Fig and prune, as well as some apple. It doesn't seem very complex or deep.

Mouthfeel is medium bodied with medium carbonation.

Overall its a bit unwieldy. Perhaps this can is a little old, but this seems to just lack depth and complexity that I would expect from a brew like this. Not bad, but not exceptional.

Fig and orange variant

Welcome to my I CAN Only Tell You That I Am Drinking These New Beers This Sunday of My Own Free Will Before CANother Flashback Begins (Week 767)! It is all being done in the name of science and in the furtherance of The CANQuest (tm).

From the 2018 CAN: "Belgian Style Quad Ale Aged In Apple Brandy Barrels"; "A complex beer with notes of dried fruit such as fig, apple, and raisin. Featuring a caramel & biscuit malt profile with molasses and vanilla undertones and a semi-sweet finish."; "Aged 1 year."; "C[AN]ned: Oct. 2018"; "Liquid and Friends First"; "FOBAB 2015 Gold Winner (under former name)[,] 2016 Bronze Winner".

Like everyone else, I do not expect The Spanish InCANsition, but in this case, I did NOT expect it to spurt across my fingertips when Crack!ing open the vent of the lid! It was a brimful craft CAN of one of the biggest CANned beers in my memory. 8=O I bowed down in the direction of Perkasie before beginning a quick C-Line Glug to get things started. When a CAN is that full, I CAN only tell you that I have had dribbling difficulties in the past & this is the only known method to cirCANvent them. It foamed but briefly, forming a quick finger of fizzy, foamy, light-tan head that suddenly dissipated to wisps, leaving only a ghostly memory in its wake. Color was a Coppery-Brown (SRM = > 17, < 22) with NE-quality clarity & ruby highlights. 8=O Nose smelled (especially) of apples, but imprecisely. I would not have guessed apple brandy on my own, but in thinking of it, I have had both J. W. Lees' Calvados-aged & CAPT Lawrence's Golden Delicious beers previously. I should have caught it. 8=( Warming, it took on the qualities of a caramel apple! I have not had one in a long time, nor do I plan to. I had to have an old amalgam filling from my childhood replaced a couple/few years ago & the expense was stunning! I have NO desire to rip out a filling eating caramel. It also held the musty newspapers from the attic quality imparted by so many Belgian yeast strains. Mmm. Mouthfeel was only medium, at best. I was expecting/hoping for a bigger presence. Let that be my biggest bugaboo with this one & I am home free! I let it roll around in my mouth, warming as I closed my eyes & took a deep breath. Lots of dried fruit, primarily apples, but raisins, also. Figs & dates emerged slowly as a fusel alcohol burn beCAN to simmer. Phew! Okay. I guess that I won't be slugging this one down, eh, slugger? Or are you Sluggo, you slug?!? Man, that opened up the sinuses real good & caused my eyes to water! Phew. Having determined that some in-mouth warming is good while too much CAN be hazardous, I am CANtinuing on.

The seCANd go-'round was MUCH smoother with things really smoothing out quickly. For insCANce, when I took Psych classes as a Related Study (Pitt does not have Minors), I learned that the optimal brain looks like a walnut shell, with deep grooves throughout. I am attempting to make mine as smooth as a bowling ball! The angles of my kitchen were likewise smoothing out as I went to the cupboard for some Smooth peanut butter. Smooth jazz beCAN to play on YouTube.

Speaking of peanut butter, a classic moment in my teaching career came during a discussion of the merits of smooth vs. chunky p.b. I had the reluctant learners, Vo-Tech & others, along with some hardcore gang kids, but we all respected one another, given my background. Well, one of them pipes up, "It's chunky for me, Mr. C.! I really dig the feel of nuts in my mouth!" OMFG!We were taught, as beginning teachers, to take everything that they students utter as though it were the word of God & to NEVER laugh, no matter how silly or ridiculous. I had to leave the room as his classmates erupted in laughter, guffaws & catcalls. LOL.

 

Pouring from a 12 oz can into a prairie Dino tasting glass, this beer pours out like a deep, burnt caramel. It forms bubbles that are khaki throughout the pour but doesn’t really decide to settle into a true crown.

The nose brings beautiful dark fruit covered in booziness. Everything from raisins, dates, figs and green apples. Amazing fig Newton like “crust/cookie” aroma. Alcohol definitely present with a burn. Barrel shows dry oak.

The taste comes in beautifully as well. Almost reminds me more of a barleywine than a true quad, but either way I’m loving it. Melted caramel, toffee, underlying vanilla. That fig Newton crust presence comes back for an appearance before turning into the warmth of the alcohol. You definitely know this is made of something. Dry oak, leather, fig Newton without the fruit dryness.

Overall, this is an amazingly made brew. And that fig Newton cookie crust presence is amazing to me. I can smell it, taste it and feel it. Damn.

 

 

Pours a maroon brown shade like many quads. Nose is one dimensional, but heavy scents of caramel and toffee diffuse up the olfactory nerve. Strong malty presence in the mouth, lots of caramel then some more with a nice apple finish trending toward a sweet apple pie. Belgian yeast flavors are muted, this beer is very malt forward with the barrel hitting consistently throughout. Was expecting something different here, but the 14.7 ABV is nowhere to be found. If you told me this was an imperial brown ale aged in apple brandy barrels it would make more sense. Still very nice drinking, will enjoy my four pack

 

 

Pours a blood-tinted amber brune color with a finger of light tan head that fizzes away into a paper-thin crown almost instantly.

Plum, fig, caramel, toffee, vanilla, cream, light apple, light must and light alcohol all show in the nose.

Tart caramel apple stands out more in the taste, but it’s not over-the-top, kept in check by some woody notes and some stale hop bitterness. Creamy caramel and vanilla is present again; some raisin and fig, too; and there’s warming alcohol in the finish.

Medium bodied with strong carbonation.

It’s a fine take on a style defined by world class examples. The apple is a nice addition without being too strong.