I’m not sure exactly when they hit town, but I just about ran into a display in the QFC on North Broadway featuring beers from Boulevard Brewing. This Kansas City brewer has started distributing their “Smokestack Series” to a wider audience, and WA has now joined the club. Here is what I saw on the shelves (with commercial descriptions, as I haven’t actually tried any of these, yet):

Double Wide IPA– Double-Wide I.P.A. uses Zeus and Magnum hops for both bittering and aroma with Ahtanum hops added for aroma. There are two additional dry hopping regimen, employing Ahtanum, Centennial and Chinook hops. The resulting beer is hop forward aroma, redolent of peach and apricot. The assertive flavor bursts with the citrus qualities of blood orange and lemon with a slight caramel malt backbone to balance the intense hop flavor. There is little restraint in the flavor of this beer; it is certainly not for the pedestrian palate.

Long Strange Tripel – Lately it occurs to us that if, back in 1989, you planned on starting a brewery in the back of your carpentry shop, you’d have been wise to seek out someone like Harold “Trip” Hogue. A collector of ancient Volvos, Trip was well-qualified for the make-do engineering required to coax recalcitrant equipment out of retirement and onto making the first Boulevard beers.

The Tripel style originated in the Trappist brewery of Westmalle Abbey in pre-war Antwerp province. Its numeric moniker results from the old Belgian practice of naming beers based on the amount of malt used in the brew. A “Simple” was the lightest-bodied brew. Doubling the malt bill resulted in a “Dubbel”, while a “Tripel” contained three times the amount of malt (and, as a result, three times the amount of alcohol.) True to style, our Long Strange Tripel is a golden ale with estery aromas, a dense, creamy head and a sweet finish.

Saison with Brett– Unofficially known as The “George Brett” – a reference given at the Ommegang BCTC festival in 2006. George Brett is a baseball Hall of Famer who played in Kansas City, Boulevard’s hometown, and the festival is held in the same town as the MLB HOF, hence the mildly humorous play on words.

There may be more of their beers around or on the way, but this is what I saw at QFC. I picked up a bottle of the Saison w/ Brett, which I get the feeling might have to sit in my fridge until after Seattle Beer Week…I’m thinking I won’t need to drink too much beer at home in the next couple of weeks.