Beer Spotlight!

Boulevard Whiskey Barrel Stout

$16.99 for the 12oz four-pack bottles
Whiskey Barrel-Aged Stout

Founded in 1989, Boulevard Brewing Company is based in the Missouri side of Kansas City. Their Whiskey Barrel Stout is a year-round offering which we’ve avoided, because we feared, like other whiskey barrel stouts that we’ve had, that it would be thin. Boy, were we wrong!

Boulevard starts digging into this beer with the malt. They drill down with “several types” of barley, rye, oat, and wheat malts. They balance all of that with just enough hops to let the malt take center stage … and boy does it ever!

The Whiskey Barrel Stout has a deep chocolate taste with notes of dates and plums rising from the rich body that somehow doesn’t wipe out the whiskey barrel aging. One third of this beer is fresh, while the other two thirds is aged for a year or more in first and second use whiskey barrels. Even with one of three whiskey arms tied behind its back, as it were, you still get that whiskey bite at the top of your mouth, giving the beer a little spark that lasts through the finish.

“Over-the-top but surprisingly approachable,” says Boulevard. Nailed it.