Well I'm back again and this time, I bring to you a review of a style I am absolutely in love with. Some of the first non-mass produced American beer that I had was Belgian, and this beer was a wonderful American version of a classic Belgian style. I was especially lucky because I found a single bottle of this one. It's a part of Boulevard's Smokestack Series, so it's a smaller batch and the 4 pack can be a little pricey at 12 bucks. But then again can one really put cost first when searching for top quality brews?
I really enjoyed Boulevards take on this classic style. This brew poured a nice, cloudy gold, with over 2 fingers of nice white head after the initial pour. A good amount of head remained throughout the tasting, and there was a huge amount of lacing all over the glass as I drank. I didn't have to swirl this beer at all to revive the head the whole time I was drinking it. The head retention on this beer was nuts.
The most enjoyable part about drinking Belgian beer, in my opinion, is the aroma. This beer had an incredibly enticing aroma. It started out with the typical fruity esters given off by the Belgian yeast. The aroma of this beer was a nice light and tropical fruity scent. I could also sense some bready malts underneath the fruit. This beer had a very pleasant aroma in general and I really could have sat there and just smelled it for quite a while longer, but who wants to do that when there is still tasting to do.
This brew had a fantastic taste that complimented the aroma perfectly. On my first taste I got fruit, predominantly banana. There was also a taste of sugary alcohol that was mellowed out nicely by the breadiness of the malt. (You'll have to excuse my English. These beer tastings have me reinventing the language in order to convey what I'm tasting to you, the wonderful reader.) There was also a nice subtle bite about halfway through the sip from the hops, but the esters and fruitiness from the Belgian yeast, along with the sugary alcohol taste dominated this beer. I thought that the balance between the intense fruity flavors and the malt was almost perfect. The beginning of each sip was intense but mellowed out really nicely as it approached the back of my tongue.
As I said before, this beer had an insane amount of carbonation throughout the tasting. Once it was in your mouth it took on a pretty light body. There was a lot of carbonation at the beginning of each sip but as it neared the end of my tongue, it mellowed out a little bit.
The after taste of this bear was really good. It was sweet and consisted of the fruitiness from the beginning of the sip and from the aroma.
Overall I really enjoyed this beer. I really thought the aroma of this beer was fantastic and it really set up the excellent taste as well. I enjoyed the banana in the taste, and thought that the malts really balanced out well with the rest of the flavors to make for a very pleasant and mild end to what starts out as a very flavorful sip. If you like Belgian beer then I would definitely give this one a whirl.
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