Second Stop – Boulevard Brewing Company

I barely know where to begin with this one. I suppose I should start with a HUGE “thank you” to Julie Weeks, the Marketing Communications Manager for Boulevard. She went above and beyond to make sure that I was taken care of today on my visit to Boulevard.

<--Me with Boulevard brewmaster Steven Pauwels

Boulevard’s bottle caps and much of their other artwork features drawings of their iconic brick smokestack. As I drove down Southwest Boulevard looking for the brewery I was more than a little frustrated from the complete stoppage on I-35 on my way into Kansas City. My mood sank even further when I realized that I must be lost because I had driven significantly past where the brewery was supposed to be. The landmark I had been searching for, the ubiquitous smokestack from all of their advertising, was shrouded for repairs. Also of little help to me was the fact that the side of the brewery facing the street is is just simple red brick that blends perfectly into the neighborhood. Aesthetically it’s nice, but I giant gaudy flashing sign would have been of significantly more help to me!

The building’s back is much more impressive! Four foot tall lettering spells out “Boulevard Brewing Company” across the roof and the architecture of a modern brewery is clearly visible. I was still forty minutes early so I took the opportunity to make a few laps around the brewery complex. I was impressed by the employees leaving with six-packs of beer to take home. I was later told that most of it was the brand new Smokestack Series beers that were being packaged in 12 oz bottles for the first time ever. Sure, they were going to have to let them sit in a cool, dark place for a couple of weeks, but they still get to take home what is absolutely the freshest beer around.

The one sad thing about my walk around the brewery was the number of broken Corona bottles strewn around the outside. Sure, the brewery is in a Hispanic neighborhood and it isn’t the richest area in Kansas City, but you can do better than THAT! You’re literally standing on the property owned by an excellent craft beer maker and you’re drinking….Corona? I don’t think I could do that if I tried!

Once inside my afternoon consisted of a tour of the brewery and an absolutely delectable lunch with each course paired to a Boulevard beer that was prepared by the executive chef of Lidia’s Kansas City, Dan Swinny. Each month Boulevard does one of these “Brewmaster Luncheons” featuring different local chefs. The event is limited to 35 participants but every month hundreds of people are vying for those spots. Then a lottery is drawn to see who is lucky enough to attend.

Are you ready to be jealous? If so, read on.

The lunch consisted of butternut squash stuffed ravioli in sage brown butter and toasted almonds paired with the relatively new Amber beer. Brewmaster Steven Pauwels said that he and Swinny chose that combination because of the way the toasted almonds and the sweetness of the amaretto in the pasta filling match with the amber. The meat course consisted of a succulent lamb shank coated in Venetian spices with sweet potato Swiss chard mash that paired masterfully with Boulevard’s Sixth Glass beer from their Smokestack Series. Finally for dessert we were treated to a copa of Boulevard stout ice cream, barley malt ice cream, and Boulevard stout granita. Atop all of those were lightly toasted grains of barley. This pairing was with another beer from the smokestack series, Long Strange Tripel. Despite being one of my favorite beers from Boulevard this pairing didn’t work nearly as well as the others. The amber and sixth glass matched almost seamlessly with the food. They each complimented the dishes in an ideal way which brought out the flavors in both the food and the drinks. The tripel was great, the desserts were great, I just wasn’t in love with how they mixed.

While the food was being served Steven Pauwels walked from table to table to talk beer with the diners. His friendly demeanor, in-depth knowledge, and passion for what he does helped make a great event even better.

In my book I’ll be detailing some of my conversation with Pauwels, the history of Boulevard, and many of the interesting things I found out about the brewery today. The important thing to take away from today’s post is that if you’re in the Kansas City area make sure you’re putting your name in for the lottery every time one of these evens happens, you’ll be happy you did!

Up next I continue south of I-35 to the Co-op Ale Works in Oklahoma City.

Brewfest 2010

I spent yesterday afternoon at Principal Park in Des Moines taking part in the Cityview Brewfest. It was a dreadfully hot afternoon but as drinkers entered the front gates they were greeted by giant tubs full of complementary bottles of water. A few other stations

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with free water were also posted around the Park’s concourse along with drinking fountains.

If not for the abundance of free water and the fact that the entire event took place in the shade, things could have gotten awful pretty quickly. Luckily though, that wasn’t the case, and it was an amazing event!

All told there was somewhere in the range of 375 beers available for sampling and I did my best to get my money’s worth. It was my first beerfest of any kind and I learned a lot of lessons on what to do, and what not to do at an event like that.

Upon my arrival at the four hour event I decided to get as many samples as I could. I was nearly jogging to get from table to table to try as many one ounce samples as I could. At the first few tables I sampled three or four of the six to seven available. The upside of that was that I got a better range as to the actual quality of those breweries instead of just one or two samples.

