2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #13)

2015 BEER DISCOVERY TOUR: Boulevard Brewing Company, Kansas City, MO (June 29, Brewery Stop #13) The 13th brewery visited on our cross-country beer discovery tour (click to read about the whole trip) was Boulevard Brewing Company in Kansas City MO. This well known brewery is one of the oldest and largest micro-breweries in the mid-west and we were really looking forward to visiting the location. We left Lincoln on Sunday morning and headded south to KC. The trip wasn’t too bad, just about three hours with a bit of traffic and construction detours in KC itself. We timed it just right and got there as they opened on Monday before lunch.

The brewery complex is located just south-west of the KC MO downtown area and is quite large as you can see. The main facility has a small-ish taproom next to their swag/sales area that has both stuff with their logo on it, lots of bottles, growlers, hats, local goods, t-shirts, etc. for sale. The taproom has 10 or so tables and a bar you can stand at. Typically people use this area for pre-post brewery tour sampling as it turns out, but we just wanted to do the tasting. You can see some of their production area from the taproom through the large windows along the west wall.

For a Monday morning (pre-lunch), it was surprisingly busy. There was a number of visitors and vacationers there to do the brewery tour and such, we chatted briefly with a few couples when we were up at the bar ordering our samples and found most were like us, traveling across parts of the US sampling beers. The chalkboard next to the bar has their beer offerings for that day, and as it turns out you can get most if not everything they distribute as well as a few one-off’s.

We sampled 12 of their beers and found a few of them to be pretty good, and a few misses. The reviews go right to left on the trays. The best part about this visit, was the discussion we had with the bartender and the people visiting the brewery like us about the scene and their beers. While the were good for the most part, the environment seemed a little bit on the ‘corporate’ vibe with the volume of people that were coming in and out, herding people for the brewery tours. It’s definitely worth a visit if you got time and in the area, especially if you’re going out for BBQ after drinking.

Boulevard Brewing Company
2501 Southwest Blvd.
Kansas City, MO 64108
Phone:(816) 474-7095
E: fineales@boulevard.com
Web: http://www.boulevard.com/
Face: https://www.facebook.com/Boulevard

