Boulevard Single Wide IPA

[mikebiewer]

At the suggestion of one of my blog readers, I decided to try the Boulevard Single Wide IPA. I've been drinking a lot of different IPA's as of late and I thought this one was more my style than some of the previous. I'm still not 100% sold on it, but I thought it was pretty good. Here are some thoughts.

Also, if you'd like to see the beer in action, you can check out my Review of Boulevard Single Wide IPA over on my blog!

Review of Boulevard Single Wide IPA

Packaging

The package has a nice retro look to it. The fonts are thick and the colors are somewhat muted, giving this look a bit of a classic 1970’s style to it. The image on the front reminds me of those old Airstream bullets that people used to haul behind their trucks. There isn’t a lot of info on the label. It discusses bottle conditioning, which I think is cool and somewhat expected from Boulevard now, and the style category. I get a bit of info, but not as much I as I normally like. Luckily this one came with a suggestion from a reader and from Boulevard, which I’ve liked in the past.

Appearance

Bright golden in color with a nice, big, fluffy head. There is some nice lacing on the glass. This beer is also bottle conditioned so it has a yeasty haze to it.

Smell

A very subtle hop character that actually reminds me of a mowed yard or some kind of earthy foliage aroma. It is paired with a bit of citrus that didn’t hit me at first, and a bit more fruity smell than I was expecting.

Taste

I don’t get much sweetness in this IPA, which is good, but I really don’t get any sweetness at all. The hop bitterness attacks my tounge from front to back and the bitterness sticks to the back, but there doesn’t seem to be a malty sweetness to balance. In all honesty, it seems to be lacking a little bit on the front end of the tasting and explodes at the end. I get a little bit of pine and believe it or not, bread like, when I look deep into the flavor. It could be the yeast in the bottle.

Mouthfeel

Very zippy on the tounge, but I kind of expect that from IPA’s now. A medium bodied brew that goes down easy.

Drinkability

The bitterness does remind me of the Ranger IPA that I tried last week. It just seems to linger a bit longer than I’d like. However, I do think this beer has a decent drink-ability to it. I would prefer a bit of sweetness to counter balance the hop flavor. Not having made a night out of it, I’d say I’d be able to go 3 or 4 deep without a problem, but again, the bitterness could prevent me from going deeper.


Have you tried Boulevard Single Wide IPA? I’d love to hear your take on it. Also, it seems I’m working a lot on IPA’s so I’d appreciate any suggestions. Keep in mind, I live in Fargo, ND so selection is limited.

[Scratchnsniff]

I first tried the Boulevard Single Wide IPA abot a year ago and still pick up a sixer occasionally. I agree with your description of the beer. It's not extremely complex, but if you like your bitter hoppiness (and I surely do) it will fullfill that requirement.
I think that Boulevard left out some of the sweetness to differentiate the Single Wide from their regular Pale Ale, which is a more balanced, and pretty tasty, IPA. IMO, with the Single Wide they were simply trying to appeal to the guy who's looking for a bit more bitter. It's not super fantastic but for $7-$8.00 a six-pack it's still not too bad.

[mikebiewer]

Nice take.

I've never had their pale ale. You have me interested. I would agree, not much for sweetness, which I'm totally ok with. But I didn't get much more out of it. It was nice, bitter and dry. So it will probably be put into the rotation.

Thanks! I'll be looking for the pale ale now...

[mookie1010]

Yeah, the one thing about that beer is that it's really, really dry - at least that's what I notice.

I've always loved their double wide IPA that comes only in the 750ml. That's an excellent beer. I believe I'll pick one up for tonight.

[mikebiewer]

In all the IPA's I've tried, I've determined that I like a really dry taste with just a pinch of sweetness. And I mean a pinch...It has been interesting trying a whole bunch of IPA's right after another. I had never really tried them before and a lot of people seem to dig them. So, what the heck right?

[BeerPal]

I had never really tried them before and a lot of people seem to dig them. So, what the heck right?

This comes as a rather shocking statement to this reader, but I guess living where I do and drinking what I do, I expect everybody to have similar tastes to mine.

I enjoy your reviews but am interested in your use of the term, "Drinkability". What exactly is your definition of this word?

[mikebiewer]

I had never really tried them before and a lot of people seem to dig them. So, what the heck right?

This comes as a rather shocking statement to this reader, but I guess living where I do and drinking what I do, I expect everybody to have similar tastes to mine.

I enjoy your reviews but am interested in your use of the term, "Drinkability". What exactly is your definition of this word?

My understanding of drinkability is whether or not I could make a night out of a beer. Mainly, I find that there are lot of beers that I can drink one or two of, but I won't be drinking them all night, therefore it is drinkable, because all beer is drinkable, but it may not be something you can go all night on.

One other little twist I test with beer and "drinkability" is if I can drink it fast. I usually end a review with me finishing half a beer. I do this for two reasons. One its a way to end a video so I don't sit there and ramble for 20 minutes. But it is also because there are so many times I'm sitting down to have a beer with friends and it inevitable happens that people want to finish up and move on. So, you end up chugging your beer like a you would at a college party. Some beer it is easy to do it, some it is not. I think that is also a measure of drinkability.

Thanks for your support. I appreciate the kind words about the reviews.