If I’m being completely honest here, the cans sold me. Just look at those colors. It’s like I’m back in Miami in the 80’s, and Tony Montana is about to spray bullets around town after a face first dive into a pile of Columbia’s finest!
Boulevard is one of my favorite brewers, but I’ve only had their Bourbon Barrel Ale and Whiskey Barrel Stout, so I was curious what a non-barrel aged beer from them would taste like. Going up against them I had to choose Green Bench Brewing’s Happy Hermit when I saw how closely each cans color scheme worked together. By design alone, these two could be cousins, but let’s see how they fare against one another.
HopDuel Survey
| Better label | Green Bench Brewing’s Happy Hermit Pale Ale |
| Better aroma | Green Bench Brewing’s Happy Hermit Pale Ale |
| Better taste | Boulevard Brewing Tropical Pale Ale |
| Better finish | Boulevard Brewing Tropical Pale Ale |
| Winner | Boulevard Brewing Tropical Pale Ale |
Tell us about it
Very impressive brews from both sides here, and it’s really a toss up. What put me over the top with Boulevard’s Tropical Pale Ale was the subtle grapefruit flavor that lingered from taste through finish. It’s hard to describe exactly why this made them the winner since I don’t even like grapefruit. But there was something about this combination that really worked well. I find that to be true with all of Boulevard’s beer, an overwhelmingly solid blend of flavors.
I don’t want to ignore the Happy Hermit in this writeup because it was a very good offering, but it had some stiff competition. I think both will do well in this category in future duels, but time will tell.
HopDuel 