This evening I went out to dinner with my parents and a few of my cousins and enjoyed one of my favorite Missouri things, a Boulevard Unfiltered Wheat Beer. Even though Boulevard Brewery is actually located in Kansas City, it's pretty easy to find places across all of Missouri that have their beer on tap. The Boulevard Wheat is a citrusy beer that is very light in color, though cloudy in appearance, and is supposedly the "top selling craft beer in the Midwest". It is also noted that it is reminiscent of turn of the century wheat beers that were produced before the advent of modern filtration. All I know for sure is that it is good stuff that I wish I could find easily in Cleveland.

I don't claim to be any sort of beer expert, though I think I could be classified as a bit of a beer snob. I rarely drink much alcohol at all, but on the few occasions I do, I always try to find something other than the standard Bud/Miller/Coors fare. I'm a huge fan of Cleveland's own Great Lakes Brewing Company which is always the safe bet for me. My favorite is their Burning River Pale Ale, though the Holy Moses White Ale, Dortmunder and Christmas Ale aren't far behind, though I've never tried one of their beers that I've actually disliked. I'm always a big fan of Woodchuck Draft Cider, Bell's Amber Ale (out of Michigan), Brooklyn East India Pale Ale and a bunch of other stuff I can't remember at the moment.

So when it comes to choosing a beer when I'm out, I'm usually somewhat picky, but I'm always open to new things. I know what I like (IPAs, wheat, ciders, rice, hefe weizen), and what I usually don't prefer (dark - anything I can't see through, fruit-flavored). So I usually try to pick something within those guidelines, and I always try things from local brewers when I'm in new cities. If the pickings are slim and I really want a beer, the safe, more mainstream beers for me are Sierra Nevada, Samuel Adams seasonal, or Heineken.

Labels: beer, vacation

This entry was posted by Brad, on Tuesday, December 26, 2006. You can leave your response.