Boulder Beer Never Summer Ale

I stopped by a local bottle shop yesterday and picked up a sampler from Boulder Beer Co.  The sampler contains Never Summer Ale, Hazed & Infused, Mojo, and Sweaty Betty.  I've heard some pretty good things about their beers before, but haven't actually tried any myself.  Until yesterday, that is.  I started off with the Never Summer Ale:

Appearance: 8/10
This beer pours a cherry-brown with ruby notes and a small, off-white head.  There wasn't much of a head when poured, and the head settled fairly quickly, leaving a neat honeycomb pattern on top of the beer.  The beer itself was very clear; looks crisp, clean, and inviting.

Aroma: 20/25
The aroma was pleasing.  I could pick up both malt and hops, and the hop characteristics came through well on the nose.  Pine was the main hop aroma I picked up on, though there were also hints of resin, leather, bread, and maybe straw.

Taste: 34/40
What struck me the most about the taste was that it was very well-balanced.  Flavors of both maltiness (esp. bready) and hoppiness (spicey, floral, herbal, piney) were both clearly present, and they did not clash with each other, but accentuated each other.  I was fairly well impressed with the flavor profile overall.  It doesn't have the complexity that I find in other beers of this type, but those beers often lack the real balance of this beer.  The 40 IBUs are nicely matched with the sweetness of the malt, and the more you roll this beer around your mouth, the more complementary flavors come out.

Mouthfeel: 8/10
With just the right level of carbonation and full-bodied mouthfeel, this aspect adds to the enjoyment of the beer.  It's the kind of beer that you can roll around in your mouth without getting that unpleasant sting from too much carbonation.  At 6.5% abv, there's just a very slight alcohol-warmth on the back end -- very enjoyable.

Style: 5/5
Though the bottle/packaging doesn't explicitly say what kind of beer this is, I think it's fairly safe bet to call it a winter warmer.  And since the guidelines are pretty lenient in that category, it's kind of hard to lose points there.

Drinkability: 8/10
I did enjoy this beer quite a bit, and it was a good introduction to the Boulder Beer Co. for me.  The flavors were pleasing, I can think of quite a few dishes this beer would go well with (mainly heartier dishes), and I would definitely drink it again.  I'm looking forward to trying the rest of Boulder's beers.

Overall: 83/100
I'll have to try a few of their other beers before I decide for myself where Boulder Beer Co. will rank in my all-time list of brewers, but based on this one beer, I'd say they do merit some applause.  (If that sounds grudging, it's because the people who hyped up Boulder Beer Co. to me also hyped up things like Twilight, so my opinion of their opinion is pretty low.  But they weren't wrong here.  Fluke?  I hope so.)

I can't believe I just referred to Twilight in a beer review.  That makes me feel so... dirty.  Ugh.  This might be a drink-to-forget kind of day.  Cheers!