Boulevard Red IPA

The 12 pack samplers from Boulevard Brewing Company of Kansas City, Missouri now routinely includes two varieties of their "Tasting Room" beers; beers that have been available in their tasting room in the past, but not bottled. This one is a red IPA.

The beer pours a deep and dark copper in color. There is an inch of thick, foamy, light tan head with an element of creaminess. The head leaves sticky rings of lacing down the glass. The aroma is hoppy, piney, musky, tangy, with passion fruit and mango skin. The taste takes all of the hop notes of the aroma and nestles them within a firm maltiness, not just holding up the hops, but melding with them and complimenting them, and adding a note of strong tea with lemon and just a bit of the spiciness of tobacco. The beer drinks smooth and medium bodied with a fairly bitter and quite dry finish.  I am not saying this is a Surly Furious, but it is pretty damn close. This is one very fine beer.