(Kansas City, MO) – Boulevard Brewing has received label approval for the ninth beer in the Smokestack Series. The interesting twist with Boulevard Tank 7 is that it will eventually replace the brewery’s original Smokestack Series Saison. Here is what Director of Marketing, Jeremy Ragonese, has to say about the transition:

“We have always intended to keep the Smokestack Series lineup fresh by occasionally adding new brands, and the core series of four year-round’s has worked out well. While we’ve enjoyed and had some success brewing the Saison/Farmhouse Ale style (three variations to date), Tank 7 was the first and only Smokestack Series draft beer and continues to be very well received. We determined the next step would eventually be to release it in bottles and replace its predecessor among the core brands, but there has been no definite timetable determined as we already have several new brands in the pipeline. I would anticipate it to be early next year sometime — we just happen to be in front of the branding. That’s also not to say Saison won’t itself reappear in the future, because it certainly may.”

The label description on the back tells the story of Tank 7: “Most breweries have at least one piece of equipment that’s just a bit persnickity. Here at Boulevard we have fermenter number seven, the black sheep of our cellar family. Ironically, when our brewers were experimenting with variations on a traditional Belgian-style farmhouse ale, the perfect combination of elements came together in that very vessel. You could call it fate, but they called it Tank 7, and so it is. Beginning with a big surge of fruity aromatics and grapefruit-hoppy notes, the flavor of this complex, straw-colored ale tapes fof to a peppery, dry finish.”

Ragonese also provided an update on the return of BBQ: “Bourbon Barrel Quad (Limited Release) will be released along with Harvest Dance Wheat Wine (Seasonal) and Nutcracker Ale (Seasonal) around November 1. Bourbon Barrel Quad’s numbers will be about the same as last time, as the barrel aging limits the number of total cases possible […] While Bourbon Barrel Quad is a single batch, we have had two batches (releases) of Saison-Brett this year.”