A Review of Blue Point Brewery

"If you build it they will come"

Well, they built it nearly 8 years ago and on Saturday afternoon I was privelaged enough to take a drive out to Patchogue to visit the Blue Point Brewery. For those of you who are not familiar with Blue Point, it is currently the only brewery on Long Island that has weathered the microbrewery fall off in recent years, it is becoming increasingly popular on long island and the east coast, and oh yes, it delicious.

Their beer has become so popular and widely recognized that I showed up expecting a small factory. What I found when I arrived shocked me. A small bar area and a manufacturing operation that was roughly the size of an autobody shop. I couldn't believe that this small place was the birthplace of all these great beers, but it was, and they're not only good, they're really good. Blue Point excels because they recognize that beer is truely about quality, not quantity. Rather than flooding the airwaves and t.v. with commercials they have very quietly produced great beer and let their beer speak for itself.

I was fortunate enough to meet one of the two owners. Dressed in jeans, old sneakers, and an old sweatshirt you can find Pete drinking with the locals at the brewery bar (And not behind the bar serving but out mingling with the locals). He looked like a dockworker, but the reality is that he will one day be the millionaire next door (if he isn't already). If you didn't know he was the owner you would just think he was some guy who wandered in off the street, seriously. He explained to me how everything worked, never at any point full of himself, and upon receiving compliments on a particuliar beer, he would respond "Yah its alright". One group of women asked him "Do you work here?". His response "Yah, you could say that". Still never even suspecting for a second that this average dressed joe could be the owner, they asked "Well what do you do here?" His response " I kind of do everything."

A truely amazing story, just two guys who started with like myself with a homebrew kit and the desire to make great beer. They have very quietly had 86% growth last year while Annnheiser Busch had 2%, and according to the owner they did this without trying too hard. As a true beer enthusiast I can only hope that Blue Point's # gets bigger and Annheiser Busch's # gets smaller. I hope that this beer will one day be nationally known as the beer from long island.

I would reccomend a visit to anyone. Tours and tastings run during the week but I don't know when and on saturday from 12-7. Beer is free, jugs are $9

A Review of the Beers

Toasted Lager- my personal favorite, their most widely distributed, a copper beer, has flavors of caramel, honey, and cofee

Hoptical Illusion-one common theme-hops, hops and more hops. Made with extra hops during fermenting , then during bottling poured over strainer filled with fresh hops into a bottle. Not for the faint of heart. Love or hate this beer you won't taste anything else like it.

Winterfest-similar to sam adams winterfest. tastes great

Octoberfest-creamy, definitely some nut brown malt in it, delicious.

Blueberry- not dominated by blueberry, still tastes like beer, the ladies seemed to love this one

Oatmeal Stout-could have had more oatmeal flavoring. Iam not a fan of stout but it was good for what it was suppossed to be. My cousin Joe really enjoyed this one

Pale Ale-very hopsy , very similar to sierra nevada pale ale

Golden Ale-light colored, quality body, great summer beer b/c slightly lighter. Hints of brown sugar, was told by joann was similar to my homebrew