Boulevard The Calling Review

Name: Boulevard The Calling
Style: Imperial IPA
ABV: 8.5%
IBUs: 75

I recently came into possession of the Great Eight variety pack from Boulevard Brewing and it contains four of their highly renowned beers. The first beer I will be looking at is The Calling, which is an Imperial IPA. Why is it called The Calling, you ask? Well the brewery so happens to give us a reason why it is called such:

The Calling is an undeniable IPA we were driven to make. It's our tribute to like-minded dreamers, adventurous spirits, and glass half-full optimists. It's also our most heavily hopped beer ever, bursting forth with unmistakable tropical fruit and pine hop aromas and flavor supported with a slightly sweet malt character, tapering to a crisp, dry finish. Heed your call and enjoy.

Appearance - Dark hazy orange color with a thin but foamy head. The lacing retention here is also pretty good as well.

Aroma - Pungent citrus and grapefruit notes upfront. I'm also getting some pale & toffee malts, particularly towards the middle, along with some surprisingly prominent yeastiness.

Taste - Rich citrus & mango notes with some grapefruit rind. Some bitter hops towards the back end of the palate, of which there is some moderate toffee maltiness along with some lighter pale malts and mild yeastiness. I'm also getting some light apple notes, mainly in the aftertaste.

This is a fantastic beer. It's nice and fruity yet it has an excellent malt backbone to help level things out. Be careful though because looks can deceiving as it doesn't taste like an Imperial IPA should, which could be a good or bad thing depending on how you look at it. Myself? I love it and you should too.

Boulevard The Calling - 9/10