Well, to celebrate my birthday yesterday I decided to
treat myself to something I already bought 11 months ago: Boulevard Bourbon
Barrel Quad (BBQ) 2011. Yes, 2011. I bought two bottles shortly after it was
released, one to drink fresh and one to put away in the basement until the next
batch came out, for a comparison.
Unfortunately, Boulevard just announced there will be no BBQ this year,
and none next year until the fall. I
decided I’d rather not wait another year, which as it turns out was probably a
good idea. I’ve appended my original
review of the fresh bottle at the end in bold.
As it turns out, I think I drank it from the exact same glass as last time
(a snifter from Bavarian Lodge).
BBQ is loosely based on the Belgian beers typically
called Strong Dark Ales or Quads (they’re essentially the same thing). Pretty much the Belgian equivalent of a
barleywine, they are dark (ranging from red to deep brown), strong (rarely less
than 9%, and when they are they’re called doubles or dubbel); minimally hoppy but often maximally carbonated. Their carbonation level is high enough that
many breweries seal them with champagne corks rather than bottle caps, which is
what Boulevard does. They are said to
cellar well. The main differences
between a quad and a barleywine are the carbonation level, the use of fancy adjunct
sugars (candi sugar, invert sugar and date sugar, for example), and very
aggressively-flavorful yeast strains that taste like spices, figs and dates. I have also found that most quads have very little alcohol flavor compared to barleywines, which don't integrate it as well and can taste quite boozy.
This beer is a quad brewed with cherries and aged in
bourbon barrels. It was great
fresh. It’s still good now, but those
cherries have turned out to be a bad idea with age.
On first pour, BBQ looks pretty much the way I would
expect it too, and not much different than it was fresh. It is dark red color, not quite brown, and it
is topped by about two fingers’ worth of foam.
It wasn’t that foamy fresh, but quads often get more carbonated with age
(the opposite of most beers). Where this
differs from the fresh bottle is that it is much cloudier now, and when I can
actually get some light peering through it I notice the carbonation level is very high. Bubbles everywhere; I’m not surprised the
cork exploded.
The smell is where things start to really get off course. When it was fresh, this smelled mostly of
figs (classic Belgian yeast flavor) and a woody-vanilla aroma from the bourbon
barrel. There was no boozy smell like
some cheaper barrel-aged beers. Cherry was
mild. Not anymore; cherries are now the
dominant smell, with a bit of burnt sugar on top of that. Fruit flavors are supposed to fade with age,
so I’m a little confused.
After tasting it, I know why: the beer is infected! It has a light sour edge to it that gets more
pronounced as the beer warms. I guess
those cherries weren’t rinsed off before they used them, as they seem to have
brought some lactobacillus with them that’s starting to kick off. Lactobacillus is a common, naturally-occurring organism in sour beer, though it is usually not supposed to be there (most beer is not supposed to be sour, including this one). I’m fine with sourness, I just don’t expect
it in a quad. Nice enough touch to make
it interesting here, without taking away from the beer. Unfortunately, apart from the cherries, most
of what I liked about this beer fresh is now gone. Vanilla and toffee flavors from the bourbon
have been replaced by a sharp alcohol note, and that fig flavor is nowhere to
be found. It is now dominated entirely
by cherries, and sour cherries at that.
There is an extremely faint hint of salad vinaigrette, which means this
might also have an acetobacter infection.
In that case, glad I’m drinking this now and didn’t unknowingly wait
until it turned to complete vinegar.
Unfortunately, the combination of intentional bottle-fermentation
with live yeast and an accidental fermentation with wild bacteria has pretty
much obliterated this beer’s texture. It
was the perfect balance of high carbonation and thick barley when fresh. Now the carbonation is overkill.
Overall, I like it, and find it interesting. There is sort of a niche market for sour quads
(De Dolle comes to mind---more on that here), and maybe I’ll try some more. Here though, as interesting a touch as the
infection is, it simply takes away too much of what I liked about it
fresh. Next year, I don’t think I’ll be
putting away any bottles in the basement.
Here’s a Copy + Pasted Word doc from my fresh review:
Name: Boulevard
Bourbon Barrel Quad (BBQ)
Style: Abbey
quad
Twist: Brewed
with cherries, aged in bourbon barrels
Strength: 11.8%
Notes: 750ml
bottle of the 2011 vintage, split with a friend and served in a snifter. Previous iterations of this beer have been a
combination of fresh and barrel-aged beer, with cherries being added during the
aging process. Last year’s 2010 batch
was all barrel-aged with cherries. For
this year’s release, the whole thing was barrel-aged but cherries were added
during primary fermentation, not the barrel fermentation. In addition, it is a blend of different
batches---some aged for eight months in barrels, some for two years, and the
rest somewhere between that. Confused
yet?
BBQ 2011 pours a deep bronze red color. Though it only has a single finger of foam on
top, the lacing is great, and the carbonation level looks great for a quad.
It smells delicious. I’ve never had the earlier batches, but many
people said (as a commendation or a complaint) that it never really smells or
tastes like a quad. This batch begs to
differ. The underlying aroma here is the
classic Belgian yeast aroma of figs, an aroma/flavor seemingly present in all
dark Belgian ales. I say underlying but
the most prominent aromas are from this beer’s ancillary twists. The bourbon aroma is a nice woody vanilla
flavor with just a hint of alcohol, not the cheap plastic-handle bourbon some
beers have. Cherries are subdued, but present.
The bourbon and booze character is mostly on
the backend when I taste the beer, however.
The yeast and the wood give the dominant flavors: vanilla, toffee, and
lots of figs. There is a hint of cherry,
and also of coconut. Alcohol warming is
kept to a minimum, and hops are nonexistent.
This is really damn good.
The mouthfeel is perfect for a quad. It is just the right balance of light body
and depth, held aloft by that excellent carbonation I mentioned earlier.
Wow!
This beer, or at least this batch of it, is a definite A-. It should age well too, and I have a bottle
to test it.
This was written in early January 2012, and
typed on February 21, 2012.
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