Free Will sour program -- thoughts?

I had FW Key Lime Sour in NYC a few months ago. It was one of the worst beers I've ever had..and I love sours.

 

This.

Not a fan of the Blood and Guts either, but the Grape and Peach are pretty good, and I just love their Cuvee'.

 

I've really enjoyed what I've tried from them. They don't have the depth of the better Belgian examples but there isn't anything off or artificial either. My bottle of the Peach Lambic was undercarbonated but the Barbera on tap was fine. I recently had Olly Oud Bruin on tap and I was impressed. Not a Rodenbach, but it had nice acidity and woody notes.

For another thread perhaps, but there non sour barrel aged offerings are top notch. I just had a bottle of Brown Beard, a big brown ale with coffee aged in rum barrels. Loved it.

 

My local beer distributor (KOP Beer Outlet) hosted a tasting by Free Will a few weeks ago and I had the opportunity to try four beers: Kolsch, Mango Wheat and two IPAs.

All of the beers were good. Nothing bad about these beers but nothing that stands out either.

There are so many good to excellent beers to choose from in SEPA; both packaged beer and on premise (brewpubs, tasting rooms).

These are very competitive times for craft breweries. Based upon my limited tastings of Free Will beer I am not extremely motivated to seek these beers out.

I did hold a 6-pack box of the Free Will Kolsch at a local beer retailer in my hands. I was sort of considering buying it but after not finding a packaging date on the box I just put it down.

Cheers!

 

Really enjoyed a bunch of their sours, such as the grape, but will agree that the Key Lime was not to my taste. Their Kragle and COB by the way though are quite good!

 

I had never heard of them before EBF last month and they were one of my surprise discoveries there. I liked their oud bruin, I thought their RIS was fantastic, and the habanero IPA was mind blowing. Inquiring around, it seems to me that they may have left some bad first impressions with a lot of people from when they first opened up.

 

Actually I thought the complete opposite. Adding a sour fruit to a sour beer, IMO, would be a good mix. The beer just flat our wasnt good.

Now I did try their Kragle IPA and thought it was pretty good.

 

I like their Peach sour and thought it was pretty sour but haven't tried the others yet.

Me too and I'm looking to try Ralphius next.

 

I have enjoyed Free Will's Sour Sunday offerings. Not sure I would take home bottles of all of what I've tried but some were very distinctive and tasty - their Mojito Mint and Cuvee Aigre come to mind. But I can see how some of these are very polarizing to people's tastes as well.

 

Ralphis = amazing. Truly up there with some of the best barrel aged stouts.

 

Living 5 minutes away and visiting them often I can absolutely appreciate the fact that their sours are getting better batch after batch.. I like the fact that they arent afraid to experiement and have those "Sour Sunday" events. Today I had the Sour Cherry Powered Rocket which may just be my new favorite sour from them (5000lbs of cherries... sing me up for bottles). The Mojito sour was phenominal as well. The peanut butter COB ferkin was absolutely nuts. They are doing great things and will continue to do so.

 

The one I had on tap was really great. Reminded me very strongly of Cantillion.

 

I actually kinda liked the Key Lime. The DC Cranberry was kinda meh though. Blood and Guts is ok. They are ok sours. Nothing spectacular but not terrible either. It's nice to see someone local brewing the style though, rather than another hop forward bottle of garbage.

 

I've only had Olly and Whit. I thought Olly was good and Whit was excellent. Also, not a sour but I have a Ralphius waiting to be consumed in the near future.

 

If you count saisons, then I've had two really impressive ones from them. Saison de Rose was spectacular and Napoleon's Reserve 2014 was a pleasant surprise.
Olly Oud Bruin is easily my favorite beer from them overall. Hope to make a trip up to them again sometime to buy more.
Their Kriek was especially weak and not a lambic I'd recommend to anyone.

 

There has only been one in the sour program I did not like, and it was the Key Lime. Cuvée Aigre and Whit are probably two of my favorites they do. I also noticed the new labeling nixes the 'lambic' term. Probably for the better. Their taproom is very nice too, if you get the chance to visit. Tons of beers on draft and super friendly staff.

 

I'm not a sour beer guy, but I am a big fan of their COB (Coffee Oatmeal Brown). Their year round beers of Kolsch, Wit, Techno and Kragle are okay - but I've been more impressed with the limited batches of stuff they've had on tap at the brewery. Safeword was very good, and they had a strong red hoppy beer called Kim Jong Ale that I wish they'd brew again and bottle. And a couple of barrel aged dark beers that were very good too.

 

If you like COB, get yourself some of the new Brown Beard (essentially beefed up rum barrel aged COB).