Bourbon Barrel Quad - Boulevard Brewing, Kansas City

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...

I decided to uncork a bottle of BBQ tonight to celebrate the end of a long week and the start of a very welcome weekend. When I went to pour a glass of this beer I first reached for my trusty snifter, knowing that this is big beer that has been aged in bourbon barrel. I want to get the full effect, a snootful of rich and sweet bourbony goodness. Then I remembered, this is a Smokestack Series beer and I have a Smokestack glass... I say that with a bit of disappointment because the Boulevard Smokestack glasses are a bit... underwhelming, to say the least. Anyways, I poured myself a generous helping of BBQ and took a whiff. It smelled exactly like I remember, and this was a big relief...

Boulevard's Bourbon Barrel Quad seems to be regarded as one of the best beers you can get in these parts by the local aleluminati. The hype surrounding this year's release, coupled with my own fond memories of the BBQ, made me think that maybe I'd idealized this beer and it might not be quite as good as I remembered... Those thoughts were quickly dashed when I took my first sip of this year's BBQ. It was all there, the tart cherries, sweet malt and undeniably bourbon aged finish. Yeah, this is what I've been waiting for.

The Bourbon Barrel Quad may seem like an intimidating beer, it has an alcohol content pushing 12% and it comes in a big bottle that's prices at about $1 per 1% ABV. The label doesn't do much to illicit spur of the moment purchases, it's plain and contains mostly text. Unless you know what you're getting yourself into, you'd be forgiven if you walked right passed this beer in the store. The BBQ is a big, BIG beer... it's actually an evolution of the Sixth Glass, another Smokestack Series beer that has been fermented with cherries and lagered in old bourbon barrels. The flavors reflect the complexity of a beer that was brewed to be a Quadrupel and then essentially fermented into a Quintupel before taking it one step further by aging it in bourbon barrels. This whole story is present in the flavor of the BBQ. When you take a drink you'll notice that big malty and vaguely sour Quadrupel flavor up front just as your tastebuds pick up on the cherries, before the whole thing finishes with a nice warm bourbon handshake at the end.

This is a spectacular beer that gives you much more than you bargain for. The Bourbon Barrel Quad will appeal to those drinkers who appreciate bigger beers with a complex flavor profile, but it will also appeal to people who are looking to experience craft beer's more adventurous side.