Drink the Celebration ale up first, maybe. Celebration Ale is a single IPA whose recipe hasn't changed in 30 years. Sucks is a juicy double IPA.

Which isn't to say anything bad about Celebration Ale. I buy a case of it every year and I'm drinking one as I type this.

I know I'm getting off topic, but Weihenstephaner just makes great beer. Excellent beer in fact. I haven't found one I dislike. However, their Oktoberfest was a bit disappointing, but that is because I was expecting perfection.

So what do you local guys make of this?

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/201...-brewerys-tale

When Craft Beer Goes Global: A Kansas City Brewery's Tale

by Frank Morris
December 16, 2013 2:50 AM

from

3 min 29 sec

Boulevard Brewing Co. has become a staple of the Kansas City community since its founding in the late 1980s.

Boulevard Brewing Co. has become a staple of the Kansas City community since its founding in the late 1980s.
Frank Morris/KCUR

Kansas City residents are proud of their barbecue, their Chiefs football, their national champion soccer team and Boulevard Brewing, a local brewery that has built up quite a local following since its launch in the late 1980s.

"It's our thing. You know, like la cosa nostra, it's our thing," says Char O'Hara, a Kansas City, Mo., resident who, like thousands of other local 20-somethings, grew up with Boulevard.

But soon, it will be a Belgian thing, too. Any day now, Belgian beer maker Duvel is expected to finalize its purchase of the Kansas City brewery.

The deal to buy says a lot about the transformation of the American craft beer industry — and just how much the world now values a product with a firm sense of place.

O'Hara is a little leery about Duvel taking over her brand. "These people came from the outside, and took something that's native to us, and it's kind of a bummer," she says. "It makes the future uncertain."

But John McDonald, Boulevard Brewing's founder, sees things differently. "I think a lot of people were kind of shocked at the news, and I kind of knew that would happen."
Boulevard Brewing's lineup includes seven year-round beers, five seasonal beers and 13 beers in its Smokestack series.

Boulevard Brewing's lineup includes seven year-round beers, five seasonal beers and 13 beers in its Smokestack series.
Frank Morris/KCUR

He's been building Boulevard's brand loyalty since the company's conception in the late 1980s, and he helped make the American craft beer industry from scratch.

"We didn't have a lot of rules about the types of beers we made. So, we stole ideas and invented things from every brewing culture in the world, we mishmashed them all together," he says. "We're all pushing ourselves to keep in the cutting edge of that."

The reputation of American brewers is that they will try anything: spices, nuts, coffee, bacon, aggressive combinations of hops and malt and elaborate production techniques. They have to. American beer lovers have come to expect and demand top quality and creativity.

"Twenty years ago," McDonald says, "I would tell you that Belgium was the greatest brewing country in the world. And today I would say it's the United States."

, a beverage industry analyst, says there are now at least 2,500 American craft breweries, and some are challenging the European masters. U.S. craft beer exports jumped more than .

"It tells you how much it's changing, that you've got a Belgium brewer coming in and snatching up an American craft beer with the intention of taking it global," Crecca says.

Most of the bottles of Irish Ale that jostle down the Boulevard production line today will stay in the Midwest. But Simon Thorpe, who runs , the American arm of the Belgian company buying Boulevard, says Kansas City's identity will help sell this beer worldwide.

"People really want to know where things come from," he says. "They want to have an emotional connection to the brewery."

But when the local legend goes global, what happens at home? Loyal customer Sam Anderson is pondering that over a glass of ale in Boulevard's tap room.

"You know, after I heard more about the details and the company that bought them and everything like that, it seemed like, well, it's OK," he says. "I still hated to lose a pure Kansas City product, but it's OK."

Duvel promises to help Boulevard make and sell more beer. But otherwise it pledges to pretty much just leave Boulevard alone, as it tries to strike a delicate balance between marketing Boulevard beer to the world and keeping it real at home.

Love that we get the Boulevard sampler packs with Mid Coast IPA and Westside Rye in them. Like both those beers. Throw 80 Acre and Unfiltered Wheat into the mix, and this sampler pack ranks up there pretty high.

Had an opportunity to try Delirium Tremens last night at dinner and passed.

Did I make a mistake?

If you like strong Belgian beer then yes, you did.

Not sure I've had a strong Belgian ale. What does it compare to that I might know?

*Reaper will be here shortly to chastise me.

There was a discussion in another thread about Belgian yeast/spice, which for me, ruins any beer. If you like the spice/peppery taste of something like Tank 7 or ZON, Boulevard-wise, it's pretty much all I got out of it.

It has pretty good reviews on beeradvocate though, so I guess it's good for the style.

Duvel, Chimay, etc....

Not exactly the same but Tank 7, Boulevard Saison, and Saison Brett are all Belgian strong ales.

John McDonald sold to Duvel because of his love of Belgian beer and the family owned dedication to beer making and craft style brewing.

DT is very popular strong Belgian.

Has a hint of banana flavor from the yeast which is interesting.

Almost forgot Leffe Blonde is pretty good too.

I had my first Delirium Tremens while I was living in Toronto in 2006. I had three pints in about 40 minutes and I nearly fell off the stool-it's much stronger than anything I had drunk before.

Pretty damn good :thumb:

Either you like Belgian beer or you don't really, its very distinct.

I personally love it over anything else though I like all beer styles.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU

Jewbelation Reborn, 17% ABV. oy vey.

In my humble ****ing opinion. If you don't like Belgian beer, you don't like real beer.

Jesus.

That ABV is higher than most, if not all wines.