Boulevard Nutcracker Ale:
You think Tchaikovsky had a beer in hand when he wrote “The Nutcracker”? I like to think that he sat at his little table, quill in one hand and a glass of Russian Imperial in the other, scribbling away.  How else could he think about writing scenes about rats with swords?   Maybe he did and maybe he didn’t but at least we can imagine, right?  Well the good people over at Boulevard took it upon themselves to name a winter warmer after that well known ballet and this is what have for our beer today.  The beer pours a dark brown color with a off-white head that leaves some lacing and a nose of roasted malts along with hints sugar and spices.  The beer’s flavor profile is pretty uniform with a strong roasted barley and malt flavor with a combo of mellow sweetness and holiday spices (think cinnamon) as an undertone.  Not a bad beer but really it didn’t strike me as a beer worth having again due to it’s really basic profile.  It reads like it would taste really nice but trust me, it’s not that special and the taste easily found in other winter warmers.  To tell you the truth, I would love to see Boulevard take this as a base and make a really nice Smokestack entry with it cause it’s got the flavor profile that you could experiment with, but outside wishful thinking, that’s about the only thing that I like about this beer: it’s potential.