Boulevard Lunar Ale

Formerly brewed at Boulevard Brewing Company
Style: Dunkelweizen
Kansas City, Missouri USA

Serve in Stein, Weizen

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I think this may be my new favorite Boulevard brew. Resembles a Unibroue in the glass - a hazy orangish brown with a creamy head. Smells like spice, banana, and maybe a hint of citrus. Flavors of banana, peach, raisins, wheat; a little earthy, sweet, but with a slightly bitter finish. Aftertaste lingers maybe a bit too long. Overall, quite a good beer.

From the tap, served at cellar temperature in a Boulevard pint glass. Poured a cloudy golden hued brown with a foamy, creamy white head that quickly settled into a fine lacing. Aromas of clove, musty bread, a light spiciness and husky wheat. Moderate carbonation and a crisp, dry, thin, smooth medium-full bodied mouthfeel. For me, not bad tasty, but too thin and watery in places, clove and a banana fruitiness come out in the beginning, spicy, musty bread, the wheat malts are thin and are a bit watery, the alcohol is light, but noticeable, a soft spicy bitterness at the end, and a dry, bitter, but watery malty finish. I wanted to be impressed by this, but wasn’t, passable drinkable, then again, one glass and I’m done.

Not a bad entry into the Americanized world beers. Subtle spicy-banana aroma. Nice mixture of med-full body & tight carbonation. Flavor is interesting and relatively safe with mild fruit/sweetness followed by only slightly more bold spiciness. Not too exciting, but enjoyable.

UPDATED: SEP 4, 2007 Pours hazy bronze with a small fizzy tan head. The aroma has dark creamy wheat, banana esters, cloves and other spices. Medium body with lots of sharp carbonation. The taste has much less banana than the nose. There is a good amount of spice, dark wheat and some lemon. The finish adds quite a bits of peppery spice. The taste did not have flavors nearly as bold as the aroma. This was fine, but not as good as I was hoping for or the aroma promised. (7/3/6/3/14 - 3.3)
Earlier Rating: 10/7/2006 Total Score: 3.6
Experimental bottle at Augusta Bottoms Beer Festival 2006. Pours dark hazy brown with a small off-white head. The aroma has banana, citrus, peach, dark wheat, light spice and some nectar. Medium body with sharp carbonation. The body was lighter than expected for the style and the carbonation was more pronounced - however, both worked for this beer. The taste was quite fruity with citrus, nectar and banana. There was also some spice mixed into the flavors. The finish brings out more spice and some hoppiness. Nice interesting beer. <P> Rerate notes: 09/04/2007 After having a considerable amount of this I looked back at my rating & feel I gave it far too low of an initial rating. The aroma has a lush mixture which includes what’s mentioned above along with some nuttiness and a light Belgium twist. The taste has richness of the wheat, but a distinctly different taste than any other beer I’ve had - smooth chocolate, light banana, raisins, that light Belgium flavor which just hints at such a thing. It melds a lot - soft, yet sturdy - bold, yet gentle - unique, but not over the top. I can understand a lot of the low scores here because it is probably only on a sample or first bottle. I was not in awe of the first bottle, but gain more appreciation the more I have it. Cheers to Blvd for this fine ale.

Another experimental bottle from the brewery. 12oz. Somewhat hazy brown amber hue with golden highlights. Lively pour with a quickly dissipating white head. Banana perfumy yeasty head aromas. Slight earthy nutty malt aroma. Lively and medium bodied. Cocoa note. Floral fruity yeast flavors. Nice bitter hop finish. Nice effervescence. Medium to light malt roast. Slight dry finish with a citrus hop note and a banana yeast note. Easy and tasty.

12-oz. experimental bottle. Poured a dense dark brown with a light white head. Started with a banana aroma, boosted by the significant carbonation. The effervescent mouthfeel accentuated the early hoppy flavor that was matched by a dry, dark wheaty flavor that led to a late, diminishing wheat character into the finish, similar to the Aventinus but without the bigger alcohol/sweet character. For the Midwest, this could go places.

Tap at brewery. Pours flimsy amber with a subdued molasses and clove aroma. Flavor is clove and banana, but they never really assert themselves. Watery palate. Not bad, but amp up the flavors a little bit.