Down the hatch: Boulevard’s Harvest Dance Wheat Wine

Pull your tractor into the barn (or your Civic into your garage) and get ready to celebrate this year’s crop. Boulevard Brewery’s Harvest Dance Wheat Wine Style Ale (750 ml bottle, $10.76 with tax at Royal Liquors on 103rd and State Line) is now on shelves. 

The latest entry in the Smokestack Series lets you know what to expect from the moment you begin to pour, thanks to a hint of banana. It is a heady beer, one that would threaten to overflow your glass if you were pouring too quickly.

This is clearly a wheat beer — kind of a steroid-y, older brother of the traditional wheat bottle — which means it is very drinkable and yet has a stronger but pleasing finish. The bottle suggests “a long, dry oaky finish,” and it delivers. The slight bite at the end makes me want to pair this with beer with chicken souvlaki or something that has been cooked slow and low.