In the months leading up to Boulevardia 2014, we recognized that a festival of that scope and that bears our name wouldn’t be complete without an official beer to call its own. With this in mind, we created Boulevardia Celebration Sour, a tart, refreshing session sour featuring fresh citrus and black pepper notes from the use of Pacific Jade hops and a brief rest on virgin oak. In 2015, we worked with Cory King, the owner and brewer of Side Project Brewing in St. Louis, to create Show-Me Sour. A touch of acidity, some dehusked black malts for a rich, dark color followed by a short time in whiskey barrels before being blended back with fresh beer made for a nice, round 4% beer that was unique and inviting. Show-Me Sour was our play on a beer version of a whiskey sour.

For this year’s three-day festival in June, upon reflecting on how much fun we have collaborating and given that there are now more breweries in our hometown than we’ve seen in a long time, we decided to invite the Kansas City brewers pouring during Taps & Tastes to join us in creating the official beer of Boulevardia 2016.

Brewers and representatives from 75th Street Brewery, Crane Brewing, Kansas City Bier Company, Martin City Brewing Company and McCoy’s Public House joined folks from our own brewing team and Steven Pauwels, Boulevard’s Brewmaster, to sit down for beers and a brainstorming session. The collaborative process usually requires a few meetings, a couple dozen emails, and several beers consumed. Amazingly, we came to a consensus in a little over an hour. We’d scheduled 90 minutes so we spent the remaining time enjoying beers, of course.

We’re very excited to announce that the official beer of Boulevardia 2016 will be Boulevardia Berliner Weisse. With a malt bill composed of pilsner and wheat malt, our collaboration beer will feature subtle bittering with Hallertau Mittelfrüh hops and additions of orange, lemon and lime peel at the end of the boil, during whirlpooling and at the conclusion of fermentation. We’ll employ our house lactobacillus strain for fermentation in our oak foeder resulting in a crisp, tart beer that’s incredibly flavorful and fruity while being super refreshing and ideal for a Midwest summer day.

Boulevardia Berliner Weisse will be available in the Taps & Tastes Experience as well as the festival at large at the many bars stationed throughout the grounds.

- Jeremy Danner, Ambassador Brewer