Beer Pick: Free Spirit Farmhouse Pale Ale
Three Taverns Craft Brewery, Decatur, Ga
$9.99/ 750 ml. bottle at metro beverage stores
Profile: Maybe the phrase “labor of love” gets thrown around too much, nowadays. But in the case of Free Spirit, it’s the perfect description for a beer that was born of great tragedy while reflecting the passion and generosity of the craft brewing community. As a tribute to Brittney Fox Watts, benefitting the Small Dreams Foundation that was founded and named in her honor, this Belgian saison/pale ale hybrid captures a bit of her lively personality. Brewed with New Zealand and American hops, it’s loaded with bright, slightly tart tropical fruit flavors, and refreshing carbonation, without too much bitterness.
Pair with: Try the bright, lively favors of Free Spirit with salads, goat cheese, seafood, sausages, and spicy Thai and Vietnamese dishes.
Brian Watts is behind the bar, pouring a glass of Free Spirit Farmhouse Pale Ale from a tap at the Fox & Gnome, the cozy hideaway in the basement of his Decatur home.
“I like to say there’s no other beer brewed with as much love as Free Spirit,” Watts says. “It’s a beer in honor of Brittney, but really a beer for anyone who has ever lost someone special in their lives.”
Free Spirit, which benefits the Small Dreams Foundation, was conceived shortly after Watts’ 26-year-old wife, Brittney Fox Watts, was shot and killed in July 2011 in a Midtown parking garage near the offices of the advertising firm where she worked.
At the time of the tragedy, Brian and Brittney, who grew up in Roswell and graduated from the University of Georgia, had only recently moved to Decatur from Tampa. Excited to be back home among family and friends, they were a happy pair of beer and food lovers, busy working on their dream house in their dream neighborhood.
A decade ago, at college in Athens, Brian and his brother, Dustin Watts, who’s now VP of marketing and sales at Terrapin Beer Co., and Brittney and her brother, Kevin Fox, who’s now a craft beer specialist at United Distributors, all came together as beer buddies.
“Kevin, Brittney and I were kind of the original Terrapin crew,” Watts says. “I was living with Kevin and we’d run around with Dustin and do events. It kind of went from there.”
After college, Watts worked in commercial real estate, but often thought about getting into the beer business.
“Brittney and I always talked about opening a craft beer bar together,” Watts says. “When we bought this house, we knew we would turn the basement into a bar. We named it the Fox & Gnome after Brittney’s maiden name and the fact that we’re both short people.”
Free Spirit was named for the used bicycle Brittney bought a month before her death. “Batch No. 1” was brewed in September 2011 with sunflower seeds and elder flower by Terrapin in collaboration with Heavy Seas, the brewery Kevin Fox worked for at the time. It was released on Oct. 11, Brittney’s birthday.
“Our goal was always just to celebrate her life,” Watts said. “And celebrate who she was and the things she loved. We came up with the Small Dreams Foundation in honor of her and in honor of the way she lived her life. She was passionate about sustainability and buying local. Our motto is Live Sustainably, Support Locally, Love Deeply. We partner with a lot of different organizations with similar views and goals.”
This year’s Free Spirit was brewed at Three Taverns in Decatur in collaboration with Terrapin and 8 Wired, the New Zealand craft brewery that adopted Watts during some of his darkest days, and eventually made him its “International Man of Beer,” handling sales for the company.
In January 2012, Watts journeyed to New Zealand with a one-way ticket and a one-year work visa.
“It was No. 1 on the list of places Brittney and I wanted to go together,” Watts said. “Traveling alone was pretty tough. But it was one of those moments when you decide. If you can’t make it through this, and you quit here, and you give up, you’re not going to make it through the rest of life.”
