Sweet Czech dark lager brings caramel-burnt toffee, brown chocolate, molasses cake and creme brulee niceties to the front above light hop toasting. Honeyed pumpernickel breading and tobacco-leafed crisping sit way below mocha attributes.
(FRANCHES-MONTAGNES) CUVEE ALEX LE ROUGE
Swiss-styled Imperial Stout (with French-wined cuvee overtones) succeeds as its soured lactic mocha essence brings forth a somewhat unique flavor profile. “A crunch of bitter chocolate or a cigar” reads the label. Leathery oaken sourness infiltrates brown chocolate spicing, mild smoked mocha malting, tepid cocoa-dried bittering and wispy vanilla creaming. Earthen black tea peppers vinous grape undertones and murky dark fruiting.
THIRSTY DOG BERNESE BARLEYWINE
Complexities abound for yummy butterscotch-candied elixir (with heady 10.5% ABV turbulence and ethyl alcohol burn). Plying chewy caramel-burnt cookie dough yeast sinew to buttered rum-spiced almond, pecan and toasted almond illusions. Beneath, smoky maple molasses sap picks up sugary vanilla, toffee and black cherry subsidy to contrast remedial dry-hopped pink grapefruit bittering.
NEW BELGIUM / THREE FLOYDS LIPS OF FAITH GRATZER ALE
Interesting collaboration between Indiana and Colorado brewers. German-styled gratzer with smoked Polish dark ale roots brings oak-smoked wheat to the fore alongside bittersweet mocha nuttiness. Baker’s chocolate, cocoa powder and black coffee illusions get reinforced by sneaky peat smoked malts and latent wood-burnt char. Dry finish obtains milk-soured lactic acidity.
WIDMER ALCHEMY ALE
On tap at The Lantern in Naperville, well-rounded pale ale pushes the envelope slightly without becoming too harshly alcoholic. Profoundly embittered IPA-like fruiting protrudes above crisp bite of stylish summer session ale. Pungent piney hop resin flourishes beside juicy pineapple, grapefruit, orange and peach tang, leaving an imprint on its mild wheat-sugared biscuit malt bottom.
BLUEGRASS NUT BROWN
Using a similar sinewy yeast profile as BBC’s Amber Ale and informed by its reliable maple-sugared nuttiness, fine medium-bodied dark ale places cola-walnut-hazelnut conflux above toasted rye breading and burnt caramel malts. Tertiary red grape snip nosedives.
BLUEGRASS SAISON
Imprecise farmhouse ale tosses raw-honeyed orange rot and yellow grapefruit souring at soapy grained murk. Off-putting molded fruitiness and dank hop astringency lower appeal. Phenol carbolic fizz depletes zesty lemon rind wisp.
BLUEGRASS AMBER ALE
Updated ’13 version of BBC Altbier thins out from syrupy honey pour to nutty caramelized Vienna-like malting before glutinous wheat flouring subsides and hasty malt liquor snip becomes metallic by murky sweet grained finish.
BOULEVARD SINGLE-WIDE IPA
Easy flowing sessionable IPA heightens sugary fruited malting against piney dry-hopped bittering. Sweet orange-peeled pineapple, mango, peach, nectar and kiwi tang spreads across lemony grapefruit rind affluence and whimsical floral bouquet. A zestier alternative to brewers’ Double Wide IPA.
BOULEVARD TASTING ROOM ESB
Classic English pub ale may be sessionable, but its body is only fair. Phenol hop astringency and musty earthen peat contrast teasing lemon spritz. Docile caramel malting and bread-crusted biscuit buttering need to be pushed forward. Nondescript, methinks, though very well-liked by enlightened Anglo proletariat.
BOULEVARD TASTING ROOM GINGER-LEMON RADLER
Not a slickly cloy shandy despite overriding lemon-candied tartness, sugary lemon soda fizz and distant lemonade sweetness. Instead, dry ginger herbage, salty Berliner Weisse-like coriander spicing and musty lemongrass musk bring certain bittering to acidic limoncello liqueur likeness. Light minty freshness nips at increasingly sour lemon-oiled finish.
STIEGL RADLER WITH GRAPEFRUIT
Easygoing summer session malt beverage (in a can) loads sugary yellow and pink grapefruit tang above soda-like spritz. Sparkling water crisping brightens citric lightness. Latent lemon-juiced wisp not far removed from a salted margarita. A worthy grapefruit-derived ale-ternative.
