Boulevard Saison-Brett

Great American Beer Festival 2010

ABV: 8.5%
Origin: Kansas City, Missouri, USA
Website: www.boulevard.com

Boulevard Smokestack Series Saison Brett

Boulevard, founded by John Macdonald on Kansas City’s historic Southwest Boulevard in 1989, now claims to be the biggest speciality brewer in the Mid-West and the second largest brewer of any type in Missouri. Impressively, though, it’s built this success on some seriously specialist brewing. All the bottled beers in a very large range are bottle conditioned and besides popular pales, ambers and wheat beers there’s a mouthwatering selection of eclectic and imaginative specials, some of them known as the Smokestack Series after a historic brick chimney at the brewery site.

Such a beer is Saison-Brett, normally only available in 750ml bottles and then only in limited quantities, but during the Great American Beer Festival I caught it on draught, tapped by head brewer Steven Pauwels as a GABF special at Denver’s very pleasant Belgian-themed beer café The Cheeky Monk. Based on Tank 7, the brewery’s more regular saison-style beer, it’s been souped up with dry hopping (though still only at 38 IBU) and tweaked with unusual yeasts including, as the name suggests, Brettanomyces.

The beer came out a hazy warm gold with a fairly low bubbly white head. The distinctive wet vinyl note imparted by the brett was immediately evident on an estery, slightly tarry and medicinal aroma, alongside piny hop notes. A very unusual smooth palate had very complex brett “funk”, light lemon juice, wet stone, spiced orange and a touch of liquorice well supported by creamy blond malt. I noted a low carbonation which is probably specific to this draught version, as the notes I’ve read online on the bottled equivalent say the opposite. The finish slowly built tangy and chewy notes, with fennel spice and a trace of brown sugar. For all its complexity, the beer has a refreshing, easy drinking quality that easily belies its strength. Remarkable.

Read more about this beer at ratebeer.com: http://www.ratebeer.com/beer/boulevard-saison-brett/61449/