Blue Point Porter

Brewed by Blue Point Brewing
Style: Porter
Patchogue, New York USA

on tap-pours a light tan head with dark brown color and red tint. Aroma is dark malt-oatmeal/coffee. Taste is dark malt-oatmeal/coffee, secondary hops. OK carbonation.

Tap at Barcade. Thick tan head over a dark ruby-tinted beer. Aroma is fairly sweet and caramelly with plenty of cherry fruitiness as well. Flavour shows some smokiness, sweet t/cherry fruit and some light caramel/toasty flavours as well. The Blue Point house character is very much in evidence here but it’s well integrated with the other toasted/roasted malts Flavour is not roasty, but shows lots of toasted dark malts and a hint of chocolate. Some lightly herbal hop character. A pretty tasty porter.

Cask. Dark clear brown ale with a big bubbled off white head. A roasted toast aroma with nutty notes. In mouth, a smokey peat malt with nutty notes, light moka, a dry powdery finish. Medium bodied. The Real Beer Expo - Rochester, NY, Oct. 21, 2006.

Cask at the Ginger Man, NYC. Smooth, some dry cocoa and coffee, but quite subdued. A pleasant session beer, but it hardly stands out.

Cask conditioned at NYC's Blind Tiger Ale House: roasty and somewhat thin, like a schwarzbier. Porters are always hybrids - not quite a stout, not quite a bitter dunkel. I thought this had significant bitterness in both the body and aftertaste with a nice roasty touch.

Tap and cask at the brewery - sampled side by side - dark ruby, almost black, with a creamy head from the cask (obviously), and none from the tap - aroma of roasted grains, a bit of coffee, a tiny hint of caramel and chocolate - the mouthfeel is quite smooth from the cask, but a bit too bubbly out of the tap - how does it tastes from the tap? - light roasted qualities, with a bit of cream and coffee, and a very prominent, fruity, almost blueberry-ish flavor - and from the cask? - the roasted flavor and coffee hints are more prominent, and the fruitiness is subdued - the body is a bit thin, and the finish kind of falls flat in the flavor department, but this is a pretty decent effort (and quite authentically "British" on cask) - I prefer it from the cask, but it’s worth a shot no matter how it’s served.

(cask @ The Real Beer Expo - Rochester, NY) Clear brown in color with a thin tan head. Aroma is very bitter and full of roasted malts and some coffee. Some hops, but mostly malts. Flavor has lots of roasted coffee and the slightest hint of chocolate malts. Good roasty and bitter flavor and a nice and bitter coffee finish. Really nice.

Sample at Brewery tasting room. Pours very black with a large frothy head. Just a tad of brown translucence but otherwise no clarity. Aroma is slightly roasty with a small hop presence. Flavor is a soapy mess with hints of chocolate and roasty flavors. Seems promising but maybe too young right now.