I love you boulevard, but...

So today is day one of my wife and I's vacation in portland,  and jesus am i tired...
We headed to whole foods to get some snacks to have in the hotel room for the week and i decided to sneek off to the beer fridge to see what they got.  First off, they still have the straight up saison up here that was replaced over a year ago by tank 7. I would have figured whole foods would not allow product to sit around this long... Second, boulevard products are less expensive up here than in KC. Wait,  what? Yes thats right,  only by a buck and change,  but still less expensive.
Ok, so i understand a giant like whole foods can buy product in much larger quantities (hence still having the saison) thus getting it at a lesser price,  but i still dont understand how i can live a matter of miles away from the brewery and pay more than someone halfway across the country... Mind boggling...

Boulevard - nommo First tasting

Ok so this is probably going to end up more of a rant than a review, so I am going to call this a first tasting rather than the former... Even if it is a short rant.
Ther noise of this beer is rather off putting for a good beer. I like the taste and the spices that make up the flavor profile, but the smell is, well, different to say the least. I almost thought that I got a funky bottle when I first poured it, and almost poured it out. Then I took a drink and realized that that was the way it was supposed to smell.
The only real likeness that i could compare it to is wet musty moldy cardboard.  No really... I really dont understand how they could let that happen.  I mean who thinks, "we have this great tasting beer,  but it smells kinda funny...  Oh well,  let's send it out anyways."?
I also found it to be a little over carbonated and thin. Neither of which make it bad,  just not what i was hoping for.  But maybe this is just a beer that needs a year or so under its belt to really be great,  not just good.
All things aside,  i like it so far.  The cloves and anise flavor are subtle as to not over power your tastebuds, while the slight banana leaves the finish clean. This is definitely a brew that i am going to have to stash a few bottles in my "file cabinet of goodness" to let mature.  If for nothing else to let it de-carbonate a little and thicken up...

Deschutes - Conflux #2

I have had a really long past month,  one of my closest friends over the years died for reasons that i will not go into in a public forum,  but after the end of a long work week and mentaly preparing my self for his funeral tomorrow i decided to go on a beerster egg hunt.  Thankfully i found Conflux at gomers south and a 2 year vintage bottle of Arcadia Ales -Cereal Killer.  The latter is getting stashed into my file cabinet of goodies,  but one of the two bottles of conflux is being enjoyed as we speak. And i am impressed and totally get the 2 colaborations now.  Now i am even more excited to tour deschutes when i am in portland in early October.
Ok so this review isnt really a review.  Its more of a rant,  but here it goes...
I have heard alot of people complain about the differences between the two beers...  If they wanted the two to be the same,  they would have just made one damn beer. I think their whole basis of this is their own interpretation of the same idea.  Granted i dont know descutes product explicitly,  but from what i understand they venture more into a hop-centric brew and then lets face it,  boulevard really shines in the unfiltered wheat.
So the Deschutes version is a little hoppier with more lemongrass and citrus. Where as the Boulevards rendition is more smooth with a more earthy undertone and the definitive huge head that surrounds their smokestack series. Neither are bad. Neither stand out as being better.  They are simply two breweries combining their efforts to create something special but in their own unique style.  I really applaud this myself and i wish more breweries would take this as an example,  and do more beers in this vein.

Boulevard colab #2 first taste

So I have been spending more time recently actually enjoying beer than I have writing about it. But I will make an exception for this.
I love this beer. I think I may have to go out tomorrow and try to snag a couple more bottles for the future, since once this is gone it is done... It is basically exactly what it says it is, a white IPA. In my opinion it has a flavor profile of Avery's White Rascal and a thinner Modus hoperandi. It is slightly meaty like a Belgium white, with a big mouthful, but with a good clean fresh hop bite and a slightly spicy overtone.
My only real beef with this beer is that it is a one off brew. If this was a year round brew it would be a go to beer no matter what time of year it is. It is refreshing in the time of year that is right now in the mid west, the 82nd layer of hell, but is still kind of warming that goes well in the winter... Basically this beer is all around awesome.

Boulevard - Saison Brett

So tonight I had the pleasure of unwinding with a bottle of saison Brett. I am very thankfull that I bought a few bottles of it to cellar, and one to drink now. This is mainly for the fact that only being cellared 3 months right out of the bottle and being 8.5 percent it is pretty boozey now. But a year or two will take that edge off nicely.
That being said, this is a good brew as it stands, its just a little heavy on the alcohol now. It pours a beautiful orange that is very hazy, and has a huge head to go along with it in typical boulevard fashion. It smells of oranges and is kind of earthy in its smell, you can't really smell the alcohol in it like you can some others.
Taste wise it is pretty close to the smell. A very farmhouse taste of grains, some hopes, with some citrus (mainly oranges and lemon). It finishes fairly clean with a huge alcohol bite right at the end.
Really my only regret is that I didn't buy any last year to have an aged bottle ready to go now... I would love to taste what 1 and 2 years ages tastes like... Right now...

