Blue Point Toxic Sludge Black IPA

Seeing how its almost Thanksgiving and I have a small break from school, I decided to hit up a few beverage centers in order to get my drink on and write a few reviews. I went to the Port Jeff Beverage Center and picked up a brew called Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn. I’ve seen this brew a few times before and decided it was time to give it a taste. I talked to the dude behind the counter for a bit about Port Jeff Brewing Company (which is located down the road from Port Jeff Beverage). He was also an avid beer drinker like myself and had great knowledge on their brews because he goes there almost every week (like myself). I asked him about the Paulaner Oktoberfest Wiesn, I was picking up and he said “dude….that’s some good shit.” I bought the brew and was on my way home until I passed another beverage center in Mt. Sinai. I figured what the hell, maybe I can find another new brew to drink. I walked to the back by the fridge's and saw Blue Point Toxic Sludge and thought to myself “NO FUCKING WAY.” I had to get it because I haven’t had it since last year. This IPA hits you like a brick in the face! After one you're done. I drank two the last time I got it, went to a party, pissed in a sink and got kicked out. I was so gone I could barely recall the night, all I remembered was this juice head in an Ed Hardey shirt (that obviously had way too many Smirnoff’s) wanting to fight me. I woke up the next day with a splitting headache thinking to myself “Damn, that really was some Toxic Sludge.” After just drinking one of these right now I feel tipsy and need to piss! This is an extremely dark IPA with an awesome kick to it. I’d recommend it to anyone who likes dark brews. Not only does it taste good, it does the job and donates all the proceeds to the tri-state Bird Rescue & Research’s “Spreading Our Wings” campaign. So if you’re a brew lover and an animal lover, this is the brew for you! Blue Point also states “In times of crisis (like this) we figure you can either hibernate or participate.” This IPA came out after the BP oil spill that left many birds and wild life covered in TOXIC SLUDGE. I think its great that I can enjoy a brew and know that the money spent on it is going to a good cause.

 This is a dry-hopped BLACK IPA (Indian Pale Ale). It’s a smooth as water off a duck’s back. So everytime you drink one, please let out a proud squak in honor of our beautiful, beaked bretheren. We hope you can dig deep in your hearts (and pockets) to help support the effort. –Blue Point Brewing Co.

For more information on the bird rescue, visit www.tristatebird.org

Also visit www.bluepointbrewing.com for more info on the beer itself. The dude at the beverage center also said Blue Point might change the name of this IPA in the future.

I hope you have a good Thanksgiving and keep drinking. Cheers! -Matt

Rolling Rock

I like to think there might be some kind of poetry to be found in those all-too-many nights where I find myself sipping shit beer like champagne. Ignorance would be bliss if I did not know any better it seems. But that there, is just the problem, getting a decent beer for cheap is a seemingly impossible task now-a-days. A 6 of something good and tasteful for under 10 dollars is hard to find, but as of late I have taken to checking out the deals at the local Associated Market in my neighborhood of Bushwick, Brooklyn and much to my surprise and pleasure they have been stocking both 6 packs of pint sized Rolling Rock for 6 dollars, as well as 12 packs of your standard 12oz cans for 8 dollars. I was at first skeptical as they seemed to be marketed similarly in the local bodegas just as the cheap malt liquor that sat beside it on the shelf, the cobras, the steelys, the colts and olde English, that I knew too well and sure as hell were not about to become reacquainted with. I instead opted often for pbr 12 packs, running at a dollar more, along with the ticate 12s. After switching though to Rolling Rock I find the though, a bit watery, easy drinking bright and smooth in comparison to similarly priced, while oft a dollar or two cheaper, to be pleasantly better than others. Being of a paler taste that most lagers, I find this beer to be closer on the spectrum to my actual beer tastes which tend to favor the more vibrant ales.
Rolling Rock got it’s start in 1939 as a local beer company out of Pennsilvania, although now brewed in New Jersey and bought out by Anheuser-Busch in 2006. 33 is interestingly printed on the bottles, signifying the 33 words in their original pledge to quality, although an interesting correlation can be made to the end of prohibition in 1933. ...Some poetry to be found after all, so it may seem.






