Boulevard Beer returns to the brewery after 19 years

A cardboard box containing a 12-pack of Boulevard Wheat was returned to the Boulevard Brewery on Wednesday. That wouldn’t be breaking news except the cardboard box Eric Henry brought to the brewery was a sealed 12-pack of Boulevard’s earliest beer.

“My office is pretty close to Boulevard and they’re a real admirable company. I just thought they might be interested in having it,” says Henry, co-owner of the City Cement Concrete Construction Company at 65 Southwest Boulevard in Kansas City, Kansas. 

He remembers buying what would have been some of the first Boulevard Wheat sold in the city at a liquor store on the corner of 43rd and State Line. It was just before Christmas — the box is stamped with the words “first run, December 21, 1990.”

He decided to store the 12-pack in his basement, keeping it dry through two moves by storing it between the floor joists above the rock foundation of his basement. As to why he never opened it, Henry can’t say exactly.

“I’m not a collector, I’m a pack-rat. I have a small house, so I have to be careful about what I hold on to.” 

But after Henry saw an article on Boulevard in the Kansas City Business Journal, he felt compelled to let the company know what he’d hung on to for 19 years.