Dark Truth Stout, Boulevard Brewing Company

The United States has often been referred to as a melting pot, alluding to its ability to take materials from all over the world and produce something entirely new.  It was popularized by the play of the same name in 1905 which, from the framework of Romeo and Juliet, followed the love of a Russian Jew and the daughter of a Tsarist officer who directed pogroms back in the motherland.  In the end, the cultural blending of America is strong enough to defeat the animosities of the old world.  Quite touching.  Of course today we're told the "melting pot" is more of a "salad bowl" where cultures coexist but don't disappear in a burst of fusion.  However, that doesn't mean the term is dead.  It still applies if you know where to look.  Take corn dogs for example.  It's just a sausage, that's German, but slide it onto a stick and coat it in cornbread and you've got an American icon.  Or try a Mexican pizza.  I don't think a description is even needed.  The name is pretty self-explanatory.

Today's beer is a living example of a melting pot.  It pulls together bits and pieces of recipes that would otherwise never meet in the same fermenter.  What will be the result?  Something only an American brewery would spend time achieving.  Dark Truth Stout is the this blog's third smokestack series beer and its first stout.  I'm not sure why I haven't done a stout yet.  I find a well poured Guiness to be one of the most beautiful drinks and look foreword for months to have a Mephistopheles, so I really am surprised.  I guess it's fitting that this particular stout is surprising on its own.

So the color, black, and head formation, belatedly growing out of what seems like nowhere, are just right for a stout.  Nothing unduly weird or unusual here.  That smell though, there's something else in it.  That would be the Belgian yeast strain Boulevard uses.  It's kind of out there but works quite well, like when I fry my eggs with curry and put them on cheese pizza (so good, by the way!).  The fruity Belgian aromas actually complement the dark roastiness of the stout malts.  Speaking of which, the description provided by Boulevard Brewing Company's website names barley, wheat, rye and oats.  That makes for a very complex grain bill and an exceedingly nuanced maltiness that tantalizes your nose and tongue.  The last point of departure from your typical stout recipe is the hops.  Boulevard went with German varieties instead of the British ones usually employed.  These aren't as different as using a Belgian yeast because the common hop types found in stouts are often seen as cousins of the German nobles.  What they gained by using the hops they did was not a novelty hybrid brew, but one that is beautifully balanced between heavy hitters from both side of the boxing ring of beer.

What did we find?  A beer that is positively delightful even though part of you feels a bit unnatural.  Kind of like how I can't listen to Made of Bricks without Kate Nash's voice being doubled by my own an octave below her.

Dancing at discos, eating cheese on toast!

Now Kate Nash uses a number of hemiolas, which are a gateway drug to 20th century music.  Might this beer be a gateway to a new 21st century stout?  Maybe, maybe not.  To moral of the story though is you should combine weird things because you never know when they might produce something wonderful.  Case in point, did you know that music from Ireland and Bayaka music from Africa fuse incredibly well? Who would have thought?  See for yourself.