Karl Strauss Boardwalk Black Rye

Aroma: 8 | Appearance: 8 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 7 | Overall: 7

No idea of the age, but new to me :) Bomber. Poured inky black and pretty thick head. Great feel, smooth. Almost stoutlike at first, like a bitter imperial stout, but became very well balanced as it warmed and opened up. Pine, spicy rye, and citrus, chocolate, roast, and a bittersweet aftertaste. Leaning towrds the darker malt over the hops, but just ever so slightly. Nice brew.

Aroma: 9 | Appearance: 7 | Mouthfeel: 8 | Flavor: 8 | Overall: 9

22oz bottle -

While walking the aisles at my local BevMo, I keep seeing the same selection. But out of the corner of my eye, I see a stack of new Karl Strauss beers and quite the nice price at less than $5 a bomber. And like any good beer geek, I had to get one.

So on a Sunday afternoon after my Raiders gave a beatdown to the Jets of New York, I popped the cap to this one and was quite suprised at what lay in store for me. The beer poured out an inky, jet black body with a eruptive 3-finger dirty white head. Aroma had a thumping chocolate/hoppy 1-2 punch with some support from char, smoke and a light meat marinade. Flavor started out with an up-front and center roasty malt note like a porter or a stout, but then the tarty-rye character shows up and it starts to stand up to the roasty notes. Pepper-like notes show up around mid-palate and combine the roasty-ness of the malts, the bitterness of the hops, the tartness of the rye and the spicey/peppery-ness of maybe the yeast and this is one damn good beer. Creamy mouthfeel, fantastic lacing left behind. Kudos for making a great, great beer.