The downside of sampling multiple beers at each table was that I got drunk much quicker than I should have if I wanted to actually evaluate the beers I was trying out. That little misstep meant that we had to take an extended break in order to get ready for round two.

While at a table sucking down some water we were joined by three other jolly beer drinkers taking a break. There was almost no interaction between the two groups until they got up to leave and as a parting gift gave us a stack of tokens for free entry to a local strip club.

We paced ourselves much better once we were back at it by not drinking for quantity anymore. Instead we focused our efforts more closely on finding quality beers; I was particularly on the lookout for beers I had never tried.

The whole brewfest was fun, but as with anything, there were some clear high-points. The Sam Adams tent was deservedly one of the best spots at the fest. They had all of their usual suspects there for sampling but they also had three beers from their imperial series and one special treat. Sam Adams is currently taking votes between a Belgian Style IPA and American Rye Ale. I got to cast my vote (American Rye) and in exchange for my troubles I got a nifty keychain.

Another of the best spots to hit was the Boulevard Brewery table. Like Sam Adams they had their usual suspects, but they also featured all four of their Smokestack Series beers. I had never tried out any of the Smokestack Series so I went through their line four times so as to try them all.

My third big highlight was all of the local breweries present. No matter where I am, I’m always a big fan of local brew. In Champaign I enjoyed going over to the Blind Pig Brewery on Fridays. In Fort Worth, not much beats the Saturday afternoons at Rahr Brewing. At brewfest we had the brewpubs Rock Bottom Brewing, Granite City Brewery, Court Avenue Brewing, and Raccoon River Brewing. The Iowa breweries present included the standards of Olde Main, and Millstream. Also there were a few breweries I’m less familiar with such as Hub City Brewing Company, Madhouse Brewing, and a few others. I want to give a special mention here to Peace Tree Brewing down in Knoxville, IA. I got an email from Megan at Peace Tree Brewing before the brewfest reminding me to be sure to stop by their table. I wasn’t familiar with Peace Tree before she emailed me so I got a six of their Red Rambler, it was pretty good. At brewfest I had them pour me a sample of their Blonde Fatale, it amazed me. It isn’t currently available in stores but be sure you’re watching closely for it, I can’t wait until I can buy it at my local grocery store!

I had a lot beer Saturday, but my two favorites were the Long Strange Tripel and the Sam Adams Imperial White. I’ve always liked both breweries, but these two beers were FAR beyond anything I’ve come to expect from either.

Overall, brewfest was an incredible event; I can barely believe that Des Moines is lucky enough to host something like it. Cityview and the other sponsors really deserve some cheering on for bringing it to town. Here’s hoping that it keeps growing and getting even better in the future!

Deep Fried Twinkies

Yesterday we had another beautiful night here in Illinois. I sat down with another ideal summertime beer, Zōn, which is apparently Flemish for “sun,” from Boulevard Brewing Company. Zōn is a Belgian-style Witbeer only made available from Boulevard during the summer months. Zōn has a nice flavor that is almost, but not quite, overpowered by the citrus and coriander. It is just enough to distinguish itself from most other Belgian ales without losing the characteristics of the style.

The low alcohol by volume of 4.4% is perfect for what I look for in a summer beer. It means that I can easily sit down and have a couple without worrying about ending up on my ass.

Now here is the carnival-goer in me coming to the surface. Last night I broke out my deep fryer and fried up some zucchini with homemade ranch to dip it in made by my wonderful friend Jessie. We also battered some goat cheese balls, rolled them in crushed pecans, and fried those. Then to wrap it all up I made a carney classic, fried twinkies. I’m only bringing up all of this fried food from last night to mention that the twinkies were perfectly complimented by the Zōn I was drinking. That really speaks pretty loudly as to what kind of blogger I am, my beer pairings are about what goes well with a deep-fried twinkies.

I always enjoy beers from Boulevard Brewing but my favorite things to do is always to get their variety pack with two bottles of five of their year round beers and two bottles of whichever seasonal they’re producing. If you get one of the variety packs now it will include Zōn as the summer seasonal. Especially if you’re not already familiar with Boulevard’s beers I would strongly suggest that you skip on the six of Zōn and instead go for the variety 12-pack. That’s a good rule of thumb for most breweries you aren’t familiar with, but I think it holds particularly true with boulevard.

If you do go with a six of Zōn then to give you the best idea possible of what you’re going to get I would say that as far as Belgian white/wheat ales go it is better than a Blue Moon, but not as good as Hoegaarden. It is absolutely something I would, and will, but again!