Boulevard Pale Ale

Brewed By: Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City, Missouri

Purchased: Single 12oz bottle (w/ best by: 10/25/12) from a 6-pack bought at Meijer in Urbana, IL; 2012

Style/ABV: American Pale Ale, 5.4%

Tonight I'm reviewing an interesting beer...Boulevard Brewing's Pale Ale. What makes this beer interesting is the fact that the bottle says: "Bottle Conditioned: In time-honored brewing tradition, we've added a small amount of yeast to this ale just before packaging to produce a secondary fermentation in the bottle. This yeast, which settles naturally to the bottom of the bottle, encourages further maturation and contributes to the ale's complex flavor." What an interesting twist on a style of beer that is typically meant to be consumed fresh, and immediately. For those wondering, that explains why this beer's "best by" date goes all the way until October, which is 5 months from now. I may have to age one of these for a year for shits and giggles.

Anyway...about Boulevard:

Boulevard Brewing Company hails out of Kansas City, Missouri. They have a very nice website that is cleanly formatted, informative, and is not loaded with Java and Flash scripts. The company was founded officially in 1989, but began in 1988 when founder John McDonald began construction of the brewery. In 2006 the brewery had a major expansion, which allowed for additional brewing capacity. You can find more info on the brewery's history HERE. According to Wikipedia, Boulevard is the largest craft brewer in Missouri, and the 10th largest craft brewery in the United States.

Tonight's beer, the Pale Ale, is a brewery standby, and I believe one of the oldest Pale Ales in the American craft beer scene. The beer is described as smooth, fruity, malty, and zesty. The beer is brewed with pale, caramel, and munich malts. It uses Cascade (flowery, spicy, citrusy), Magnum (bittering), Palisade (fruity, pleasant), Simcoe (aromatic, catty), and Styrian Goldings (spicy) hops. Clocking in at 5.4% ABV, and packing 30 IBUs, let's pop this open and see what's up.

Boulevard Pale Ale

The beer pours with 2-fingers of white, or slightly off-white head. The head is kind of thin and looks like dish soap bubbles. The head doesn't stick around for long, but there is a nice once centimeter coating of film sustaining. The beer pours with a nice hazy, pale, bronze-gold-yellow color. You can see a moderate to light stream of bubbles rising up, and the beer is just ever so hazy. As the head pulls on the glass, it leaves some lacing.

You get some really light fruit on the nose, with some nice bready, honey, caramel aromas; hints of slight toast. There is an earthy/herbal/pine freshness, with hints of citrus, and some fruity and floral notes. The nose is pleasant and mild.

The taste is pleasant, smooth, and finishes really smooth with a nice bready/biscuity finish. I taste some fruity hops right up front, and immediately get hit with those munich malts in the middle. The munich malts roll into the back, with some toffee/toast/caramel notes. As far as hope notes go, I'm pulling out a lot of earthy flavors, some lemon zest, hints of orange, and maybe a touch of mango.

This has moderate carbonation that interacts with the palate in a pleasant way. This is smooth, crisp, zesty, and refreshing, with just the right amount of bitterness to stimulate your palate. The mouthfeel is medium-light, with just a slight thickness especially towards mid-palate. Palate depth is full, complexity is moderate to high for the style. Up front you get carbonation, and big hop flavors; the hops roll into the munich malts, and a malty/hoppy middle; the back end is lingering hops, slight bitterness, and those bready/biscuity malts. At 5.4% ABV, this is drinkable, but also also fulfilling.

Rating: Above-Average

 

I'm feeling a decent Above-Average on this. This is a good beer, if not approaching a really great beer. There's not a lot to say here that wasn't said in the review. This beer is available, it's affordable, it's drinkable, it's not overly bitter, and it has some decent flavors in the mix. This leans a bit towards the caramel and munich malts, with more of a lighter/herbal/earthy hop profile. And I'm okay with that. Really good stuff from Boulevard, as usual. So check this beer out, and check Boulevard out. Until next time, don't drink and jive.