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Boulevard Brewing Co.

2019 bottle drank 2023.

Very smooth balanced easy drinker without the big hop slam that American style normally has . solid beer.

 

Poured from a cork'n'cage bomber into a Dogfish Head tulip.

L: Opaque dark caramel brown pour. Thick off-white head leaves solid lacing.

S: Rich and malty. Caramel, toffee, dark fruit, and spice.

T.F: Just like it smells. Rich and bready... semi-sweet with loads of toffee and caramel. Brown sugar... a bit of fig/raisin. Stale hops and spice. Pine and booze. Medium to thick bodied... smooth and sticky.

O: A well done American Barleywine, and this one held up really well in the cellar. An enjoyable brew... one to sip, and glad I got to try this one.

 

Dark brown color with some red peeking through. No head.
Caramel, toffee, dark fruit aroma.
Mostly caramel and toffee taste. A little bit of raisin.
If I hadn't been told, I would have thought this was an English barleywine. Not aggressively hopped.

My wife picked this beer up for me quite a while ago. I've been sitting on it, waiting for the right time to try it. This weekend, St. Louis was hit with a monster snowfall, so it seemed like the perfect time to open it up.
The beer is a very dark brown liquid with a slim, dark-tan head. The aroma is of strong toffee and caramel maltiness. Some very ripe fruit. The taste is sweet, boozy, and soft. Rich and complex. It doesn't have the multi-layered depth of world-class barleywines, but this one is still solid. Full in body and satisfying on a cold winter day.

 

Deep brown color with a pronounced murkiness within. There's a fingernail of beige around the rim. I smell dark malt, toffee, and cola. I'm tasting toffee, leather, molasses, figs, and dates. The mouth is lightly warm with alcohol, sticky, and chewy.

At Pizza Paradiso/Georgetown. A bottle pour into a small snifter.

Tastes more like an english barleywine. Enjoyable nevertheless.

A - Pours a dark amber brown but clear albeit hard to see through. Almost no head. No alcohol legs. 3.5

S - Aromas of molasses, brown sugar, and caramel. 3.75

T - Malty, raisin, and assorted rummy flavors. Alcohol is noticeable with heat in the middle but it quickly fades. Low hoppiness. 3.75

MF - Medium heavy body, smooth, a bit syrupy, semi-dry finish. 4.0

 

 

 

750 ml bottle into snifter, bottled on 8/17/2017. Pours slightly hazy dark ruby red/brown color with a 1-2 finger dense and rocky light khaki head with awesome retention, that reduces to a nice cap that lingers. Nice dense soapy lacing clings around the glass, with a fair amount of streaming carbonation retaining the cap. Fantastic appearance. Aromas of big grapefruit, tangerine, peach, plum, apricot, raisin, fig, date, cherry, red apple, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, brown bread, and toasted biscuit; with light notes of nuttiness, roast, pepper, pine, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Damn nice aromas with great balance and complexity of citrus hops, fruity yeast, and dark/bready malt notes; with great strength. Taste of big grapefruit, tangerine, peach, plum, apricot, raisin, fig, date, cherry, red apple, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, brown bread, and toasted biscuit; with light notes of nuttiness, roast, pepper, pine, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast/toasted earthiness. Light pine, citrus peel, herbal, grassy, spicy bitterness on the finish. Lingering notes of grapefruit, tangerine, peach, plum, apricot, raisin, fig, date, cherry, red apple, caramel, brown sugar, toffee, brown bread, toasted biscuit, nuttiness, herbal, floral, grass, and yeast/toasted earthiness on the finish for a while. Incredible complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus hops, fruity yeast, and dark/bready malt flavors; with an awesome malt/bitterness balance, and zero cloying/astringent flavors after the finish. Lightly increasing dryness from lingering bitterness. Medium carbonation and fairly full body; with a very smooth, creamy/silky/bready, and lightly sticky mouthfeel that is fantastic. Mildly increasing warmth of 10.5% after the finish. Overall this is a fantastic barleywine! All around outstanding complexity, robustness, and balance of citrus hops, fruity yeast, and dark/bready malt flavors; very smooth and dangerously easy to sip on for the big ABV, with the mildly bitter/drying finish. Not overly sweet or bitter either way. Perfect balance of English/American styles as advertised. Fruity Scottish yeast and balanced classic C hops; with very rich/complex dark/bready English malts. A highly enjoyable offering.

 

L: bright dark brown with ruby highlights and under a 1/2" light tan blanket of foam with a very fine bead

S: rich and malty laced with rum, alcohol, plum, dark dried fruit, hints of sherry, red grapes and dark brown sugar

T: Spicy dark sugars, caramel, a touch of sherry, berry, dark dried fruit, raisin, rum and a dash of pine start the flavors balanced by a pleasant bitter accent and a warming rush of alcohol on the finish

F: full body very creamy and smooth but not viscous

O: nice balance between the malt, hop, yeast and alcohol flavors

Appearance: A nice bubble show builds two fingers of beige foam capping the tawny liquid; multiple strands of lacing dribble down after each sip

Smell: Apple and fig tones, buttressed by slightly burnt brown sugar and a hint of pine

Taste: Caramel with a slightly burnt brown sugar tone forward with a distinct fruity character building (apple and fig); through the middle, a piney element arrives to balance the sweeter side; the finish provides a balance between the sweeter malt, the fruit and the pine

Mouthfeel: Full bodied with moderate to high carbonation; warmth in the gullet

Overall: English in many ways but just enough piney hop flavors to nod toward this side of the pond

 

Pours a deep cola with just a whispy swirl of a head. Aroma is semi-sweet, amber malt, a little candi sugar and a nice kiss of soft pine hops. Taste is more towards a Belgian dark style than a barleywine - lots of dark phenol / fruit esters I assume from the usage of that sugar - but the malt is there & it isn't hopped to the max like a lot of American variations. Good balance, hops are piney citrus & grapefruit peel and that folds-in nicely with the general sweetness of the beer.

 

This beer pours a deep ruby brown with a large head. The aroma features brown sugar, nutmeg, baked apple, cinnamon, dates, and sweet bread. The flavor starts with a gentle sweetness and a burst of cinnamon spice, with notes of baked granny smith apple, sweet red malt, date nut bread, raisin, and chocolate. The mouthfeel medium bodied with soft carbonation. Overall this is a decent barleywine, but maybe a bit light for the style.