Brewed By: Boulevard Brewing Company (Moortgat) in Kansas City, Missouri
Purchased: 750ml bottle (1 Pin, 9.4oz) bought at Binny's in Naperville, IL; 2014 (batch #L14077-2, best buy 03-2016)
Style/ABV: American Wild Ale/American Sour, 9.0%
Reported IBUs: 8
Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)
I'm really pumped for tonight's beer. I've heard this one is super sour and funky fresh. I have very high hopes. 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.
The Love Child No. 4 is a barrel-aged wild ale brewed with Lactobaccillus, Brettanomyces, and whatever wild critters decided to show up. Most of this blend was aged in oak barrels, with a blend of beer ranging from 16 months to 6 years old. Part of the blend was aged for 11 months in stainless tanks, souring on Lactobacillus. This one punches in at 9% ABV and 8 IBUs.
This pours into a dark red/brown body that is hazy and oak-aged. It's battered and the faint orange tones are straining to be noticed. The beer does kick up an impressive three fingers of caramel head that rapidly fades into the abyss like the orange hints. A ring of carbonation settles around the edge of the glass, and the beer sizzles away with crackling carbonation. This is incredibly carbonated with numerous streams of tiny bubbles going up, and swirling the beer yields glossy alcohol legs with minimal lacing. It's very Flanders Red-esque.
On the aroma: the first thing jumping out to me is huge waves of oak. There is a lot of oak and wood tannin in here, with acidic funk standing out as the next main note that I am getting. This has incredible layers of cherries in the aroma, with sour cherries, sour cherry candy, black cherry Warheads, and apple cider vinegar. There is also a good amount of Brett funk lurking in the mix, with basement and attic funk, and buttery-oaky notes playing off the oak and wood. It's just a fantastic meld of sourness, funk, and oak, with serious fruity notes that border on being jammy.
Holy cow, this is sour! This assaults your palate with overt sourness: apple cider vinegar, oak, wood, lemon, tart cherry Warheads, citric acid and nectarines, and piercing lactic funk. There's some other stuff going on here too. This has some nice vanilla notes lurking beneath the sour, with oak and wood. There are also nice waves of tart and jammy cherries, apple slaw salad, peaches, and even some apricot funk. The back end hits the back of your mouth with some hints of malt. This is fantastic.
This is pretty high on the sour scale, with a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel that is made easier to drink by the sourness and carbonation. The alcohol is completely hidden, and this is pretty easy going. I'd call this a sipper, but an easy-going sipper. Palate depth is fantastic, and the complexity isn't far behind. Up front: sour notes, apple cider vinegar, lactic punch, lemons, sour nectarines, black cherry Warheads; the mids roll into serious oak and butter, vanilla, wood, nectarines, jammy fruits and cherries, Brett funk, more oak, wood; the back end drops oak, vanilla, malt sweetness, and the finish is dry. This is subtle, complex, funky, and not very sweet...I like it.
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| Boulevard Love Child No. 4 |
This pours into a dark red/brown body that is hazy and oak-aged. It's battered and the faint orange tones are straining to be noticed. The beer does kick up an impressive three fingers of caramel head that rapidly fades into the abyss like the orange hints. A ring of carbonation settles around the edge of the glass, and the beer sizzles away with crackling carbonation. This is incredibly carbonated with numerous streams of tiny bubbles going up, and swirling the beer yields glossy alcohol legs with minimal lacing. It's very Flanders Red-esque.
On the aroma: the first thing jumping out to me is huge waves of oak. There is a lot of oak and wood tannin in here, with acidic funk standing out as the next main note that I am getting. This has incredible layers of cherries in the aroma, with sour cherries, sour cherry candy, black cherry Warheads, and apple cider vinegar. There is also a good amount of Brett funk lurking in the mix, with basement and attic funk, and buttery-oaky notes playing off the oak and wood. It's just a fantastic meld of sourness, funk, and oak, with serious fruity notes that border on being jammy.
Holy cow, this is sour! This assaults your palate with overt sourness: apple cider vinegar, oak, wood, lemon, tart cherry Warheads, citric acid and nectarines, and piercing lactic funk. There's some other stuff going on here too. This has some nice vanilla notes lurking beneath the sour, with oak and wood. There are also nice waves of tart and jammy cherries, apple slaw salad, peaches, and even some apricot funk. The back end hits the back of your mouth with some hints of malt. This is fantastic.
This is pretty high on the sour scale, with a medium to full-bodied mouthfeel that is made easier to drink by the sourness and carbonation. The alcohol is completely hidden, and this is pretty easy going. I'd call this a sipper, but an easy-going sipper. Palate depth is fantastic, and the complexity isn't far behind. Up front: sour notes, apple cider vinegar, lactic punch, lemons, sour nectarines, black cherry Warheads; the mids roll into serious oak and butter, vanilla, wood, nectarines, jammy fruits and cherries, Brett funk, more oak, wood; the back end drops oak, vanilla, malt sweetness, and the finish is dry. This is subtle, complex, funky, and not very sweet...I like it.
Rating: Divine Brew (4.5/5.0 Untappd)
I'm feeling a Strong Divine Brew on this. This is incredibly complex and funky, with notes ranging from oak and wood tannin, to lemon and nectarines, to jammy cherries and sweet malts....it's a well-crafted beer, and you can tell that the blend was put together with some thought and finesse. This also has the potential to age in the bottle, making it obtainable and probably one of the best mainstream American sours. I'd recommend not pairing this with anything...sip on this one, enjoy it. It's really good.
Random Thought: Boulevard going mainstream = the best thing ever. I love Duvel.
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