Tank 7 Farmhouse Ale
Boulevard Brewing Co. • Saison/Farmhouse Ale • IBU: 38 • ABV: 8.5% • 6 SRM
Malt: Pale Malt, Malted Wheat
Adjuncts: Corn Flakes
Hops: Magnum, Bravo, Amarillo
Golden and slight cloudy draft, full and bubbly one finger white head with good retention and tons of lacing on the rim. Nose is really yeasty and stronger phenolics present. The front mouth is fruity and smooth with some sharper lemon-grass hops on the mid-back. The malts and grains show up on the back to support this big beer. Lingering yeast funk on the back.
Ginger-Lemon Radler
Boulevard Brewing Co. • Fruit / Vegetable Beer • IBU: 12 • ABV: 4.1% • 3 SRM
Cloudy and off-yellow hue, flat head, no retention and little lacing. The nose is weak, really shallow sugars and hints of lemon zest. The front to mid mouth is all sweet lemon aid and little ginger to speak of, or hops, or malts. There is a hit of spice on the mid to back, with some almost acidic dry finishing characteristics to it.
Hibiscus Gose
Boulevard Brewing Co. • Gose • IBU: 11 • ABV: 4.2% • 12 SRM
Orange-coppery color, clear draft with a thin head that dropped to a sheen. The nose is slightly acidic and yeasty with coriander spices. The front mouth is juicy, acidic, thin, lemon and sharper hit of spice again. The yeast is present from front to back. The malts are on the back with the slight dry finish.
The Calling
Boulevard Brewing Co. • Imperial India Pale Ale • IBU: 75 • ABV: 8.5% • 8 SRM
Clean golden hue, slight head that dropped quickly, no lacing. The nose is hop florals, citrus rind/pith, and some sweet hints. The front mouth is sharp, dry-hopping profile with a range of fruit, citrus, and herbal hop profiles dancing around. The citrus hops come out strongest on the mid-back, with a dry finishing and lingering piney hop resin. This is more of a east coast style IPA than west coast.
Red I.P.A.
Boulevard Brewing Co. • American IPA • IBU: 75 • ABV: 5.8% • 25 SRM
Malt Bill: Pale, Munich, Amber, Cara 120, Cara 300, Chocolate Malt
Kettle/Whirlpool Hops: Chinook, Simcoe, Equinox, Exp 6300
Dry Hopping: Simcoe, Amarillo, Citra
Dark amber/red hue, no head or lacing to speak of. The nose is super malty and dry biscuits with sweet toffee notes. The front mouth is super hoppy and dry with hints of pine cones, dried leaves, earthy acidic notes. Mouth-feel is full, but left me with an oily like resin coating.
Single-Wide I.P.A.
Boulevard Brewing Co. • American India Pale Ale • IBU: 57 • ABV: 5.7% • 14 SRM
Malt: Pale Malt, Amber 50, Malted Wheat, Munich, Cara 50
Hops: Zeus, Bravo, Cascade, Centennial, Simcoe, Citra
Darker straw yellow/orange draft with minimal head and lacing. Nose is sharp with grassy yeast like a pilsner, tons of hop fruitiness follows. The front mouth is floral, dried hops and resiny. The mid to back is pretty strong with acidic grapefruit hop resins and metallic/earthy back notes. The malt is really secondary on this one.
Heavy Lifting I.P.A.
Boulevard Brewing Co. • American India Pale Ale • IBU: 80 • ABV: 6.2% • 14 SRM
Coppery orange hue, slight head that left some lacing, but not much. The nose is floral and citrus hops, slight dried fruit. The front mouth is dried and tropical fruits, slight oily hops. The mid to back mouth-feel is full bodied, mid-carbonated, stronger citrus pith, slight sweet notes on the back.
Unfiltered Wheat
Boulevard Brewing Co. • American Pale Wheat Ale • IBU: 14 • ABV: 4.4% • 6 SRM
Malt: Pale Malt, Unmalted Wheat, Malted Wheat
Hops: Bravo, Zeus, Summit
Bright cloudy yellow sunshine with white foamy head that had ok retention, leaving large bubbly lacing on the rim. The nose is lemon zesty, dried yeast, and some crackery breads. The front mouth is fully carbonated, lemon rind bitters, slight yeast presence, some hits sweet honey and other fruits on the mid-back like banana and apples. Subtle dry lemon on the after-taste.
KC Pils
Boulevard Brewing Co. • Premium American Lager • IBU: 16 • ABV: 4.8% • 6 SRM
Malt: Pale Malt, Pilsner, Munich, Cara 50
Hops: Perle, Magnum, Saaz
Nice golden hue, full head that dropped to a mild rim on the glass. The nose is a little bit sharp with lemon grass but fades off quickly. The front mouth is a bit effervescent with full carbonation and a grassy, dry-hopped presence on the palette. The beer is a little thinner than the others we tried with a thin cracker grain back. Had a nice lingering dry hop lemon-grass bitterness on the back.
Pale Ale
Boulevard Brewing Co. • American Pale Ale • IBU: 30 • ABV: 5.4% • 14 SRM
Malt: Pale Malt, Munich, Cara 50, Cara 120
Hops: Zeus, Magnum, Simcoe, Styrian Golding, Cascade
Mid-amber hue, slight off-white head that had some retention and little lacing. The nose is somewhat sweet-breads, caramel, hints of fall-spices. The front mouth is a little bit dry up front, fresh cut grassy bitters, slight acidic hit on the back. The sugars linger to the back and leave a sweet, caramel after taste.
80-Acre Hoppy Wheat Beer
Boulevard Brewing Co. • American Pale Wheat Ale • IBU: 20 • ABV: 5.5% • 4 SRM
Cloudy and lighter yellow hues on the draft, slight white head that dropped with some minimal spidery lacing. The nose is thin, lemony, yeast with hits of coriander, banana sweet breads. The front mouth is a bit thin, over-carbonated, malts are dried and cracker like. The mid to back is full bodied, the dried citrus and grassy hops are expressed more on the back.
Pop-Up Session I.P.A.
Boulevard Brewing Co. • American India Pale Ale • IBU: 40 • ABV: 4.3% • 5 SRM
Clear bright yellow draft with little to no head. Nose is pine/grapefruits and citrus pith. The front mouth is effervescent with dry acidic bitters, lemon peel, and grapefruit to pine resins. The acidic attack continues to the mid-back, downing out the malts, with a drop off of the citrus and lingers to a sharp, dry hop resin/pine.

Leave a Reply