Blue Money
Boulevard Brewing Co.

Pours a purple red with a frothy one finger head that fades quickly. Aroma is about as blueberry as you can possibly imagine. Taste is mildly hoppy with a final profile of blueberry. Think more "blueberry" and less "IPA". One of the cleaner tasting fruit IPAs I've had.

Delicious smell of fruits, perhaps even blueberry. This carries over well on to the palate- quite nice! There is even a slight purplish hue, hinting at the sensations to come.

 

 

 

 

16oz can. Poured out a clear, reddish color with a small, off-white head of foam. It left sudsy trails of lace on the glass. It smelled of blueberry, pine, resin and some caramel. Lots of tart blueberry taste with some caramel sweetness. Mild bitter bite.

Pours an effervescent pinkish orange with a thumb of pink head. Some head retention & lacing

S: Berries

T: Blueberries with hints of vanilla & lime up front. Dryness, blueberry & lemon as this warms up. Finishes dry with some berry & dryness

MF: Medium body, fairly firm carbonation, good balance

Interesting flavors, but not really my thing, Pretty good drinkability

There is a date code on the can but it is lightly etched into the bottom: "L060622 18:58 02JAN2023D"

Appearance: The body is opaque and has a dark reddish-purple color that is approaching black. It has a short fluffy off-white head with hints of desaturated purple. The head fades out pretty quickly to a creamy textured ring. No real lacing. It has a pretty color.

Aroma: It smells like blueberry syrup.

Taste: Up front there is this vinous character with some blueberry notes. It tastes sweet at first. On the middle of the palate it has a more mellow blueberry note and it tapers off at the back of the palate without any additional flavor. The aftertaste is blueberry syrup and a light touch of alcohol. At times it seemed like there was a bit of cinnamon flavor.

Mouthfeel: It is light bodied and easy to drink. There is a light touch of bitterness which is nondescript but nothing noteworthy. Carbonation seems a little on the low side and it starts to get a touch flat as it is consumed.

Overall: The can states that this is a "BLUEBERRY IPA" and that it is an "ALE WITH BLUEBERRY AND NATURAL FLAVOR." It definitely has blueberry flavor and aroma. It is reminiscent of eating pancakes with blueberry syrup, minus the pancakes. While the blueberry character is nice, there isn't much support from the rest of the beer. The can states that this is "7.5% ALC/VOL." and although the alcohol comes through a little bit in the aftertaste, it does a really good job of concealing it otherwise. As a whole it was a pretty simple and one-note beer but it would probably scratch the itch for blueberry lovers. This beer would work best if it were tossed in a cooler with other beers to provide more variety; I could drink one but it gets a little boring.

 

Funny thing the can says IPA, which this is NOT. For a field beer this is good stuff, as an IPA is is horrible.... Good blueberry flavors and nose. I couldn't drink the entire can, however not because it was bad, just because it isn't my thing.

Fruit and beer have both a notorious and unified tradition together, so it's no surprise to see blueberries and hops living in the same glass together. Boulevard's tease of a beer is such one example and its straight money!

Blue Money pours with a deep and mauvish purple, crowned with a light purple froth. With the strong scent of blueberry leading the nose, the initial taste is built around pastry, taffy and cereal.

Whatever resembles malt sweetness and body falls away rather quickly once the beer washes over the middle palate. What's left behind is all the blueberry juiciness and its bold dark fruit flavor. Reminiscent of blackberry, currant and red grape, the beer seems to take on sour ale proportions until the bitterness sets in. The late palate shifts from tart berry juiciness and into the direction of bitter, grassy, herbal and citrusy hops as the beer finishes.

Fairly full, juicy and robustly flavored, the beer is quite confused on whether it wants to be a fruit beer or a bitter beer. The two opposing flavors seem to fight each other as the palate searches for either a more traditional IPA profile or a more tart taste to go along with the established fruitiness.