Kansas City

It's Imperial Stout season but Boulevard seems to be running a little behind this year... In lieu of another release of their Limited Release Imperial Stout, Boulevard has bottled a modified version this year and called it the Dark Truth. A very ominous name on it's own, but if you turn the bottle around and actually read the flavor text on the back you might think Boulevard is trying to sell this beer to guys who are waaaay in to Dio and like to volunteer at the local Renaissance Fair. "He who imbibes the Dark Truth shall find himself filled with the strength of mad bear!" Ok, it's not actually that bad... but there are references to alchemy and "hidden knowledge."

It's not very often that you run across a beer like Boulevard's Rye-on-Rye and that makes it a little to set expectations. I expect this beer to be different, to push the boundaries a little and bring something to the table that other Rye beers, or other barrel aged beers, don't. I started to worry a bit when I saw the label for the Rye-on-Rye, it says that this bottle contains 33% ale and 67% ale aged in rye whiskey barrels. That's a 2:1 ratio in favor of barrel aged beer, meaning this beer is going to taste a lot like a whiskey barrel. That sounds a bit dangerous...

I first had Boulevard's Imperial Pilsner at the beer's release party in Lawrence, Kansas. In case you hadn't heard, this Imperial Pilsner is a collaboration between Boulevard Brewing Company and Orval's master brewer Jean-Marie Rock. Steven Pauwels, Boulevard's brew master, and Rock met at a conference in Tucson last year. It was there that these two Belgians hit it off and agreed to collaborate and resurrect a beer Rock had brewed some 30 years before. The style that beer most closely resembled is what we now call an American Double or Imperial Pilsner.

It's that time of year again, and the snow is still falling but it's melting much faster now. Spring may still be further off than you'd like but it's harbinger is fast approaching. The Saint Patrick's Day seasonals have already started hitting the shelves so you know the big day isn't that far off. Boulevard's Irish Ale is the first St. Pat's seasonal I've seen thus far, but that just means the others will be showing up soon. While I was excited to seen something other than a Winter Warmer in the seasonal section of the beer cooler, I was exactly thrilled at the prospect of drinking another Irish Ale...

Boulevard's Tank 7 has had an interesting release... This beer was first made available at the brewery tasting room last summer. I happened to go on a tour just after the first batch hit the taps and had a few samples. At the time, I didn't care for this beer at all. I took a couple more tours between summer and Christmas and drank a collective pint or more of the Tank 7 in the tasting room. Each time I had this beer it tasted a little spicier and hoppier than I remember. I'd heard Boulevard was planning on phasing out their Saison Smokestack Series and replacing it with this beer, so I kept going back to try this beer and see if maybe I just got a bad glass... but no, I just didn't like the Tank 7.

Boulevard's Long Strange Tripel is one of those beers that I've wanted to drink for the longest time but never got around to it for one reason or another. The Long Strange Tripel is one of Boulevard's original Smokestack Series beers. I love Belgian style ales and I've wanted to pick up a bottle of the Long Strange many times but it seems like I've always overlooked it in favor of more exotic beers when I'm at the store. I finally got a sample of the Long Strange at the Kansas City Beerfest last fall. I'm not sure if it was the quality of the beer or the fact that it was poured by Mr. Harold "Trip" Hogue himself, but this was definitely the highlight of the day.

My previous experience with Boulevard's Bourbon Barrel Quad is pretty limited... Last year I waited a couple days too long to start looking for bottles around town because it seemed that everyone had just run out. A friend of mine was kind enough to bring a bottle over last winter so I was able to at least have a glass, but that was it... Here we are a year later and I made a point to check the local liquor stores early and often. About $50 later and I've got a quad of Bourbon Barrel Quads all to myself...

Boulevard's Nutcracker Ale has become my favorite Winter Warmer style beer. The Nutcracker is pretty unique as far as Winter Warmers go. This beer is sweet and malty like you'd expect from a winter seasonal, but in a candied fruit sort of way. Just like in the aroma, the Nutcracker has pretty high hop levels. The fresh hop flavor is a bit different than what you get in traditional Winter Warmer beers. Rather than being dark and creamy, this beer is sweet and a has a hoppy bite. Those hops are what really distinguish the Nutcracker from other beers. They give the beer a bit of pine flavor, which seems rather fitting given the season...

There aren't a whole lot of Wheat Wine style beers on the market, so when Boulevard first announced it would be releasing a harvest-time Wheat Wine I was really excited. I wasn't entirely sure what to expect from the Harvest Dance other than the vague similarities to Barley Wine. The Harvest Dance is, in many ways, the opposite of a Barley Wine. Technically, there are many similarities between the two styles, but the Harvest Dance is much lighter and sweeter than most Barley Wines. The Harvest Dance is to Barley Wine, what white wine is to red wine. What I mean by that is even though both are stylistically the same in the many ways, the flavor profiles are quite different.

Going into the Seeyoulator you should know that this isn't your grandfather's Doppelbock. The name, which ends in the traditional -ator suffix, indicates that Boulevard is making a departure from the established Doppelbock style. This beer isn't a complete 180 by any means, it's still a big dark beer with a strong malty flavor. The Seeyoulator is also clever because of the reference to the most stereotypical of German idioms, aufwiedersehen. Literally, aufwiedersehen means, "until we meet again" or simply "see you later." In a sense that's what this beer does, it goes AWOL from the Doppelbock base but ultimately returns. Seeyoulator's most noticeable difference from other Doppelbocks is its cedar aging. This adds an flavor to the beer that is similar to the oak flavor wines pick up when they are aged in oak barrels.