Boulevard Imperial Stout

Brewed by Boulevard Brewing Company
Style: Imperial Stout
Kansas City, Missouri USA

Bottled. Pitch black coloured. Dense light brown head. Roast, sweetness, chocolate, light coffee, light liqourice. Flavour of liqourice, roast, syrup, sweetness, spice. Medium to full bodied. Ends on a roasty bitterness. Very nice.

75 cL bottle, #6134. Pours black with a creamy, huge and chocolate brown head. Aroma is light chocolate and hardroasted malty. Smooth chocolate flavoured with a mild vanilla note. Mild acidic flavoured with a nice hard roasted chocolate malt note. Smooth lingering flavoured finish.

Bottle 75 cl. Bottle # 06134/11960. Pours black with a vague tint of red and a brown, lacing head. Roasted aroma with some vanilla. Solid body, hard roasted malts, vanilla and dried fruits. Discreetlly malt bitter finish with some warming alcohol. 130909

I don’t give a 5 in the looks department very often, but this one has some insane head, even with a mild pour, and crazy fluffy retention and lacing. The liquid itself does not appear to have any highlights. Smell is of earthy chocolate, a bit of wood maybe? No hint of the bourbon aged blend in here. Tobacco, mild alcohol. Good. Taste, aah there’s the bourbon. Surprisingly strong for the small amount blended in. This beer is fantastic, where do i start. Mouth is pretty thick and low to medium in carbonation, which is where I want a stout. The chocolate, oak, booze, heat, tobacco, earth, love, it’s all there. This reminds me of a better version of the Abyss.

Sampled from a 750 ml brown bottle this beer poured a thick black color with a large dark brown head that lingered. The aroma was sweet malty chocolate syrup. The flavor was lightly bitter, toasty and very malty with a strong cocoa presence and a light floral hop undertone. The finish was long, bitter malty cocoa. The mouthfeel was thick and smooth. Lovely.

This one poured black as night with a lighter tan head. Aroma was Dark Chocolate, some coffee beans, slight smoke and some alcohol as well. Flavor was a nice blend of dark chocolate, some smoke in there and some hto alcohol notes too. Pretty good stuff but not a top shelf Impy.

Big thanks goes out to Kevin MrChopin for this special brew! Had the pleasure of sampling this at the 7/9/2009 Pittsburgh RB tasting extravaganza (PGHRBEXT) at the Sharp Edge Creekhouse. It will be a long time, if ever I see a spread of bottles like I did there. I am not good enough for the beers that were that we served! For example, how about this beer; Smokestack KC impy stout. Typical imp stout roasty aromas. Big and black pour, but not quite as opaque as many other imp stouts. Very strong initial flavors. However, this stuff is more refined and lacks many of the typical ubiquitous imp stout attributes. IMHO this comes across more like a really strong ale or barlywine. Long lasting rude finish, what else can be said but on style except for the refined character. Way too much for this lager lover MrChopin! I’m not good enough to rate this brew.

Night fills my glass of the darkest of pitch, such that light dare not approach. A slim, blackish, tan mousse floats like cappuccino clouds above a sea of oil. Awe-struck, I take a moment to revel in her ominous night before braving the darkness for a midnight rendezvous. Woody and dry with oak, vanilla, licorice, smoke, ash, earth, and the richest of soils give me pause to wonder if this whole daylight thing is over-rated. As her veil of blackness settles over me, I am enveloped in a quiet world of dry, burnt wood which immediately settles atop my tongue. Charred oak never tasted so good, and as my palate dries, my mouth waters for a bounty of ash, vanilla root, earth, and burgeoning warmth which sets my chest aglow. My breath lingers with charred oak, spice, smoke, and warmth, a sentiment shared equally by the receding night encapsulated in my glass. Simple and complex at the same time, light never stood a chance against the abyssal depths of this blackest of imperial stouts, but my supping fortitude was most certainly up to the challenge.

I love oak barrels, and if that makes me biased, so be it. Even the quaffing amateur will agree with the most seasoned of professionals that when a fine spirituous liquid is married with wood, magic happens. Wine, whisky, and rum have known this for centuries, and for almost just as long, so has beer. Unfortunately, this joyous union was almost lost to the explosive mass-market of generic, assembly-line beers. As with all artisanal revolutions, the present is most often supported by the lost crafts of generations past. Such is the case with barrel aged beers and we are most certainly better for it. I can’t wait to see what the next Smokestack Series from Boulevard Brewing brings me. Should you ever be so lucky as to come across one of their beers, don’t think, just grab a handful of bottles to share your home and heart with.