Blue Point Hoptical Illusion

I rated this beer just to move up the Blue Point top raters list, I actually haven’t rated the 2 most common brews. Fortunately, this is a beer I actually like and have had numerous samples over numerous years. This particular rate was on tap at Rattle’n’Hum, imperial pint to boot as well. Aroma is all hoppy (fruit punch and sweet bubblegum) and fresh. Flavor is similar with no malt getting in the way at all. Easy drinking stuff, good hop character with no flaws. I can see myself keep drinking this for years to come.

Pours a rather nice golden hue with a decently long lasting white head and very active carbonation in my Sam Adams Sensity Glass. Smells of muted grapefruit and pine. Good but weak. Tastes very good! Same notes as smell which in and of itself wouldn’t qualify this as any more than average but something here is done right that I can’t quote put my finger on. Mouth is solid at a medium body with medium carbonation. A very good IPA and one I’d try again.

12oz screw-top bottle obtained at McKinnon’s in Salem, NH. Pours a crystal clear yellow-amber body with virtually no head. Butterscotch with a bit of citrus in the aroma. Minty grassy hops dominate the flavor with a bit of bready and caramel malt. Light bodied with moderate to low carbonation. An okay IPA at best, an okay beer in general I guess. Could afford to be more focused and cleaned up IMO.

Pours an orangey-amber, Nice white head that lasts for awhile. Lemon, grapefruit, piney scent. Taste is very good, very subtle. Sweet finish, almost makes you forget you’re drinking an IPA. All in all a pretty solid IPA.

FCBF 09. I really liked this IPA. Nice mouthfeel and texture. It struck a nice malty / hoppy balance, a bit more like an American Pale. Good stuff.

Draft, flour city brewers fest: clear piss yella...thin whiteboy suds hovering. Stale, lemony hop nose with a bit of wrongness floating around...not infection per se, just like something that shouldn’t be there...on an intellectual level. Wet mouthfeel, hoppy flavors bring out flavors of a hop or hop combo that simple does not seem to agree with me...just tastes a bit like lemony piss.

Pours golden-amber into the glass, with a tiny retentive bubbly cap that leaves mild lace. A grapefruit nose ensues, with hints at pine needles. The flavors are bit thin upfront, with grapefruit and rind/zest notes, but not a lot of malt substance to back up the citrus aspect. Thus, the body lacks some substance and feels a bit hollow. The finish is decently bitter, with some biscuit flour and pine notes; however, with a mouthfeel devoid of substance in the backbone, alongside albeit "overtly zesty" carbonation levels, this brew just feels like it has all the right intentions, but doesn’t impress on the delivery.

Bottle. Poured pale translucent amber with a respectable white head that thinned fast. Aroma was pleasantly sweet grapefruit with a hint of resin, not really piney though, that melded seemlessly with a moderate caramel malt. Flavor was grapefruit bitter, had a fruit punch sweetness, citric, nectar-floral, all with an underlying bitterness that somehow finished sweet. A decent east coast IPA.