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Blue Point Brewery

Unread postPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 9:31 am
by Brewer
Yesterday, Mark & Stacy, Nancy & I paid a visit to Blue Point Brewery located in Patchogue, LI. It's a great micro-brewery making some very fine beers. Their tasting room is open on Friday's and Saturday's, and allows visitors to sample a number of their beers that are on tap. The best part is that most of the beers available for sampling are free. We sampled their Summer Ale, Pale Ale, Octoberfest, Blueberry Ale, and Hoptical Illusion. Samples of the Hoptical Illusion are $1. All were good, but to me the Pale Ale and Hoptical Illusion were excellent. Then we compared Hoptical Illusion poured from a regular keg to HI as a Cask Conditioned Ale. The Cask Conditioned HI was $5 for a pint and damn, was it good! :D It was nice and creamy, very smooth with loads of hoppy & fruity flavors, and the fact that it wasn't so cold allowed the flavors to come thru even better. It was also noted that the cask conditioned sample was much darker than the HI from a regular keg.

During the visit, I spoke with one of the brewery's employees and asked if they had anything new and different that they were planning. He informed me that they're planning an experimental ale that'll be aged in bourbon barrels! That certainly got my attention. I'm hoping that when that becomes available I'll be able to get out there for a taste or 2! :drink: :beer: :cheers: :partyman:

Check out their website: bluepointbrewing.com

Unread postPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 10:21 am
by Mike
Obviously, a great little trip Brewer! Surely there is a place in heaven for 'road trips' (both short and long), cask conditioned ales, bourbon, low country boils, steamed oysters, and all the other wonderful taste experiences we have here in this mortal realm.

I have never tried bourbon barrel aged beer before. In fact, I don't remember ever hearing of it before except on BE. I would love to try it sometime. Who knows, with so many used bourbon barrels laying about, maybe it will become commonplace.

I love the name 'Hoptical Illusion'. I vaguely remember from somewhere a beer called 'Hop You Like It' (btw, there is a small town in GA named Hopeulikeit).

HI joins that long, long, list of interesting names given to beers. The Flying Dog Brewery out in Denver has some with its 'Tire Biter Ale' and 'Horn Dog Barley Wine'. And, of course, up Canada way there are those of the Unibrew brewery. One of my favorite beers is their 'La Fin Du Monde' (translation: 'The End of the World')

But the brewers in England ain't no slouchs either when it comes to creative naming, what with Old Oil Can, Old Peculiar, Entire Butt, and Old Nick just to name a few. There are dozens more of these as every brewery seems to come up with at least one out of the ordinary name. And in my experience, they are all pretty good beers, and some, like 'Old Nick' (another name for the very devil his own self), I will go way out of my way to obtain.

Unread postPosted: Sun Aug 28, 2005 12:57 pm
by Brewer
Mike,

Yeah that is a cool name, and there are lots of others. I particularly like Arrogant Bastard Ale's name as well as Hop Devil. There's also lots of cool labels on bottles. Hobgoblin Ale from England is one that comes to mind.

After our visit to Blue Point, we had ourselves a nice little BBQ at my house. Had some steaks rubbed with "Slap Your Mama" rub, and some with Buffalo Trace marinade, we had sweet sausages, some nice chicken shis-ka-bob courtesy of Stacy's mom (Thanks Stacy's Mom!), and we cooked up cheese hot dogs and kielbasa. Didn't get to eat the dogs and kielbasa, cuz we was all quite full! And get this, afterwards, Nancy & Stacy made cookies on the grill...very interesting! During this time, we had some more good beer, and of course, some excellent bourbons. I'd say it was a pretty good day, to say the least.

Unread postPosted: Wed Nov 02, 2005 10:21 am
by Brewer
I got feedback from the brewer at Blue Point regarding their beer aged in bourbon barrels. They did 2 styles: ESB and Barleywine. The ESB was available last week at the brewery, & I'm told that it was a big success. There are a couple of casks that were sent to NYC. The barleywine was dumped from the bourbon barrel yesterday. That will be on tap in the tasting room the week before Thanksgiving. I'm bummed that I missed the ESB, but I certainly hope to make it to the brewery for that barleywine!

Unread postPosted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 10:59 am
by Brewer
Prior to going to see Cream at MSG, my friends and I went to the Ginger Man Bar for a couple of brews. Lucky for us, they had Cask Conditioned Hoptical Illusion available. Umm, umm good!

Unread postPosted: Thu Nov 03, 2005 1:44 pm
by gillmang
That's good, Bob, what a fine beer bar that is.

Blue Point is an excellent brewery, once Gingerman had its Imperial Stout on handpump and it was one of the best beers (truly) I've ever had.

Gary