This Smokestack Series Limited Edition Bottle (No. 2773 of 13,400) hasn't it made it to Nashville, so I had little recourse when I saw the Boise Co-op stocked it. The Kansas City craft brewery took its Saison, adding some dry-hopping and the wild, sometimes unpredictable yeasts known as brettanomyces.
Thick, funky head greets me in the glass. Never pour a brett-laden beer quickly - the head might look thick but its effervescence sends it shooting up the glass. Boulevard kindly aged Saison-Brett three months in the bottle before release, and it shows - the floral, perfume qualities of the nose are well developed.
A brett- brewed ale can be a little off-putting when drank too early in its life, but this one shows remarkable endurance. Strong lemon and chamomile-led herbal flavors dominate. Finish is bone-dry, but fades quickly and doesn't inhibit the palette. At 8.5 percent alcohol, it masks that strength well.
I hope brett experiments remain the exception, not the norm for saisons. Boulevard produces a solid, easy-drinking version, but these things tend to spiral out of control - anyone remember the way oak aging went from novelty to annoying trend?
Let's call it 8.5 out of 10 as long as more microbrewers don't get on the brett bandwagon. If they do, they have a long ways to catch up to Boulevard.
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