There’s a list of breweries that I’ve never tried but really, really want to give a whirl. In no particular order, they include:

Boulevard Brewing Company was on that list and I thought that I had it in hand this spring via The In-Laws and their trip to Myrtle Beach. Apparently, the store was out of, well, everything during their visit. Prior to The Sister coming home for The Kid’s birthday party a week or two ago, she made a run to a local bottle shop and picked up a wholllllle bunch of Boulevard for me (stay tuned for more reviews in the next couple of weeks).

It shouldn’t be this hard to get in touch with Boulevard. Founded in 1989 in Kansas City’s Southwest side, it has since grown into a regional behemoth and one of the most respected breweries in the country. Its purchase in 2013 by Duvel Moortgat — the multinational owners of Brewery Ommegang, Duvel, Liefmans and La Chouffe — signaled national growth for the brand. While it is available in 31 states, its reach in New York State remains limited to New York City and Long Island. My personal hope was that Duvel’s connection to Cooperstown’s Ommegang would open doors for Upstate NY distribution. Thus far, I remain beholden to my sister’s willingness to shop on my behalf (SIDE NOTE: The very nice people at Syosset Beverage deserve a shout out for assembling my order, called in and paid for by me over the phone. All my sister did was pick it up and transport it.)

Because I’m a sucker for a shandy/radler, I cracked into the Ginger Lemon Radler first. As I may have hinted at before, these are rarely better than good. Low-rate beer is mixed with lemonade and, ta-da, shandy. Or radler. Whatever you want to call it. Narragansett gets closer than any of its contemporaries in this class and Boulevard surpasses them like a Camaro passing a Schwinn.

There’s a lot to like with this beer, even if you aren’t a regular shandy consumer. The lemon is more dry than sweet and complements the bite from the ginger. The beer has the flavors of lager. If you get by the ginger and lemon, there is a bready malt thing going on that draws it away from the typical hefe or wheat beer combination. It’s light-bodied and highly carbonated, which intensifies the ginger and lemon.

I recognize that radlers are not for everyone, but the dreck pumped out by Leinenkugel (MillerCoors) and Shock Top (Anheuser Busch InBev) is macrobrew sewer water dressed up as craft beer. If you want to try a radler that gives this style a good name, you need to find a brewery that takes its beer seriously. Harpoon does it with the Big Squeeze. ‘Gansett does it too. And Boulevard is the top of the class.

Brewer: Boulevard Brewing Company

Beer: Ginger Lemon Radler

Style: Radler/Fruit beer

ABV: 4.1% IBU: 12

Container: 12 oz. can

Price: $9.99 (purchased as a six-pack) Point of Purchase: Syosset Beverage, Syosset, N.Y.

To The Eye: Blonde and hazy. A hard pour produced a fluffy head that turned into a decent lacing.

To The Nose: Mild ginger aroma.

To The Palate: Highly carbonated, which added dryness to the lemon and punched up the ginger’s spice. The flavor profile is dry, not sweet, so you are getting more of a beer mixed with fresh lemon and ginger ale rather than beer with ginger-flavored lemonade. Faint, but noticeable, bready taste indicates malt and lager as the beer base.

Aftertaste: Dry with a slightly pungent ginger flavor.

Boozy Factor: Laughable.

On a Scale of 1 to 10, with 10 as highest: 8.5