Frais et léger , superbe !!!

At my son's house watching the Alabama versus Auburn basketball game. Did a Duo with Ryan during halftime with our favorite brewery Boulevard. They did a sour aged in a wine cask for 12 months then added strawberry juice. Should be interesting. Strawberry aroma is good with a little bit of a brute beer undertone. O K, I'm not big on sours, but this is pretty good. It really tastes like strawberry, nothing artificial. My daughter-in-law says it tastes like strawberry jam. I think she's right, it does have that quality. Add in a touch of woodsy flavor in the background and a little sparkling white wine and you have it. If everyone's sours tasted like this, I would become a big fan. I really liked it. It was fresh, easy, drinking, flavorful, real, and, of course, gently tart. I would buy a six pack of this if I could find it.

Sometimes you deserve a treat so I splurged for an $18 four pack of 12oz bottles. I decided to track each one. 1st. Had a few different stouts/porters before hand this night. This came across as having just a bourbon taste with not much to it. Just boozy with no other characteristics to it. 2.3 rating. 2nd. This time going in clean w/o having a previous beer. Started with the bourbon hitting you up front. Got a little sweet after the initial hit. Had very light vanilla, oak and dark fruit taste. Still boozy tasting but was a 3.4. 3rd. Again went in clean. This time I was getting a lot of oak / wood taste. As it warmed the dark fruit with light vanilla started kicking in. The bourbon was strong the first couple sips but became subdued quite bit after that. Tasting damn good at that time. 3.7. 4th. This was tonight. Started with a DIPA while out at dinner but went to my previous dark beer when I got home tonight. This had more of a wood taste but not as oak-ish. The bourbon was medium and faded as I got further in but just a little. Has light vanilla taste that hit the + level as it warmed. Didn’t get any dark fruit this time. Oak made more of a presence just add I finished 3.5 this time. Averaged them out was 3.225. I went with a 3.2. I was not impressed given what I paid for it. I was expecting better.

Goed! Lekker sterk maar heerlijke smaak

👁 getrübt golden; eher grobporiger Schaum 👃🏻 floral, diffus fruchtig 👄 Helles Steinobst und Birne bestimmen den Antrunk. Hier entwickelt sich durchaus auch eine leichte Süße, ehe es dann recht zügig in Richtung einer säuerlich angereicherten, trockenen Herbe geht. P. S.: Venezuela, Grönland,... man kommt ja nicht mehr hinterher, liegt Puurs-Sint-Amands im bereits annektierten Teil Belgiens, oder weshalb bekomme ich den US Badge?

King Charles

This is the second beer in Boulevard's Neapolitan Well Rested Series. The first one was chocolate and neither Ryan nor I enjoyed it. This is a vanilla imperial Stout, barrel aged in Bourbon barrels. I hope we enjoy this one more. I will love Boulevard anyway. Opened the bottle and immediately got strong bourbon alcohol, sweet with the vanilla hiding in the background. Totally dark in color with a chocolate brown head. Strong aroma of bourbon alcohol and a sweet vanilla and something else. Texture is heavy and creamy and turns just a little crisp towards the middle. Flavor is not what I was hoping for. A lot of bourbon alcohol, and I mean a lot, and a hit of bitterness in the middle. There is a lot of vanilla but it also has a strange unsettling sweetness as it moves into a dry finish propelled by baker's cocoa. Not really sure I like this as much as I was hoping, maybe at 3.9. Ryan and I discussed our pallets over and over as we continued sipping this beer. I like beers that are interesting and boy this one is. Has your mouth acclimates and the beer warms, a slow transition occurs. The intense barrel-aged bourbon mellows a bit, the vanilla takes on a raw natural extract characteristic, this strange unidentified sweetness in the background comes to light as a vine ripe black cherry blended with unroasted almond. Even the soft dry finish smooths down in the background to a gentle balance of dark and milk chocolate. As I continue to take small sips the strong bourbon fades but my tongue begins to tingle and my stomach warms. Excellent! Both Ryan and I have now rated over 2,000 beers. We believe there have been fewer than 10 beers that have risen from first impression to last more than 4/10 of a point. This destroyed that record. My 3.9 is now a 4.8. That's crazy and easily one of the most interesting beers I have ever enjoyed. Boulevard, you definitely deserved our road trip.

Another excellent beer brought to me by Ryan for a Duo. We visited Boulevard Brewing this fall and they are a favorite. Really looking forward to this barrel aged Brew. Aroma from the bottle is exceptional. Strong milk chocolate with waves of bourbon. Small head is a chocolate brown, as deep as I've ever seen. First taste gives the milk chocolate and strong bourbon. Somehow, at 12.2%, it doesn't give the expected burn. Then there's something in the middle that is like a liqueur, somewhat astringent. Is it amaretto or some other flavored liqueur? Can't put my finger on it. The chocolate flavor reminds me of a childhood chocolate called Ovaltine. Haven't had it in forever. The finish provides just a whiff of vanilla. Ryan and I discussed the flavor in the middle that we can't identify. Could it be, ......artificial? No way, it's Boulevard. But maybe? I let the beer, which I had been drinking while cold, warm substantially. Partly because I didn't want to drink it. But once warmed the bad flavor in the middle seems to have mellowed a little. While other reviews praise this beer I am not fond of it. Perhaps it was just unrealistic expectations.

Täällå taaa laivalla tiskillä työpäivän ja salin jälkeen janoisena. Tämä olikin aika raju alkupamaus perjantai illalle. En valita, tuleehan tästä ihan lämmin ja pörröinen olo