Each Wednesday, submit your burning Boulevard beer questions on Twitter, tagging @Boulevard_Beer and #WWKW. I'll sift through the questions and select my favorites to answer in a blog post that will be shared here each Thursday. Everything is fair game! Go!

- Jeremy Danner, Ambassador Brewer

You can buy singled out bottles of both beers that are available in the Kansas City version of the Barrel-Aged Great Eight in our gift shop right now:

Cognac Cask Aged Dark Saison

• Aromas of nutmeg, leather and earthy menthol meld with sweet caramel notes, dark fruit and vanilla
• Spicy cardamom and sweet orange peel accent floral notes provided by Hallertau Blanc hops
• 11.7% ABV & 10 IBUs
• Pairs with oysters on the half shell, aged Gouda, baklava

Tequila Cask Aged Imperial Stout

• Flavors of caramel, honey and anise gained during aging add complexity to a near syrupy-bodied obsidian stout
• Subtle earth/herbal hops and notes of bittersweet chocolate, cloves and charred oak provide balance
• 12.1% ABV & 23 IBUs
• Pairs with chicken mole enchiladas, smoked gouda, raspberry torte

We had a limited amount of the nationally distributed beers, but have since sold out. If you want to track them down, though, all you need to do is head to St. Joseph or Lawrence as Central States Beverage (our Kansas City area wholesale partner) was the only distributor with the Kansas City version. Those beers are:

Brandy Barrel Belgian-Style Golden Ale

• Aromas of vanilla, cloves and peaches imparted by Belgian yeast and American brandy barrels
• 12.4% ABV & 20 IBUs
• Pairs with beer battered fried fish, triple creme brie, fruit pastries

Jamaican Rum Barrel Imperial Stout

• Aged for one year in Jamaican rum barrels
• Notes of chocolate, coconut and vanilla with a warming finish featuring espresso, caramel and sweet rum
• 14.6% ABV & 18 IBUs
• Pairs with dark chocolate, sweet & spicy BBQ, jerk chicken, rum cake

Ask and you shall receive:

Malt Bill
Pale Malt – 76.9%
Malted Rye – 9.6%
Cara 170L – 3.3%
Cara 190L – 3.3%
Honey Naked Oats – 5.9%
Roasted Wheat – 1.1%

Mash Schedule
Mash in at 63 C and rest for 25 minutes
Heat up to 68 C and rest for 10 minutes
Heat up to 73 C and rest for 15 minutes
Mash off at 78 C

We target a beginning of boil gravity of 16.9 Plato and reach 19.4 at the end of a 70 minute boil with 1.9 Plato coming from an addition of dextrose midway through the boil.

Hops
Perle - 6.8 IBUs at 98 C
Perle - 10.3 IBUs 15 minutes after beginning of boil
Golding - 5.8 IBUs 55 minutes after beginning of boil

We cool the wort to 19 C and ferment with our house Scottish yeast strain at 19 C until we reach 7 Plato. At that point, we temp up to 23 C for the remainder of fermentation. Final gravity is 3.4

Coffee
Ethiopian Sidamo – After the beer has been crash cooled at the end of fermentation, steep coarsely ground coffee for 24 hours at the rate of 2.25 lbs/bbl.

Since these are quite similar, I'll take care of both at the same time. As far as Collaboration No. 8 goes, we don't have news to share on that. As of this minute, we don't have a nationally distributed collaboration beer in the works for 2019. For question two: YES, we're very open to more regional/localized collaborations like what you saw with Hazy IPA brewed with WeldWerks and Linkin' Up with our friends at Zipline. Our lead brewer over our barrel program, Ryan McNeive, has some super cool, funky collaborations in foeders right now. Stay tuned for details!

Any time I talk about cellaring/aging our beer, I do have to mention that we believe (quite strongly) in releasing beer that's ready to drink the day you buy it. For beers like Saison Brett, Changeling or our Love Child blends we really feel that we've done the work of aging the beer for you so that you can chill it down and crack it that night. Having gotten that out of the way, I will say that I dig Saison Brett with some age on it. I had a great time tasting three years of Saison Brett last summer and would definitely struggle to call this Love Child vertical tasting work as well. Apart from those two beers, I think Whiskey Barrel Stout is a good candidate for aging. Again, I'll say that I think it's fantastic fresh as the whole point of the beer is to showcase how whiskey barrels impact the base beer, but when the boozy character has had some time to mellow out and the beer has begun to oxidize, I do feel that it makes for a great cellared drinking experience. For the most part, I'd say that any of our higher ABV, barrel-aged or fuller flavored beers can handle some aging, but I'd definitely avoid aging beers like Tank 7, The Calling, really anything that's light, delicate or features bright hop flavor/aroma. Definitely let me know if you want to discuss this more.

Want to discuss any of the above in more detail or have follow up questions or comments? Hit me up on Twitter: @Jeremy_Danner