Boulevard’s Imperial Stout “X” slated to hit store shelves February 10

The first of Boulevard Brewing Co.’s series of imperial stouts will be in stores Tuesday, February 10. 

Imperial Stout “X” with Coffee is the first in a new wave of Boulevard stouts, and this one was infused with Ethiopian Sidamo Coffee from the Roasterie, giving the “robust stout a subtle, wine-like smoothness.”

Boulevard brewer Jeremy Danner goes into detail on how Imperial Stout “X” (11 percent ABV and 63 IBUs) was made on Boulevard’s blog.

“After fermentation is complete and the beer has been crash cooled and the yeast removed, our brewers transfer Imperial Stout into a sanitized stainless steel tank that has been fitted with bags of coarsely ground coffee beans,” Danner wrote. “At this point, the beer is at 40 degrees Fahrenheit. Infusing the coffee at this temperature is similar to the cold toddy method of brewing coffee. The cold toddy method extracts far fewer acids from the coffee resulting in remarkably smooth, yet concentrated flavors. We allow the beer to rest on the coffee for close to 48 hours before removing the beer from the coffee beans. Imperial Stout X – Coffee is not barrel aged. The resulting beer is a marriage of huge, round, chocolate/caramel notes from the base beer with incredibly smooth coffee notes featuring sweet lemon/citrus and floral flavors and aromas.”

Danner adds a cautionary note to his blog, writing that the state of Missouri is “operating under a higher than normal backlog of new beer registrations,” so Imperial Stout “X” – Coffee may appear on store shelves outside of Missouri first.  

In December, Boulevard brewmaster Steven Pauwels told The Pitch that a few different versions of the stout would be released throughout 2015.

“We’re doing a bit of a series … of imperial stouts that we’re going to bring out throughout the year,” Pauwels told The Pitch. “We like this beer [Imperial Stout]. We think it’s a great beer. So what we’re going to do is, we’re going to have different versions come out every three months or so. This is kind of the base. We’re going to play with different spins on it, I would say.”