For those that may not be aware, Boulevard Brewing Co. does a limited run of its Chocolate Ale the last two years. Working in collaboration (collabeeration?) with chocolatier Christopher Elbow, Boulevard Chocolate Ale isn’t your typical strongly roasted porter or stout - it’s a true ale, light in color, slightly bitter, hint of hops and malt, but with a very deliberate punch of chocolate on the finish. It’s pretty much amazing.
It also sells out within hours of being released, to the point that last year, people were stalking delivery trucks out of the brewery gate.
I live in Indianapolis, which seems to be a pretty heavily delivered market for Boulevard. I didn’t see any bottles last year, and missed out. But this year, I was ahead of the curve, and made sure that one of my favorite specialty stores would be able to make a special order for me (I got three 750ml bottles). Today at lunch, I just ran across 3 more bottles!
So I plan to gift a few of these out to friends and family, and I opened up one of them this weekend with my girlfriend. It’s pretty amazing stuff. But I’ll still have a few to myself. I’d like to come up with a few meals I could prepare that would go really well with this. Frankly, it may be more of a conversational beer, rather than something to pair with a meal - but if anyone has any great ideas, I’d love to hear them.
And if you’ve had the chance to try some, I’d love to hear what you thought of it.