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    Blue Point Brewing Arrives in South Florida

    July 19, 2010
    / Beer News /
    12 Comments

    For those of you that do not subscribe to Fresh Beer’s newsletter you may not know this yet.  But the gurus of craft beer down here have done it again.  They are bringing a brand new brewer to our area some really good beers.

    Blue Point is based out of Long Island, NY and do both lagers and ales with their lineups.  I had the chance to have all three of their standard line of brews when I was in Pennsylvania in June and boy are we in for a treat.  Here is their take on each of these brews.

    Toasted Lager – Blue Point Brewing’s Toasted Lager is the flagship product. Copper in color this brew is made from Six different malts including: English Pale, Crystal, Munich, Carapils, Wheat and Belgian Caravienna. Toasted Lager displays a balanced flavor of malt and hop which makes it easy drinking. Special lager yeast is used to produce that long lasting, smooth finish. The “toasted” part of the name refers to Blue Point’s direct-fire brew kettle; hot flames imparts a toasted flavor to their most popular microbrew.

    RastafaRye – Blue Point Brewing Company humbly honors the Rastafari and dedicates this beer to them. Their RastafaRye Ale marries a hearty rye malt with a blend of freshly harvested west coast hops resulting in a delicious deep copper ale, with just the right amount of rye flavor to offset the spicy and floral characteristics of the hops, RastafaRye will stay on your palate and your mind evermore.

    Hoptical Illusion IPA – This IPA won the Bronze Medal at The 2005 Great American Beer Festival. It was also named the best IPA at The 2005 United States Beer Tasting Championship. This classic American style IPA features a rare hop exclusively grown on a farm in Oregon. One taste of the Hoptical Illusion and you’ll know why Blue Point bought the entire crop. A generous amount of the select hop balances out malty backbone of this delicious golden beer.

    My personal favorite of these was the RastafaRye.  The rye taste on it was very well pronounced and it drank so well.  I have feeling that the Toasted Lager will become a pretty popular session beer and the Hoptical Illusion is very solid IPA that should make hop heads happy.

    So be on the look out for these offerings from Blue Point very shortly.  Cheers!

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    Pike India Pale Ale

    July 16, 2010
    / Beer Review /
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    Name – Pike India Pale Ale
    Country – United States
    Type – English IPA

    Appearance – Poured a slightly hazy copper color with a nice sized white head.

    Smell – The nose is pretty faint but you get malts, some floral and citrus like hops and a grain like smell.

    Taste – It is pretty malt forward and hops are just sort of an after thought here.  You get some hops but ever so slightly.

    BA lists this as an American IPA while I was told that it is an English IPA.  I believe the later but it is even a bit of a stretch.  It is a malty base like an English one but the hops just do not come through like they should.  This one is kind of lost in the no mans land between the two IPA styles.  While it isn’t undrinkable at all I just feel it lacked character.  It might be a good entry level beer for a person just getting into craft but just not my cup of tea for English styled IPAs.

    Overall Grade – C

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    Flying Fish ESB Amber Ale

    July 14, 2010
    / Beer Review /
    1 Comment

    Name – Flying Fish ESB Amber Ale
    Country – United States
    Type – American Red Ale

    Appearance – Pours a clear copper/amber color with a big white head that does leave some lacing on the glass.

    Smell – You really get the malts in the nose first and foremost.  There is a nice fruit like sweetness in there as well that I can’t quite place.  Some hops can be picked up in the back.

    Taste – Malty, malty goodness.  Caramel and malts but the hops do come into play but not as largely as you might think for a beer with the name ESB on it.  There is some spices to it as well to round things out.

    This is a bottle I brought back from my trip to PA from Flying Fish in Cherry Hill, NJ.  If you go in thinking this is an ESB you are going to probably be disappointed, like I was the first time I tried this.  But if you just remove that part of the name from your mind this is a pretty good amber ale.  Very nice malty sweetness with enough hops and spices to round it out really well.  Remember don’t think ESB because it really isn’t anything like that style.  If you can get that out of your mind you should enjoy this one.

    Overall Grade – B

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