Happy Father’s Day

Beer O’ The Week:
Boulevard Pilsner

Share one with your dad

Wamp’s Wisdom

Photo: J.T. Wampler

Boulevard Pilsner is a 4.8 percent alcohol offering from our northern neighbor, Kansas City’s own Boulevard Brewing Co.

It pours a brilliant golden color with a nice dense head. Sticky lacing down the side of the glass marks each sip. Aroma is like a gentle hop breeze. The flavor is built on a malt backbone with a gentle hop bitterness that balances out nicely.

We saved this one for Father’s Day week because this genuine American lager reminds me of when I was little and my pop would send me to the fridge to get him a beer. My reward was the first sip of Schlitz or Pabst Blue Ribbon. What a treat this all-barley  lager is. Whether enjoying after a hard day at the office or in the yard, Boulevard Pilsner will do the trick.

Pair with barbecued pork or a mild cheese.

Rating: 5 caps

Rico’s Reaction

This is a beer you might find easy to overlook on the shelf. That would be a mistake.

Why take seriously a pilsner that bills itself as an American-style lager? Why pay more for this Kansas City-brewed beer when you could just pick up a six-pack of Bud, Miller, Coors, etc., for cheaper? Well, I dunno are you a fan of flavor and actually being able to taste your beer?

Boulevard’s pilsner is as easy to drink as any of those mass-produced beers but with a cleaner, more refreshing taste and a fuller, richer flavor. This simple barley recipe shines and delivers a beer of unexpected quality.

My dad and I have always had little in common other than DNA and both growing up poor in the backwoods of Harrison. (Though to a much worse extreme for my dad. At least we had clothing and food on the table. From listening to dad, sometimes the Davis brothers were lucky to have one pair of shoes among them, and my late grandpa’s hunting dogs may have eaten better than his children.)

When he still drank regularly, my dad generally favored Busch or Busch Light — I don’t think he’s ever so much as tasted something labeled a stout or a porter and might even be unfamiliar with the terminology altogether — while my taste in beer runs a much more varied selection. Boulevard Pilsner, though, is a beer I think we’d both appreciate — a little something where we’d have some common ground. I can’t share one with him this weekend, but I fully plan on having a bottle with him the next time we get a chance to visit.

And, even though he won’t see this in print and has yet to make the transition to the computer age, much less the Internet, I just want to say “Happy Father’s Day, Dad.”

Rating: 5 caps