The world is learning what Kansas City already knows: Boulevard is good enough to win gold. The brewery's Pilsner took gold in the American-Style Specialty Lager Category at the 2010 World Beer Cup.
"We're still soaking it in -- this is our first win," says Jeremy Ragonese, Boulevard's director of marketing.
The World Beer Cup is the largest beer competition in the world. This year, 642 breweries from 44 countries submitted 3,330 beers in 90 categories. The beers are judged on taste, aroma, appearance and whether they are reflective of a particular style. Boulevard submitted 13 different styles of beer, and the judging took place in Chicago on April 6 and 7.
"This is the Olympics of beer, and it's a huge thing for a craft beer to win in the category that we won," says Ragonese.
The Pilsner was placed in a category with 18 other entries, which included ice beers and malt liquor. The silver went to Mickey's Malt Liquor and the bronze went to Colt 45. It's a category not typically won by craft brewers because lagers have long been the bread and butter of the major brewers in America -- Mickey's is made by Miller and Colt 45 is from Pabst.
"This beer was 14 years in the making," Ragonese says, "and I think this win validates the brewer's devotion to producing a Pilsner."
In other Boulevard news: The brewery's Pilsner 12-packs will begin featuring a picture of the USS Missouri submarine this week as part of an effort to raise funds for the USS Missouri Commissioning Committee. Between May 1 and July 31, Boulevard will donate $1 for every barrel of beer sold in Missouri; the submarine's commissioning is July 31 in Groton, Connecticut.
And Amber Ale, which previously had only been available on tap in Boulevard's tasting room, will start appearing in sampler 12-packs within the next two months. Although it will be available in bottles (there's not yet a timetable for whether it will be in six-packs) Amber Ale will only be on tap in Nebraska to start.
"While the 12-pack samplers will be available everywhere, Omaha and Lincoln are the only test markets for Boulevard Amber Ale draft beer," Ragonese says. "Nebraska has long been an important state for Boulevard's growth and success, and we're seeking feedback from those markets to determine if there are wider opportunities for this particular offering."
And as to how they'll celebrate the gold awarded at the World Beer Cup?
"We'll
all toast Pilsner's win."
Images courtesy of Boulevard.
Showing 1-6 of 6
@xxx: hahaha, I thought the same thing. I was really happy when I saw the headline, then I saw second and third place finishers and had second thoughts. Oh well! Pilsner is a good session beer easy drinkin good tastin and cheap like it's runner ups.
Does this mean I will begin seeing "magnums" of empty Blvd Pils wrapped in brown paper sacks on the sidewalk?
Note to Blvd: I would like to see the Pilsner bottled in big mouth barrels ASAP!
I'm plenty familiar with the BJCP guidelines.
If a beer isn't bitter, it isn't a Pilsner. The Boulevard Pilsner is not bittered like a Pilsner. Notably, it is far outside of the World Cup guidelines (in the category entered) in bitterness and in not using adjuncts (as all pre-prohibition pale lagers did). I'm not sure what style of judging occurs at the World Cup but apparently substantial deviation from the style as described is tolerated.
Thank you for posting your comments to the blog entry. Perhaps a bit of clarification is in order: Boulevard Pilsner was entered into sub-category C of the American-style Specialty Lager category, "American-style Pilsner: Classic and Pre-Prohibition Style Pilsner." Malt liquor and ice lagers are the other sub-categories of the Lager main category. As a pre-prohibition style lager, Boulevard Pilsner would fall into this category better than the Classic American Pilsner (2C) due to aroma, taste, and mouth feel. For more information I would recommend the BJCP taste guidelines,
Congrats to Boulevard for their specialty lager win, but to imply that winning in this category (decidedly NOT a Pilsner category, of which there are three in the World Cup) demonstrates their commitment to producing a Pilsner (and not just calling something that ain't a Pilsner a Pilsner) is laughable.
like
dislike
