Boulevard Brewing Co. - Rye on Rye ale

Today's review is a special one: Kansas City, MO-based Boulevard Brewing Company's Rye-on-Rye grain ale. It's part of their Smokestack Series; a series of beers that focus on outlandish ingredients, special brewing methods, and interesting flavor combinations. Tribune newswriter Josh Noel wrote a really nice syndicated article about Boulevard a few months back:

"...one of the best and most dependable series in craft beer: Boulevard's Smokestack beers. Born in 2006, the Smokestack series includes five year-round brews (most famous is Tank 7 saison) and a series of limited-edition releases...[Master brewer Stephen] Pauwels said...the primary goal is to stay counterintuitive and fun."

That's a good way to describe these beers. Counterintuitive. I've tried numerous Smokestack beers, and all have provided an interesting twist on the base idea -the Tank No. 7 farmhouse ale, which was a lot spicier than most saisons; the Bourbon Barrel Quad, which is an epic quadrupel  experience; the Saison-Brett, also epic; the Grainstorm black rye IPA, which was oddly tasty; and the Dark Truth stout, which tasted more like liquefied road tar extruded through a copper whiskey still. I cannot recommend these enough, with the exception of the Dark Truth (unless you like drinking pothole patch.) 

Boulevard definitely pushes the envelope when it comes to their beers, and so when I saw this bottle on the shelf, I simply had to get one. Scratch that, three. The bottles are individually-numbered and dated so I won't forget when I bought these. I grabbed one to save until next year (to see how it ages, since beers of this caliber and alcohol content can be aged for years) and two to drink now. The first time I had this, I was so tipsy I couldn't even write a review. I'm now revisiting my second bottle, in the hopes of transcribing my divine experience to you.

The color is deep red, almost brown, with a warm clear orange when held to the light. The head is bony-white, with cool amoeba-like bubbles that developed after a few minutes.

The nose is of strong malts, alcohol, and citrus. Breathe deep - you are standing in the presence of a beer deity.

The taste is amazing. The first gulp hit my mouth like a whiskey-rye sledgehammer of deliciousness, bringing  a delightfully-deep taste of rye, wood, and toffee. The flavor is really rich and doesn't lose its grip throughout the entire tasting. The texture is thick but drinkable. The beer is warm and heavy, like a velvet blanket. The aftertaste is one of pleasant, warm alcohol flavors with toffee and dry citrus notes all the way. The beer warms its way down my esophagus, like a nice single-malt after a long winter's day.

This is simply how rye ales should be done. End of story. While both Sierra Nevada and Rogue had their chance - with the Ruthless Rye coming in far ahead of the Roguenbier in terms of taste - neither of them stand up at all to the Rye-on-Rye. The depth of flavor is really what does it here - there's nothing like experiencing the full flavor weight of that rye whiskey barrel-aged ale, borne on the wings of 12% ABV. That alcohol content and the delicious smoothness of the beer makes for some

While the Bourbon Barrel Quad had that deep, fermented taste of powerful quadrupel  ales, the Rye-on-Rye comes at you in a different fashion - with a direct, full taste and a hint of bitterness from wood, not hops. So the bitterness was just a hint, more of a flavor, than an actual element of the beer.

Another great showing. This beer is powerful, deep, and well worth whatever you pay for it. Seek it out!