G. K. Chesterton–one of the prolific writers and minds of the nineteenth century–tells a story of an English seaman who, after a series of miscalculations, lands upon an exotic coast, full of ancient pagan statues and lush hills.  The seaman is overjoyed as he thinks he has discovered a tranquil new paradise, but in ironic tragedy he had really landed on a deserted portion of coast on his homeland of great Britain.  The moral of the story is that sometimes we miss some of the beauties of life that have been in front of us for a while.  This is how I felt as I walked out of Boulevard Brewery last week.

Having lived in Missouri (Springfield) for six years and spent more time in Kansas City than I can recall, it is a shame that I have never toured the Boulevard Brewing complex.  My repertoire of knowledge concerning their beers has been primarily limited to their session and seasonal beers, all of which are great, but have never dramatically held my attention.  With the introduction of their smokestack series, however, my interest was piqued.  When I read that their head brewer, Steven Pauwels, had created a collaborative brew with Jean Marie Rock of Orval, I had to meet him and see the inside of this brewery.  With a little help from KC beer blog, I squeezed into a fully booked tour.  After emailing the brewery, Steven Pauwels agreed to take a few moments from his busy schedule to meet with me.

While I packed a camcorder to “interview” Mr. Pauwels, it never came out, so I am relying on memory of my experience.

The Tour:

Boulevard Brewery is the 8th largest craft brewery (sales volume) in the US, and the 16th largest brewery amongst all breweries in the United States.  Thus said, I was still unprepared for the massive size and complexity of the brewery.  The brewery administers a top notch tour, geared towards the beer novice.  Sequential with the brewing process, one walks through each phase of brewing.  Mashing/sparging, boiling, fermenting, bottling, and finally ends up in the tasting room where each guest is given 4 tokens redeemable for 4, four ounce pours.  While I do not intend to re-enact the tour, I do want to point out the humble beginnings of the brewery, which was started by carpenter, John McDonald, in his woodworking shop, which is still a part of the brewery.

As I gazed up at the cones of the nine massive 600 Bbl fermentors, I was taken with emotion to realize what can happen when a man realizes his passion!  Each fermentor, the cone of which pokes through a thick 3 foot slab of concrete above the tour-goers head, is truly a thing of beauty.   As the brewery has recently expanded, they have spruced up their facility, adding decadent banquet halls, and amping up production.  The humble pictured below hardly do the brewery justice.  Despite their massive production, Boulevard still insists on the more labor some, costly, and arguably more delicious practice of bottle conditioning.   Instead of forcing carbonation into their bottles, each bottle is carbonated using re fermentation.

Mr. Pauwels

As the tour was wrapping up at Boulevards bottling line, Mr. Steven Pauwels joined the group.  As the 25 or so of us headed downstairs from the banquet facility, Steven met up with my wife (Sandra) and I, and shook hands.  I had intended on filming an interview with Mr. Pauwels, but as he was walking and talking with us, I switched gears.

Steven is a very humble, unassuming man; a quality I respect in someone as educated and experienced as him.  With his credentials, he could carry himself as an all knowing wizard of beer.  Instead, he presents himself as one blessed to work in the craft beer industry.  After the obligatory introductions, I asked him a few questions during the several minute walk down to the tasting room, the answers of which are in essence, and no verbatim.

How long have you been with Boulevard?

Ten years.  Steven, a native of Belgium, made the trip to the US for the opportunity to be head brewer of the company.

Did you go to brew school?

Yes.  Unfortunately I forgot the name of the school, but it was a four year degree.  Quite impressive, since most American brew schools are a much, much shorter tenure.  Steven said there was a huge focus on the microbiology and science of brewing?

Do you homebrew?

Laughingly, Steven told me he is a terrible home brewer.  He is much more comfortable working at the macro level.  Boulevards smaller scale fermentors is where he and the crew experiment.

You recently brewed a collaboration with Jean Marie Rock of Orval.  Why Orval?

