Crisper
Free Will Brewing Co.

Determined by a pour from a pint can into a clear glass Imperial pint mug, this is a cloudy dark amber. There's some nice sticky and enduring head that's contrastingly white. The aroma has a fruitiness to its sweetness, unusual for the style. It has a more pronounced taste from many other Kolsches, which tend to be more subtle. Opposite of the head, there's almost no glass lacing. Rather bitter and yet more malty than most, this drinks more like an outright ale than the hybrid it strives to me. That doesn't make it bad, but part of rating this will hurt because of comparisons to others in the style.

Pretty thin and underwhelming.
Nothing off putting or wrong, but just not much to it.
It was a bargain find, so for what I payed it's OK.
Would not go out of my way for it.

Pours gold with a lot of foam into a pint glass. Smell is malts, honey and grass. Taste is herbal, lemon, honey and malts. I little on the fizzy side but a nice example of the style.

Crisp, clean and a bit of honey. Poured from a can into a tulip glass. Nice head and good lacing, nice clear yellow color. Pleasant grassy smell and taste.

Poured from a 16 oz. can. Looks light gold, white head falling to a collar and an island of foam. A quick swirl brings the head back. Decent carbonation bubbles rising up. A bit cloudy...not hazy, but a bit cloudy for the style. Smell is a bit of grain and some herbal noble hops. Taste is grapeish hints up front, herbal hops clean it up, finish is pretty dry and crisp. Not a lot of flavors linger. It's pretty clean. Body is light, carbonation is light, really easy to drink. Overall, Free Will did a good job with this beer. A nice, easy drinking beer that doesn't sacrifice flavor. Low ABV so you can have a couple. I like this one for summer BBQ season.

16 oz can, dated less than 2 weeks ago

Clear, light golden color, white head. Well named, nice and clean and crisp flavor. Pale malt, a little grainy, very mild flowery hops in there too. Thinner bodied.

 

16 oz. can poured into a ‘becher.

Pale gold in color this beer is rather cloudy for a kolsch but has a nice sticky white head and is lively in the glass. The nose is moderately strong, grainy and features floral hops and lemon. Taste is fairly dry and hop forward with light floral hops, bread and lemon flavors leaving a small bitter aftertaste. Medium to light bodied and mostly clean it does have some grit at the finish along with enough carbonation for a bit of refreshing crisp bite. I’m not sure what is going on with the clarity but otherwise a good refreshing brew.

 

This will be my last entry for Happy New I'm CANming Dahn Offa the Platform That I've Been on Since Week 755 to Drink a Beer of My Own Free Will This Sunday (Week 764), The Grand Finale! My previous one was a collab between Platform, finishing a lengthy horizontal with them, and Free Fill BC, marking a bridge from one to the next. This one was solely of their own Free Will!

From the CAN: "Liquid and Friends First"; "Kölsch-style Ale"; "A clean and crisp cold-fermented ale brewed in keeping with German tradition."; "IBU - 27[,] °P - 10[,] SRM - 3.1".

This behaved a little oddly, following the Crack! of the vent & the subsequent slow, gentle C-Line Glug. It foamed beautifully to form just better than a finger of dense, foamy, rocky, bone-white head with good retention. At the same time, though, there was an unexpected haze throughout which was troubling. Even odder was that the haze seemed to clarify from the bottom of the glass upawards! 8=ö I had never seen anything like it. Color was an oh-so-slightly-hazy Yellow-Gold (SRM = 4 - 5), like liquid sunshine in my glass. Nose smelled like doughy biscuits getting ready to go into the oven while the smell of freshly-mown grass wafted through the open window. Yum! Mouthfeel was medium. The taste had a wonderful Noble hops grassy, hay-like bitterness along with a doughy biscuitiness from the malt(s).

I used to bemoan that Rogue gave us too much information since a) I was neither a brewer nor a homebrewer & so all of their stats seemed meaningless & b) without the depth of knowledge that I have now, it just looked like runes. Now, they have ramped back on this info & I am saddened because of it. 8=( I mention this since I would REALLY like to know what all went into this Ale.

Warming, I beCAN to get a wheaty-wheat germ taste! 8=ö My late-Pops was a health & fitness freak, eschewing a vehicle in favor of his bicycle & eating really healthy breakfasts like Cheerios with wheat germ and/or Wheaties. This really had a wheat-like quality, I pinky swear! I'm not just making things up, Finish was very dry, very grassy, lots of lingering hops. Mmm. This CAN definitely go into the beach-bound cooler next Summer! YMMV.

12 oz cans poured into German style pilsner glass. This is a very refreshing beer: light-bodied, effervescent, good balance between hop aroma and flavor. One of my warm weather favorites.

 

Had on tap at Bourbon & Branch in northern liberties Philadelphia. It’s a good refreshing warm weather beer. Just as it should be.

Good beer for after cutting the grass, or when you just got back from a run. Pale gold color, lots of white fluffy head, nice muted hop bite in the nose. Taste is crisp and mild. Not that much flavor, but what there is is pleasant enough.

Despite the other lower ratings, we like this Kolsch a lot! Crisp and refreshing - light gold color. WE wonder if these other folks even knew shat a Kolsch is supposed to taste like!

On tap.

A - Nice vibrant light gold color with frothy bright white head and very active carbonation.

S - Crackery crisp honey malt aroma, some light cereal grain, a hit of citrus. Aroma comes off as dry.

T - Honey malt, some cereal grain grittyness, and finishes with sweet honey malt and a strong citrus/pine bitterness that lingers for a good long time.

M - Medium body with heavy prickly carbonation on the tongue and very dry.

O - The name says it all, this beer is extremely crisp for sure. An easy drinker like an adjunct lager on hop steroids.

Dry to point of near tasteless.