Boulevard 2011 Saison Brett

Other than a couple of 12oz bottles, the Boulevard Saison Brett is the last beer I brought back from Houston. When I bought it, I had a choice of 2011 or 2012 and decided to go with the year old version. I figured with this style and Boulevard's reputation, it would be a bit more interesting with a year of age on it.

Minty and herbal nose with a light fruitiness. Like tropical fruit almost with a bit of lemon. Thicker body than I expected, actually, but not in a bad way, just different than is usual for the style. Spicy, herbal, minty body but lacking the fruitiness of the nose. Still, very tasty. Lightly bitter in the finish with a little more of the herbal edge in the aftertaste.

This was quite good, very refreshing and clean tasting. Nice with the latkes and some other food we had that night. It's why I'm so frustrated when I have a mediocre Boulevard beer since I know they can make such good ones. Oh well, I'll just have to keep trying them all and hope the quality is high.

Boulevard Nommo Dubbel

Not sure when I drank this, maybe a week ago Sunday? I have a backlog of things to write about that's just getting worse at the moment. Going out every night this week isn't really going to help with that but oh well. Boulevard Nommo Dubbel is a dubbel, obviously, with some spices added to it. I picked it up in Houston when I was there in early November.

Unfortunately, right from the beginning, I was thinking this was a big miss by Boulevard. Some spice in the nose and also a really noticeable metallic note that is just completely off putting. The body was luckily missing the metallic portion of the nose but there were other issues. Sweet up front, slightly spicy, then super sharp biting alcohol in the finish that was remarkably unpleasant. Flavors didn't blend well either with the spiciness not meshing with the little sweetness that peaked through in the beginning.

Since I'm crazy, I powered through my bad feelings about it and drank the whole bottle. I'll admit it got a tiny bit better as I got used to the alcohol. The sweetness came up a bit and I felt like I got a view into what Boulevard was aiming for with this beer. However, it was really not very good and either Boulevard agrees with me or consumers do as they discontinued this one for 2013. Maybe they'll retool the recipe for 2014 or they'll just cancel it forever, but regardless I hope they do something.

Trip to Moe's!

I was in Lee this past weekend so of course that means a trip to Moe's! For those that don't know, Moe's is a small bar in my wife's home town of Lee, Mass. It opened up about five years ago and it's been where I go to drink ever since then. They don't have food, but you can always order some to be delivered if you want it. We always just go before or after dinner so whatever.

Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad

I opened this last Friday as a nice change of pace. Been drinking a lot of stouts and ipas and such, so I figured this would be different. The style of Boulevard Bourbon Barrel Quad is pretty self-explanatory as it's a quad base blended with a portion aged on cherries in a few different types of bourbon barrels. Some people thought it was infected (which can happen with barrel aging) as a result of the cherries, but after trying it those people are crazy. The tartness is very clearly a result of the cherry.

Pleasant nose. Bourbon, vanilla, and a very recognizable cherry note. Medium body that almost felt thicker than it really seemed to be. Not sure why, maybe a good mouthfeel, but it was nice. On first sip, the cherry came first and then bourbon and vanilla appeared with a little caramel from the quad base. Remarkably easy drinking for 11+% abv. Drinking it along with dinner did made some alcohol bite appear at times but as soon as I stopped eating, it faded away again. Enjoyed this a lot with the tartness from the cherry blending really nicely with the bourbon and vanilla. The only surprising part was how little of the quad base seemed to come through for me but it still tasted great so who cares.

Boulevard Rye on Rye

The other bottle I opened over the weekend was Boulevard Rye on Rye. This is also part of Smokestack Series and is a blend of 33% regular rye beer blended with 66% of it aged in Rye Whiskey barrels. I thought it sounded really awesome, but was unfortunately really disappointed by it.

Since you can't see the beer because of my awesome glass, there was some light, fluffy white head and it was brown in color. The nose was interesting, spicy whiskey character with a little bit of vanilla in back. However, the body didn't follow and was instead just sharply alcoholic and full of burning. Started with super hot alcohol, then there was a little bit of spicy, fruity character that almost made things okay, but then it finished with more burning. Really, it came down to mostly alcohol and bitterness and never progressed past that. It wasn't awful, just disappointing and kind of a hot mess. Oh well, can't win them all. I'll just have to stick to their Imperial Stout since that was pretty great.

Boulevard Imperial Stout

The other bottle I opened with my friends last week was the Boulevard Imperial Stout. This is part of their Smokestack Series and is a blend of 50% imperial stout and 50% of the stout aged in whiskey barrels. Honestly, it's not exactly 50 / 50, but if you're curious you can buy it since the label has the exact amounts.

Sweet whiskey nose, really inviting. No alcohol, no heat, just graham cracker and vanilla. Yum. Flavor followed with tons of delicious whiskey yet still no heat and only light touches of the 11%. Light graham cracker, vanilla, whiskey and some roast from the stout finished things off. I thought it was really awesome and I was impressed that it had as much flavor from the barrel as it did considering it was a blend. I've had others where the barrel component wasn't very prevalent but Boulevard did a great job. Just delicious.

Boulevard Chocolate Ale

With Philly Beer Week over, I can finally get back to drinking beers at home. Crazy I know. This past weekend I opened a bottle of Boulevard Chocolate Ale.

Sweet nose with a hint of light cocoa. Slight cocoa up front, some almost apple fruitiness in the body, and finishing with some dry cocoa flavor. While the chocolate flavor was incredibly light, it at least tasted real which was nice. The fruity body was a little sweet but at least it went well with the chocolate flavors. Enjoyable beer though the chocolate could have been a bit more apparent in my opinion. I've read people say the draft version is better but we don't get Boulevard around here so no chance for me to try it like that.

Also, apparently this is my 400th post. Hurray! I should drink something interesting when I hit 500 but I'll probably forget.