Brewer's Choice 2022: Rum Barrel-Aged Spice Cake
Boulevard Brewing Co.

Notes of eggnog, cherry, and alcohol on the nose

In the taste I get alcohol, chocolate, cherry, leather, molasses, fig, walnut, and spices, cinnamon specifically, it's quite sweet

Feel is slick and oily

Excellent beer, would drink again

 

 

 

Dark brown in color with a murky complexion. There’s a fingernail of brown around the rim and covering a quarter of the top. The aroma is of caramel and light rum. I’m tasting caramel, banana, and light rum. The mouth is thick and boozy.

 

 

toffee, cinnamon, rum, syrup
mouthfeel is wonderful, after taste is too sweet

I got a bottle of this beer from my good friend and old neighbor from the 'Wego. It poured an opaque dark with essentially no head and no lace. The scent had cinnamon rum soaked coffee cake notes. The taste was nicely balanced and easy to sip. There was a very maple sweet malt base with cinnamon spice cake spritzed with rum. The mouthfeel was fuller in body and had subtle carbonation. Overall it is a great beer.

Bottled 8/24/24

Trying to emulate a spice cake of all pastries is a bit out left field. What’s even more out there is using a Brown Ale as a base. Wouldn’t you want an English Barleywine or something similar? The strange choice is what draws me to this one. I’m curious, let’s dig in

Pours an opaque light brown with a finger of creamy light tan head that slowly fades to a thin cap and leaves minimal lacing

Well, it’s certainly spiced, quite sweet in the nose but not overpowering. I’m picking up on aromas of maple syrup, cinnamon sugar, sticky caramel, toffee, milk chocolate, sliced rum, vanilla, and light oak

It’s pretty similar in taste as well, and it works for what it is. On the front end of the sip I’m tasting maple syrup, spiced rum, caramel, toasted oak, raisin, brown sugar, milk chocolate, and dark bread. The swallow brings notes of cinnamon sugar, spiced rum, sweet maple, milk chocolate, molasses, vanilla, baked apple, toffee, and light oak

A medium full body pairs with gentle carbonation, resulting in a rich beer. Finishes a tad sticky but drinks well below its abv

This is a fun one. I still think the base beer is a bit light for what’s going on here, but I dig it

 

 

 

Best By: 08-24-24

A - Deep brown in appearance but deep burgundy when the glass is held to the light. Lacing is dense and dark tan in color, carbonation is little to none.

S - Brown sugar, rum, spice, and booze cake.

T - Alcohol presence is bold and up front throughout followed with toasted brown sugar, Rum soaked raisins, and spice.

M - Light syrupy and silky in texture with pronounced warming in the back of the throat while finishing wet on the tongue and dry on the walls of the mouth.

O - This one was a surprise and had low expectations because I'm not a Rum fan. This particular 2022 Brewer's Series is quite the opposite and worth checking out if you dig big boozy sippers.

12 bottle pours out dark murky brown with minimal head. The fruit cake and spirit barrel make themselves known with a rummy, fruity backbone blending well with the bready caramel malt, toasted bread, toffee, minor espresso, some baking spices and brown sugar. This works as a brown ale, but would have been good as a stout too IMO.

 

Pour (into regulation Blvd tulip, half full) was fairly flat, a slight surface gurgle formed after being released into the air. Leaves some slight lacy streaks as it is gradually consumed. Look is an appealing semi-opaque brunette. Nose is distinctly of cinnamon, nutmeg, brown sugar, cloves, noticeable sassy fumes from the barrel. Taste corroborates what the scent foretold - a spicy liquid dessert indeed (and as mentioned prior, a certain cola-ish feel to it). Smooth swallow, doesn't feel overbearingly sweet, rich nor sticky. Lingers pleasantly on the tongue. No overt rum burn as it takes its rest in the gullet.

Naughty but nice, it's sugar and spice. I think Mr Claus would find it a welcome diversion from the tired ol' milk-n'-cookies reward this Holiday.

Brewer’s Choice 2022 Rum Barrel-aged Spice Cake from Boulevard Brewing. Mixed six-pack of 12 oz bottles from Franklin Beer, Franklin, on 08/12/22. $23.00 (Including tax) = $ 0.319/oz. Reviewed 14/12/22. Note that I use DD/MM/YY protocol.
Rear label stamped “Please Enjoy By 24Aug2024”. Served at 46.2 degrees in a hand washed and dried Jester King snifter. The final temperature was 50.1 degrees.
Appearance – 3.5.
First pour – Medium Amber (SRM 12), hazy.
Body – Brown (SRM 20), muddy. Under direct light, same. When rear-lite, translucent and red amber.
Head – Small (Maximum 0.5 cm, aggressive center pour), wheat, high density and fizzy, quickly diminishing to a zero to 0.5 cm crown with a thin partial cap.
Lacing – None. Not expected at 12.7% ABV.
Aroma – 4.25 – Ginger and raisins, no hops, no yeast. On the exhale, rum is faintly evident.
Flavor – 4.25 – Flavor follows the nose – initially slightly sweet with ginger, allspice, raisins and rum, no hops, no yeast. No ethanol (12.7 % ABV as marked on label) aroma or taste. No oakiness noted. Mild gastric warming occurs. No dimethylsulfide or diacetyl.
Palate – 4 – Medium, almost creamy, soft carbonation.
Final impression and summation: 4 Yep, distinctly spice cake and some rum. Looks like every American brown ale.