A little nip
From the glass line tanks of
Old Latrobe
We tender this package as a
Premium beer for your delight
And economical use
It comes:
‘from the mountainsprings
to you’
“33”


Hell of a first post for myself as a contributor to the brew blog eh? Needless to say though, sometimes money gets tight and you find yourself suckling some savory sewage on a night-to-night basis, after rolling the rock eternally up the mountain, day-in-day-out. And at this point I feel to say for myself, this is becoming a time-tested suggestion for myself as I have gone through more than a couple 6s and 12s of these with little complaint. If nothing more than a break from another value brew of your choosing I do suggest Rolling Rock to accompany to your late night broke blues. -Patrick

Beer in Brazil by John Curran

 While good beer in brazil is few and far between, they do have some quality stuff! but usually at a hefty price. Micro-brewing has not caught on like it has in the states. Wine and extremely sweet cocktails tend to be the trend in brazil's bars and night clubs. As for those day's on the beach with a couple of brew's. That tends to consist of your average pilsner-style brew like Brahma, Antarctica, or skol. Similar to that of an American Bud, Miller, or Coors light, all generic in taste and low quality. Beers including some of the micro brew's in brazil tend to be a little more watery then American beers lighter on the hops, and the malts, cause of the extreme heat (summer average is about 110 and can get to 120). And the water plays a big role in the brewing of beer,  Brazil has what is referred to as soft water witch doesn't make good for brewing darker beers such as stouts and other darker beers.  Most beer's are referred to as gold or dark and usually don't have the stout porter or ale names attached to them. And the darker beers tend to not pack the same punch as they do in the states. There are some generic's that aren't half bad witch is devassa and itipava, I haven't gotten around to trying the dark devassa, but the golden pilsner style isn't half bad and aren't expensive at around 2 reais for a 12 oz can. Devassa and itipava tend to be my drinks of choice when I know ill be drinking more then 2 or 3 beers in a night. 
  My first beer that I really love happens to be a dark American style lager from right hear in Rio, its has a taste that is very crisp and refreshing. witch believe me if you had some of the other so called dark beers down hear you would be blown away by this one. Most of the darker beers like petra tend to be not so refreshing and just skunky in taste. Black Princess however is refreshing on a hot day witch really isn't the point of dark style beer. At 4.8 % alcohol and about 6 reais  for 12 oz bottle, This Beer gives brazil its own unique tropical style take on a what would usually be considered a winter beer and is usually what is in the fridge at my house for casual drinking. 
  My second beer is estrada real IPA witch is a great  IPA and one of the better beers iv' e had, but at a price of about 20 reais (dollars) for a 20 oz bottle makes it not so worth it. This beer come's from the state of Minas Gerais to the west of Rio. While not very hopy, and light on the bitterness it has a nice citrus flavor to it. It does not really follow the standard IPA style/taste and to someone use to English and American style brewing would have a hard time believing this to be an IPA you have to understand that brewing beer of an IPA's nature in a tropical country is going to come out quit different then what you are use too, it does however have a nice 7.5 % alcohol volume and a nice copper color. It is interesting and very good,  But the price makes it certainly unreasonable to be a main-stay in my fridge and wont make it in there to often. 

It's beginning to taste a lot like christmas.

I know it's kinda early to be picking up the Magic Hat Winterland variety pack... but it did snow two days ago on Halloween for the first time in who knows how long? After work I decided to pick up some brew because I was in the mood to chill out and drink something nice before I had to go to sleep and wake up for school in the morning. When I got to the store I didn't really see anything that caught my eye except for the Brooklyn Variety pack, but I already had that before. After looking around and not finding anything, I noticed a green box hidden behind the Brooklyn Variety and I decided to check it out. When I reached for the box I realized it was another variety from Magic Hat Brewery. Seeing how Magic hat is one of my favorite breweries and i've had the Summer and Night of the Living Dead variety pack from them before, (which were both awesome) I decided to pick it up and didn't really care how much it cost (even though I'm in the middle of paying off my laptop). I never had the Black as night Lager or the Ravell from them before so I was really curious to see how they tasted. I did however have #9 plenty of times and it's one of my favorite beers (especially in the can) and Encore which is another good brew. I started the pack off by drinking a beer I know best and thats the #9, after that I decided to have one I never had before and that is the HOWL Black as Night Lager. After drinking The Black as Night, I can see where they got the name from. It's and extremely dark lager but a good one overall. Seeing how I just bought this pack and I have two of each brew, i'm going to finish them off and update this blog at a later time (probably saturday). Check back for an update and keep drinking!