Saturday, July 21, 2012

Boulevard Brewing Company - Unfiltered Wheat Beer

First, I apologize for the length delay between posts. My wife and I were on vacation in the Southeast United States visiting friends and family. I look forward to getting back into my writing and today I will commence my summer blogging with a review of Boulevard's Unfiltered Wheat.
While on vacation, Boulevard started sending parts of their portfolio outside of the Smokestack Series to Massachusetts. When I entered, Craft Beer Cellar in Belmont, MA, I was greeted with an expansive display of Unfiltered Wheat and Single Wide IPA. Since it was quite warm, I decided on the wheat because this style generally offers thirst quenching capability while be very refreshing.
This wheat beer pours a very hazy, golden-straw color. Atop this eye-appealing body, sits a light and airy one-finger head. This head did not linger, vanishing quickly into a thin, bubbly film across the surface of the beer. Even with murky quality, small carbonation bubbles are visible floating towards the head of the beer.
Unsuspectingly, the aroma was very faint and I found it difficult to discern its individual characteristics. After multiple sniffs, I was able to detect a weak scent of banana and virtual no spice that I am accustomed to when sampling wheat beers. A nice amount of grain that is detectable along with a mild-citrus sourness.      
The taste profile is quite short and mimics the qualities found in the aroma. It begins with the grain up front on the palate followed quickly by whispers of banana, finishing with a hint of citrus sourness. The only new characteristic that deviates from the aroma is a light hop bitterness just before the sourness invades.  
The mouthfeel is light to medium in body and the carbonation is quite nice. The level of carbonation just tingles the tongue creating a very crisp finish. 
At 4.4%ABV, Boulevard's Unfiltered Wheat is drinkable with an ability to be quite sessionable. This is an excellent beer to introduce friends and family into craft beer culture. However, the uneventful taste and weak aroma didn't endear itself to me. Although I am glad I tried this offering, there are many other  wheat beers on the market that I would reach for first. 


Cheers,
PandaMack