Steven simply stated that it is simply because Jean Marie Rock and him are friends.  Subjectively speaking, I liked that answer.  It wasn’t to wow the world with an unheard of collaboration (Boulevard is the first US brewery to brew a collaborative brew with a Trappist brewery) or to boost sales; rather, the collaboration seemed to stem from the brotherly bonds of beer.

What is special about the collaboration?

Several things.  First, the beer is simple, utilizing only 100% Pilsner malt and 100% Saaz hops.  An age old and unused technique of hopping the beer prior to the boil was used to add character and bring out the earthy qualities of the hops.  Steven stated that the brewery did receive some negative feedback to the idea of their first collaboration being an imperial Pilsner.  How unfortunate!  Does a beer have to be an amalgam of countless malts, hops, and exotic ingredients to be good?  Just because the Big Brewers pump out watery lagered pilsners, does it really mean that the style should be excommunicated from the craft industry?

What are some of your favorite American breweries?

Here Steven fumbled, as any beer geek should.  There are just too many fine breweries in the United States to show preferential treatment. Nonetheless, Steven did mention that he is a pretty big fan of Ommegang.  Also, he mentioned that on a recent trip east, he spent some time at Bells Brewery and was quite taken with the quality of beers.  He also spent time in Dexter, MI with Spooky Ron of Jolly Pumpkin ans said he found their beer tasty and interesting.  He also noted that Ron is a fabulously kind individual.

Beer Bonding

As we were about to part ways and spend our tokens, I gave Steven a bottle of my homebrewed Belgian Style Imperial Stout, a beast of a homebrew weighing in at 17.4% ABV.  Steven chuckled and said that he had just brewed the first batch of Boulevard’s Belgian Style Imperial stout, and it was still in the fermentor.  he took Sandra and I away from the rest of the tour and poured us each a goblet of the un-bottled, un-carbonated brew straight out of the enormous fermentor.  It was fantastic!  The nutty, chocolaty, delicately spiced, and robust as can be, the beer could easily be packaged and sold as is, warm and without bubbles.  We talked some more, and compared ingredients in our similar brews and then headed to the tasting room, and picked up a most amiable brewer, Jeremy, along the way.

At the tasting room, we realized that we didn’t need our tokens anymore, as both Jeremy and Steven poured us beer after beer from their smokestack series.

All bias aside, there wasn’t a beer that let me down.  The Saison (Tank 7)  was one of the earthiest, rawest, most natural Saisons I have ever tasted.  There was a pleasant hint of rubber and lemony hops, balanced with wheaty sweetness. The Dubbel was stunningly complex and smooth.  Have you ever had a beer that you wasted all the flamboyant descriptives and simply say, “This just tastes good!”  That is how I felt about the Dubbel.

The Wheat wine (harvest dance), using about 40% wheat malt is a play on the barleywine style.  This beer knocked my socks off. it was boldly hopped with Citra hops, but doesn’t encroach on that classic and slightly overused grapefruity cascade flavor that dominates the American Ale market.  The wine is sweet and slightly earthy with a biting peppery finish.  I would suggest anyone reading this put this brew (Harvest Dance) on your “wants” list.

As we sat in the tasting room for over and hour and a half, drinking and chatting with Steven and Jeremy, that unassuming humility made for a fantastic experience.  Sandra and I legitimately felt as if we were a part of the Boulevard family.  We laughed, joked, and even talked about our families.  We were the only non staff left in the tasting room, and we had to get back to our babies, so unfortunately, we had to say goodbye.  As we were leaving, brewer Jeremy said, “I make it part of my personal job description to remind everybody who works here how blessed we are to brew beer for a living.”

Again, the love of the craft and the humility of this bastion of the craft brewing industry was intertwined in those words.  You can see it on their faces and countenances.

Like Chesterton’s misguided Seaman, my visit to Boulevard made me awakened in me a fresh appreciation and respect for the brewery.  It’s beauty and creativity was smack in front of me each day of the six years I lived in Missouri, but it is only now that I have become an steadfast admirer.

Fermentors

Barrel Aging Smokestack Series

Steven Pauwels, Caton, and I

Boilers