I wasn't there for the first conversation, the one that would eventually lead to Christopher Elbow and the Boulevard Brewing Co. producing Chocolate Ale. But back in 2010, I imagine it was the kind of casual suggestion that gets everybody in a room excited. Pauwels and Elbow have a strong mutual respect, and both have made it known that they are glad the other is here to represent Kansas City. Pauwels takes Elbow chocolates to beer festivals for tastings, and Elbow has regularly incorporated Boulevard products into his ice cream and sorbets at Glace.
The idea that they would be working together was captivating initially because it was two of the signature brands in Kansas City, and their combined expertise suggested this could be something special. Boulevard unveiled the first round of Chocolate Ale last February and was caught completely flat-footed by the overwhelming demand (here's the first apology in February of 2011). Boulevard thought that this was a one-off, seasonal addition to its Smokestack Series. Those who failed to get a bottle let the brewery know that was unacceptable.
So Boulevard agreed to remake the beer and vowed it would return in 2012. The production was nearly quadrupled — Chocolate Ale was still on tap at several places around town even at the end of last week (although that may be as much a factor of price as availability, with some bars gouging people to the tune of $8 a glass for a taste). While you might not have been able to get a bottle, you could have tried a glass without much effort this year and made the decision whether it was worth the hype or not on your own.
Cut to last week with the second apology, the 'unwanted flavor,' and the 'Chocolate Fail' front-page story in The Kansas City Star. Boulevard got bullied into making Chocolate Ale return, and it feels that their unhappiness may have made it into the bottle. It's not quite the plot of Waitress, but it's hard not to think that the reluctance of Boulevard (and the temperamental nature of chocolate) manifested concretely in that unwanted flavor.
Boulevard has genuinely tried to make its hometown happy, and while its missteps are like those of a bumbling prom date, we've been a bratty dance partner. Production or flavor issues aside, Midwestern civility has been left in the liquor-store parking lot. We have hoarded. We have been rude. We've forgotten that beer is best shared because we were too concerned over updating our status.
Boulevard shouldn't (and likely won't) make a third incarnation of Chocolate Ale. This is one chapter in the company's two-decade history that they're ready to forget. What was supposed to be a gift became a burden. Boulevard has owned up to its faults, but we've failed to admit our own, and that starts with being ashamed.
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If anyone is seriously going to quit drinking Boulevard altogether because of this small fiasco - then you are a loser and are probably better off drinking bud light lime anyway.
+1 for the BELMONT STATION callout! KC transplant livin' in the PDX as well. I love that place! Close to my hosue too. Well stocked with the choco.
Yeah I had a glass on draft at the Smoke & Barrel in Fayettville, AR on Friday night. The hype is only in the KC area and that's what it is, hype. The beer is okay, the company is wonderful and the people flipping out about this need to find something real to care about.
What is all the fuss about?
You buy it, you drink it, you decide whether or not you like it.
If you like it, you buy it again. If you dont like it, you dont buy it again.
Rather elementary if you ask me.
What's really going to be funny is when the hoarders open their bottles after the 3-4 month shelf life of the beer and are left with a well-deserved terrible drinking experience. Chocolate Ale is tasty, but not the most amazing product Boulevard makes. The entitlement in this city makes me sick.
Here's a news flash for everyone in hysterics over Chocolate Ale. It's only a big deal in KC. You can walk into Belmont Station in PDX today and pick up a bottle or 4 of Chocolate Ale along with over 1300 other beers. Look it up online if you doubt me.
Like Beanie Babies it's time to let go of this Chocolate Ale thing. Get your money back and move on. The only person you have to blame for all the time you wasted getting your precious ale is yourself.
Now somebody pour me a Pliny the Younger.
Anyone who knows anything about BBC and/or John McDonald can tell you their dedication to quality products and satisfied customers is beyond question. To put out the variety of beers they do in their ever-expanding facility, they have to adhere to a strict production schedule. They didn't manufacture hype or create an "artificially enforced" availability limit. Period.
Did they try pouring the beer into a pilsner glass? Usually any beer company says the taste changes once you pour it into a beer glass and let it breath. It's not suppose to be drank straight fromt he bottle. Which is why it tasted good from tap. My 2 cents.
Absolutely agreed. And part of me says that people who don't understand the inherent risks as well as the rewards of a true craft beer should perhaps stick to fizzy yellow mass market beer. Hey, it's not exciting, but it's always the same, bottle after bottle. After bottle. After bottle...
I would venture to say a majority of folks who say they're "done with Boulevard" are ones who rarely buy anything else they make, anyway. Chocolate Ale isn't even in the top ten best beers Boulevard brews.
Boulevard is not in the wrong and if I ran that company no apology would be issued. People got greedy for a limited release, again LIMITED release beer. They have been putting out smokestack for years now with no hype other than to those who appreciate their beers. Chocolate Ale, sorry, is beer and not alcoholic chocolate syrup that most non-beer drinkers likely expected. Boulevard created no hype from their end and in fact tried to help keep order this year by releasing more bottles/kegs. Thank you Boulevard for trying again to provide a unique and creative idea that encompasses great parts of KC. I am disappointed in the complaining population. "You can't always get what you want" - M. Jagger
Agree completely. It's this attitude that keeps (and will keep) Kansas City from being a first rate beer town. We've basically got one major brewery and then a couple of small brew pubs (McCoys and 75th St) when there are towns smaller than us with many brew pubs. (And please don't even mention Gordon Biersch or Granite City.) Good beer is something that should be shared and savored, not fought over.
Your article link on Facebook reads: "You know who ruined Chocolate Ale? We did." By "we" I thought at first you meant YOU specifically, i.e. The Pitch and I was inclined to agree... your cover story on the upcoming re-release added significantly to the hype, therefore encouraging even more hoarder types to snatch up all the available bottles. (I know, shoot the messenger...)
Oh well, I managed to get a taste on draft. Unfortunately it was at one of those opportunistic taverns charging $8 a draw, and it was a very stingy pour at that... maybe 6oz.
I do not blame Boulevard. And I don't blame you guys either. Just blowing off a little steam. I hope the eBay opportunists get screwed. Fuck those people!
Wait a second...they screwed up, people complained, and "this is why we can't have nice things?" Gawd forbid that people expect what they pay for. This article sucks, and so do you Bender. Get bent.
Come on KC. Boulevard's a wonderful and generous company. Fight the entitlement that is within all of us. Yes, I need to fight it too, it's an ugly human flaw.
Umm, no?
It'd be one thing if Boulevard went to the trouble of making a second round of Chocolate Ale and no one bought it. I can see Boulevard feeling let down by its customers not putting their cash where their mouths were.
It's another thing to make a product limited in availability and then complain when customers get made that they couldn't obtain it. You either accept that as the risk of doing limited edition products, or you quit making limited edition products. Chocolate Ale may be particularly popular, but if they're doing it right, I'm sure their other limited beers generate plenty of emails and phone calls about keeping them in production longer.
But if you keep failing to anticipate demand, and then compound it with product failures you won't (or can't) replace because of the artificially-enforced availability limits, and then act like this is all a customer-driven debacle?
Sorry, that is not the fault of customers.
(And if it matters, I tried the Chocolate Ale when it happened to be available at my usual pub, and didn't care for the Tootsie Roll aftertaste. I definitely have no intentions of buying it again, regardless of whether a third run is ever done.)
Haahahaha look at these whiney cunts. Their opinion doesn't mean shit.
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