Boulevard Nutcracker Ale

Brewed by Boulevard Brewing Company
Style: English Strong Ale
Kansas City, Missouri USA

Bottle from S&K Beverages in Plano, TX. Pours a deep amber/orange, hazy, with beige head. Aroma of sweet malt and fruit, and molasses. Flavor is sweet malt, molasses, fruit, and has a noticeable small hop bitter. Mouthfeel is medium-heavy with high carbonation. Overall, pretty tasty.

Highly charged brew with thin malting and a spice that seems to be coming from the bittering hops,actually a decent thirst quencher that would probaly be a better summer ale

[December 7, 2008]
Bottle of the 2008. Pours a cloudy orange with a nice, pillowing white head. The aroma is a little spicy alright, hints of pine, copper, and some kind of baking spice are noted. The flavor is weird. It starts piercing and slightly metallic with an assertive European hop bite, though I find a bit of PNW hop twang similar to their pale ale. The finish is flat with suggestions of copper and nutmeg. this is not a sweet beer, but rather dry with lingering spice and metal. I think Boulevard is a reasonable brewery with a good selection of very drinkable beer at a reasonable price. This one, however, has missed my mark. Too coppery and metallic with a strange spice character.
[January 2, 2009]
I picked up another Boulevard 12 pack, par for the course when I need a lot of good beer at a good price right away. However, I have since begun to reconsider this course of action so long as the Nutcracker ale remains in the box. We happily enjoyed the first 10 beers, avoiding those fateful Nutcrackers which I kept hoping would magically transform into Lunar Ales, or even better, Bully Porters. But no, the next day there they were, staring at me from the near empty box. So, down the hatch they go. Every time I revisit this one my opinion of it falls. It seems like an awkward mess of weird English hops and coppery, metallic notes. I cannot find anything any longer I genuinely enjoy about this one, the little zing I associated with their pale ale is fading. This is a well made beer, just made entirely of ingredients I do not favor. I like the approach of loads of malt and hops in a complex, though messy, mix when it leans in the American direction e.g. Double Bastard, He Brew Monumental Jewbulation 10, but all I get out of this is paper, wood, blood, and metal. I will wait until the Nutcracker has passed before buying another Boulevard 12 pack.

Bottle. Aroma was nutty and spicy. Flavor was very herbal and left a funky tea aftertaste. Maybe this is a good beer for some, just not for me I guess.

Very nice aroma. Spicy with a nice malty finish. This is a very easy to drink winter warmer hiding the 6.1% alcohol content.

A fresh 2008 bottle. Lovely (and surprising!) hop aroma, at least initially, a citric hop powerhouse reminiscent of Sierra Nevada’s best, some pale malts and faint ginger. Spicy nutmeg touch but again, faint. Carbonated ruby-amber body with a soapy beige head. Taste is heavy caramel and lesser citrus and red berry, dry and bready with a crisp attack and medium body that bears some quaffing. Light acidic tang. Very dark and earthy aftertaste, dry and bitter without blowing any minds. Gently warming. A little spitz of grape. A little caramelized sugar up in the far front and floral notes rounding out the sides. Good sipping winter warmer, if a little … syrupy? Wearing.

Pours amber. Aroma is very slight, bitter Hops taste with light floral finish, very full/bold taste

Pours a near clear amber brown with fair tan head. Nose is hard to distinguish. Some plum, dark fruit, a hint of alcohol spiciness. Flavor is nutty with a solid malt backbone, but the faintest hop note shows up on the tail end. Medium body with moderate carbonation. Cool label, but not exactly what I think of for a *winter warmer*.