Beer of the Week - Boulevard Pilsner

After being in Kansas City for almost the past two weeks, there is really no other beer to pick than the most recent production from Boulevard:  the Boulevard Pilsner.  It was developed in honor of the old breweries from before prohibition.  Kansas City used to be home to many different breweries, but after prohibition many of them did not return.  Boulevard used an old recipe from a small brewery owned by George Muehlebach.  It’s a traditional pilsner made with the idea that a beer is supposed to have a bold flavor – something the major brewers have forgotten.  The American pilsner traditionally was a strong, crisp lager with an emphasis on the barley, which creates the body of the beer.  The new American pilsner substitutes rice and corn for the barley, making it much lighter and weaker in flavor.  So, the new pilsner from Boulevard brings back the traditional flavor of the American lager and a little taste of history.

Back to Blogging

All right, now I know that I have been totally slacking on this blog for the past few weeks, but I have the excuse that I was finishing up college and then headed out of town for a little while.  A little pat on the back here for myself, as I am now a graduate from CU.  Awesome.  Over the past few weeks I have been doing a lot with my beer, bottling, transferring, fermenting, and with the help of my wonderful girlfriend making a wedding gift for my cousin.  My IPA is now in the secondary fermentation process with the dry hops, and it looks a little crazy with all the hops floating at the top.  My Scottish Ale is now in bottles and carbonating.  I tasted it right before bottling (very malty) but with time I am sure it will be an awesome beer.  Not too strong, but full of flavor. 

The wedding gift turned out better than I had even hoped for.  We put the Scotch Ale into a blue Grolsch style bottle – that’s the one with the cool flip top things instead of a bottle cap or cork.  Meg made a fantastic label for the bottle and we put it in a wine chiller with a sweet kitchen towel with a vintage map on it (shout out to Geography majors).  It looks great.

               

While I was away in Kansas City, I had a chance to go see Boulevard Brewing Company’s brewery.  It was a great tour; the brewery is huge, modern and making an eco-friendly effort with its green roof and loads of natural lighting.  Last year, Boulevard produced enough beer to be named the 16^th largest brewery in the nation.  In 2006 Boulevard finished their facility expansion and now has the ability to produce 600,000 barrels a year.  To put that into prospective: one keg of beer has around 165 beers in it, and one keg is half of a barrel.  So, 600,000 barrels means almost 200 million beers a year.  For being a regional distributed brewery, there are a lot of Midwesterners out there getting a little more than tipsy, but at least they are drinking good beer. 

Next on my to-do list is rocking an interview tomorrow with Oskar Blues and going on a tour at the New Belgium Brewery in Fort Collins, one of the most sustainability-advanced breweries in the nation, but more on that later.