Boulevard Dry Stout

Gotta agree with Nuffield, this is a pretty darn good stout, if you give it a chance. But then again when you have a bunch of brew snobs or should i say pseudo brew snobs, this beer won’t get the real rating it should have.

Sent from a friend in Kansas. Nice coffee flavor, but a thin palate. It’s drier than the porter, but has about the same body. Too thin for the style, or at least for my taste.

black with slight ring of a head. aroma is roast with some caramel. taste is chocolate and sweet coffee. light not quite watery mouthfeel, refreshing finish with a revitalizing coffee bitter. a nice stout.

Bottle. Very nice toastiness with some chocolate, coffee, and a slight sour note. Overall pretty enjoyable.

Black Coloring with Light Tan Head. Quickly Vanishing Bubble by Bubble. Malty Aroma...Dry and Dusty... Roasts.. Espresso Roasts on the Tongue..Malt and Some Amount of Carbonation..Possibly Some Dark Chocolate. Medium Mouthfeel...Dry Aftertaste. Nice Brew to Have Around.

On tap, Crescent Moon Ale House, Omaha. Beautiful beer in the glass, this is exactly what a stout should look like: opaque black, stiff tan head that retains well and laces well, with amazing sub-surface bubble action on the side of the glass. The aroma was weak, vaguely roasty. "Delicate" is an appropriate word in the description; not only does the beer have stages of flavor, but they appear perfectly balanced that the transitions are smooth. Refreshingly light yet noticable dark cherry rides a creamy medium body and a soft but intense-enough bitter in the beginning; this morphs to a nicely sweet maltiness in the middle with bready notes that still retains a light and medium bodied refreshing mouthfeel. The finish starts in an intensifying of bitter hops that aren’t at all acrid or metalic; the transition from the medium and wet mouthfeel to the superbly dry bitter finish is where the delicacy really shows. I agree with Nuffield that comparing this to bigger and bolder stout varieties will make it seem like it’s lacking, but it really does well what it sets out to do.

Here is a beer that I think deserves a bit more respect than it has received thus far. In a beer world crowded by imperial stouts, I think it is too easy to dismiss a drinkable, basic stout as dull or lacking complexity. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t satisfy, and in the "hedonistic" analysis often suggested for beer rating, this beer does that enough to justify at least a 3.4/3.5 average, not its current 3.18 average (April 2005). It pours solidly opaque black with an off-white head; the yeast pour from the secondary fermentation is a nice touch if you like that kind of thing. The aroma is chocolate with a hint of sourness; roasted flavors are also anticipated; classic stout. The palate, even from the bottle, strikes me as a brewpub kind of body--too much carbonation, though the tingle doesn’t seem to come only from the fizz but also from the dryness that leaps out at your palate, which is probably more accustomed to a sweet stout full of residual sugars. The smoke quality is the surprising dimension to the flavor, though it isn’t too aggressive and it gives the beer a long finish that makes you ponder. It isn’t complex--it is just a basic roast/chocolate beer, but the dry smoke makes it more interesting. Soften the palate, put it on cask, and send it to England, and you’d have English raters pleased with the subtle qualities of this session stout (like a Mauldons Black Adder), but to American palates and with this carbonation, it isn’t given enough of a chance.

Black color with a medium tan head that disintegrates fairly quickly. A hint of malt in the aroma. The taste is more smoky than I would expect in a stout. Slightly burnt roasts and chocolate as well.