I am not late on this due to laziness, for once. I attended the Boulevard Brewmaster Luncheon today, featuring food and beer pairings from KC Hop's restaurant Barley's Brewhaus. It was amazing. As the post on BeerAdvocate promised, it was a power lunch for my taste buds. The lunch also included a quick tour of the brewery, which is truly a work of art. I have not been over there since the bottling line was installed where the old basketball court had been. Hours after lunch, I am still full from this outing. And after lunch I went back to work instead of taking a nice long nap, which is what I desperately wanted to do! But seriously, take a look at this menu, and tell me you wouldn't need a nap afterwards?
Tank 7 is a lovely, citrusy beer to pair with shrimp (prawns, if you want to be particular) and we all know how much I love Bob's with anything. As the chef recommended, I took a sip after every bit of pork and butternut squash gnocchi. OMG. The Seeyoulater pairing with dessert was inspired. One of the many lessons from lunch is that I need to get myself back to Barley's sometime soon. I haven't been in years, and I couldn't even tell you the last thing I ate there. But if this lunch was anything like what I could expect, it's back on my radar. Huge, massive thanks to Jeremy for the invite.
The brewmaster @ Boulevard, Steven Pauwels, is a great personality for these kind of events. If you see these pop up again, I highly recommend taking a friend, and then taking the rest of the afternoon OFF!!
So in other, related news, Boulevard sent out a press release today about a joint effort between the brewmasters of Boulvard and Orval teaming up for one limited release beer in KC. The press release was covered in it's entirety over at the
KC Beer Blog. Not everyone is pumped about an Imperial Pilsner, but I think it'll be a great interesting brew. Not something I would drink all the time, no, but still interesting for nerds and award opportunities, right? Boulevard has been pumping out tons of different limited releases this year, and I couldn't keep up with all of them on the old blog. They've been quite busy and innovative over there, and I am in love with almost all of the Smokestack series, and of course the Single Wide IPA.
So just in case you want to know what on earth an Imperial Pilsner is, I looked it up. My general understanding of anything called "Imperial" is that it is stronger than the regular version, in both flavor and alcoholic content. But I figured a more academic explanation would be more helpful to everyone. Now we just have to wait until January for the release of the Boulevard/Orval take!
Beer Advocate says an Imperial Pilsner is: Similar to a Pilsner in appearance, but expect a more pronounced malty backbone and an intense bitterness. Malt flavors tend to be quite sweet in many examples. Alcohol can be quite aggressive and lend some spicy notes to the flavor.
I am not late on this due to laziness, for once. I attended the Boulevard Brewmaster Luncheon today, featuring food and beer pairings from KC Hop's restaurant Barley's Brewhaus. It was amazing. As the post on BeerAdvocate promised, it was a power lunch for my taste buds. The lunch also included a quick tour of the brewery, which is truly a work of art. I have not been over there since the bottling line was installed where the old basketball court had been. Hours after lunch, I am still full from this outing. And after lunch I went back to work instead of taking a nice long nap, which is what I desperately wanted to do! But seriously, take a look at this menu, and tell me you wouldn't need a nap afterwards?
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