Boulevard - Tank 7

Some people will claim that this is the best beer to come out of KC, or even Missouri... I'm not so sure about that, but this is one damn good beer.
OK so before I start I want to clarify that I do know that I poured this into a non boulevard approved glass. For those that don't know, boulevard's smokestack series has a picture of what glass you should use on the back of their bombers, but not on the back of the Little Smokey line. I know that it is supposed to be a tulip glass, but all of mine were dirty... so what ya gonna do?
This beer pours with the typical huge foamy head that has come to typical of all the smokestack series, and reeks of oranges and other tasty spices. It also leaves a good lacing on the glass as you slowly succumb to this delightful brew.
It tastes not hugely unlike it smells, lots of fruit and a hint of hops in the background. This is another good showing of that it is all about balance in your recipe, and that you can't go overboard with one specific flavor or you will loose the entire "roundness" of the entire brew.
It doesn't overwhelm you with all spring time fruits which is nice, you can still taste some raisins and some plumb. But all the while it has an earthy quality about it that is not far off from a wheat beer. That is really where this beer stands out, it keeps a good mouthful while keeping all the flavors coalesced in a perfect manor.
OK so I may not think this is the defacto KC best beer, but it sure is in the top 3 for standard production, and easily in the top 10 even when taking limited runs in consideration. The only thing that you do HAVE to do, is DO NOT drink this beer straight out of the bottle. I see people do this all the time, sadly... It will not do this beer any justice. It needs to be in a glass to really be able to taste the full spectrum of the beer. Out of the bottle it is overly fruity and far to carbonated, but once poured it takes on a whole new life.
Flavor wheel after the jump

Boulevard Imperial Stout refund

This is an example of why I still hold Boulevard above many other craft breweries. Sure my bottle of Imperail Stout cost the same as 3 Lagunitas bombers, but when faced with the fact that their beer was contaminated they are willing to give a full refund, even though they admit it is still a good beer and that it poses no threat to those consuming it... I cant see many companies actually doing that, and you really have to respect them for standing up and doing good by it.
I guess my bottle will be even more special when I open it in a year... who knows what I will get? It kind of makes me want to pick up a bottle of batch 1 somewhere and age it too for comparison.

here is the low down from Boulevard...

Aging

So i officially started aging some beers as of a few days ago, and realized that this is something I should continue and experiment with. So i grabbed a few, threw a date on them and threw them in my office closet for later consumption. Now the real test of time...

Lagunitas - Pale Ale

OK so I like this beer, but I would rather drink my local boulevard brewery's pale ale selection. Here's why...

Bells Two Hearted Ale

I have always heard good things about the Bells brewery, but never felt like trying their beers... Every time I was in an adventerous beer mood I always went with something new or different from some brewery from the outskirts if Idaho or some stupid place that no one has heard of... But their beer is in my favorite liqour store, so it must be good... Right?

The "black and tan" or how I learned to stop caring and love dark beers

Like alot of people I never liked dark beers, always saying "i dont want to chew my beer!". The problem is that, like many americans, I am not the biggest fan of bitter beers or those that have a heavy coffee taste. I am not a coffee drinker as it is, so why would I want my beer to taste like it? Mainly I got brain washed (like many have) that bud heavy and pbr are beer... I am sorry, but they are to beer what Dr. Dre is to punk rock... The beers I guzzled in college only deserve the name of beer as they will get you get you drunk if you drink a absolute gigantic ammount of it.
As time went on living in KC I got more interested in craft beers, the Boulevard brewery was right down the street and I got heavily into their wheat beer. Then I dicovered a couple of liqour stores that had beers I had only heard in whispers as I passed bars on the weekends. All of a sudden I was randomly buying beers off the shelf and finding some amazing stuff and some really bad stuff posing in a fancy expensive bottle. But there were still few dark beers that struck my fancy. I tried porters, stouts, oatmeal stouts, chocolate stouts and porters. Then I thought back to a drink named the "black and tan", you may have heard of it...

Boulevard/Christoper Elbow chocolate ale

If you are from the KC area and you dont live under a rock, you know about this beer... Usually that is a death wish for any brewery. But this is a rare exception to this rule. Holy batmans dirty underwear this beer is good.