Blue Point Hoptical Illusion

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

Pours dark straw with huge white head. Aroma of big resiny hops, fruit, floral spices. Tastes very hoppy, and balanced with a great fruity, spicy finish. Wonderful balance and incredible complexity. One of my big surprises of 2005.

Hazy golden ale with a thick creamy lightly off white head. A light restrained hoppy floral aroma with resinous qualities. In mouth, a good malt with decent hopping, well balanced with the malt, with orangey notes, and light candy sweetness. Medium bodied. Classy.

Sample from 12 oz bottle at RBSG, Montreal. Clear, bright copper-amber color, wispy head...big pungent, smelly nose with touches of oak...light-bodied, slightly sticky on the tongue, a bit woody with subtle grassy bitterness growing towards the finish...nothing really special but pleasant enough.

Grapefruit and floral, tangy hop aroma is pleasant if unexciting. Clear copper coloured body with low white head. Floral lavender grapefruit hops are somewhat subdued considering the name. Cloyingly sweet with fairly low finishing bitterness. Medium body with low carbonation and sticky texture. Bottle sampled at RBSG’05.

Bottle at home from my GBBF haul ... Nice copper ... light resiny hops ... little sweet resiny fruit y and light hop ... little caramel ... soft mouthfeel ...definite american tones.... one of the bettter.

Poured a clear gold with a thin white head. Big aroma off citrus and pine with sweet malt underneath. Malty sweet moving to a piney hop flavor and a bitter but sweet finish. Light to medium body and silky. Good balance. I would love to have this as a session beer.

Bottled, thanks to somebody out east! Poured medium golden/orange with a bunch of floaties from the last couple ounces. The aroma picked up a nice assortment of lighter and citrus fruits above a caramel base.. took on an enjoyable juicy complexion as it warmed up a bit. Lower carbonation helped the juicy pear, grapefruit meat, and caramel maltage glide slowly over the palate.. building pear, pine, and grassy bitterness also played well in here.. sweet, yet adequately bitter finish stuck around for quite a while. Medium-bodied, and again, the lower carbonation worked well.. long, rewarding finish. Excellent beer!

Astringent bitter on palate, found it hard to finish bottle which is not true for 95% of IPAs I have had. Some acidic orange flavour but mouth puckered too much, needs more malt.