Review from the archives: Boulevard Single-Wide IPA (2011)

Review from the archives: January 9, 2011

This week's selection was supposed to be Lvivske Premium Lager in honour of Ukrainian Christmas (З Різдвом Христови!) but I realized I already did the lager in week 19.

Instead, this week's selection is Single Wide I.P.A by Boulevard Brewing Co. from Kansas City, Missouri USA. I picked up a 6-pack while in Minot, ND as I wanted to try out new American brews, and since this was on sale ($6.99/6), I thought it was a decent price, and I do love IPAs (and not those Alexander Keiths FauxPAs).

First thing: I love the case it comes in, it's a resealable cardboard box.. similar to what we are used to in Canada (with a more durable cardboard, like that used in a 12-pack), I love that it has the ability to be re-sealed (I'll show a photo of that later). The box even states that you should keep the box to use to store CDs, letters or anything you may like (or recycle it, of course).

So time to try out the beer, pouring the beer in the glass - wow, nice aroma of citrus and grapefruit, taste wise, it has a nice hoppy and citrusy zing but it's certainly not as hoppy flavour-wise as say Winnipeg's Half Pints' Little Scrapper.

A very solid India Pale Ale, but certainly not a beer the Keith's "India Pale Ale" would like, as that's not an IPA in any sense.

One thing I didn't like about it - no mention of the alcohol content ANYWHERE on the bottle or case. I had to look it up online - it has 5.7% alcohol content (not bad), IBU of 57, and that "Boulevard Single-Wide I.P.A. is our take on a style that originated in 18th century Great Britain. This American version—inspired by our Smokestack Series Double-Wide I.P.A.—boasts a heady combination of six varieties of hops, some of which were employed for dry-hopping."