Blue Point Hoptical Illusion

Brewed by Blue Point Brewing
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
Patchogue, New York USA

The Lure:
Dry-hopped leafy goodness proffers blossoming starfruit, grapefruit, and oranges. A well-retained head sits there, idly decorating the hop perfume. If you want a hoppy quaffer, this is quite attractive.

The Festivities:
Oranges salute the sweet malt in their supportive but never expressive role, but soon dance with the bold resinous, wooden hop bitterness. Mouthfeel makes it a pleasurable quencher, and carries the flavors efficiently.

Transcendence:
A bouquet of flowers rarely disappoints.

On cask at Mahar’s:
The superb balance between citrusy hops and biscuity maltiness, aided by the smooth natural carbonation of the cask, has prompted me to raise my score a bit more.

Pours gold with a generous white head. Smells of pine, pepper, some floral hints. Tastes dry and grassy with some nice spicy hints. Well balanced and enjoyable.

12 oz bottle. Golden colour, thick off-white head. Beautiful hoppy aroma. Simcoe pinyness and some tropical pineapple notes. Soft resiny character. Great fresh hoppy aroma. Sweet apricot in the malt profile as well. Flavour is quite good, light resin underneath a fresh herbaceous hop flavour. Some sweet tropical and slightly piny notes. The malts show a bit of breadiness and toast, but the hops dominate here. Aroma is all PNW but the flavour is a little less so. Tasty IPA.

Golden lemon yellow. Smells literally like a hop bag, with a pure, leafy, gritty hop scent. Crisp flavor, tangy grapefruit juice, spicy and bitter, but not very deep. Gritty, semi-sweet finish. A decent IPA but not world class.

Very nice, a clear amber color with a fizzy head that doesn’t loiter, but coats the glass in lacing before it leaves. Great hop aroma, orange petals, pine, grapefruit - and I wantefd it to be more intense. Too much sweet malt got through! Medium-bodied and sweet, it is now the hops that dominate in the mouth (and down the gullet). Intense without overwhelming, the serious bitter flavor makes the brew work for this hop-head. The finish is bitter and oddly dry. I need to swallow more to make sense of this.

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Dark golden to amber in color. Taller - turning rocky, light beige head. Sweet grapefruit aromas dominate. Hints of cedar and pale malt also in the scents. Sharp flavors from the start, with bitter pine and grapefruit. The middle seems to mellow a bit with a smoother more balanced attach on the palate. Liquid is a bit lifeless. Finish has a mild grapefruit zest kick and the linger is just a general bitter pill.

Bottle sampled @ RBSG 05’ (Montréal) Grand Tasting
Clear yellow, light head, average lacing. Nose of bright amarillo, not much else. The flavor isn’t balanced, thin body and an overhopped mouthfeel. The finish is dry, rough. No finesse.

On tap at Bukowskis, Boston, October 2009. Gold colour with a moderate off-white head. Mix of citric and spicy hops with a slightly earthy undercurrent. Balanced by light biscuity malt. Good solid IPA but nothing to really distinguish it from the crowd.