Beer of the Week: Blue Point Toasted Lager

A local brewery in Patchogue, Long Island, Blue Point brewery is known for its microbrews and seasonal beers that many a bar in New York serves with pride. Their most well known beer is a Toasted Lager, a delicious beer that combines great malt and hops, with a toasted caramel flavor that I cannot say I have ever tasted in another beer. When it first started being served in bars it was a bit of a novelty because it was both rare and delicious. Bars would run out of it so quickly, and you would have to switch to another beer after a while. This is no longer the case as I witness recently that places as far away as Hoboken have discovered that a flavored beer can still be a "guy" beer.

Unlike its fruit and chocolate beer cousins, the toasted flavor adds a tasty yet only slight hint of flavor, almost like lightly smoking a vegetable. When you first taste the beer you can clearly make out the toasted flavor, but quickly come to the realization that it is a rich and flavorful lager on par with much better known non-toasted lagers.

Number of Beers Drank in one Sitting: 3
Pair with Food: Yes, goes really well with light and subtle flavored food, such as fish.

Not to be confused with the Mussels

Beer of the Week: Red Stripe

Jamaican beer, Hoooray Beer! Sadly (or gladly?) advertising for Red Stripe will always stick in my head for its simple yet memorable tagline at the end. The beer itself, similar to other Caribbean beers, is best enjoyed on a hot day at the beach. Despite this tag, Red Stripe has had a bit of a renaissance in popularity and is often found as one of the main import beers at bars alongside Heineken and Amstel Light. Its distinctive bottle shape and logo always stand out in a bar, and I am convinced it is harder to knock over than those flimsy long neck bottles. Best of all, Red Stripe actually tastes surprisingly good considering it is a mass produced lager. It goes down very easily, like most lagers, but the flavor is there from the hops and almost a corn or malty taste (in a good way). Unlike some of its brethren that are meant to be drank sitting on the beach, Red Stripe tries to combine hints of subtle flavor with icy cold easy sipping that should be enjoyed lounging somewhere beautiful. If that somewhere happens to be the part of Jamaica that is right near da beach, boy-eeee, then you should consider yourself blessed.

Number of beers drank in one sitting: 5 (sometimes you just have to give one away)

Pair with food: I personally have only had it when drinking for drinkings sake. It's too light to go with much, but perhaps some fried food just to cut the salt.

Lord Have Mercy It's Beer

Beer of the Week: St. Pauli Girl

For some reason I find getting bottled German beer in the U.S. that is fresh very difficult. And by fresh, I mean not "skunky". Yes, I realize skunky is just a word that Budweiser created, but it is a very aptly named term. Too often the lighter German beers like Becks, St. Pauli Girl and others taste like they have been in the beer fridge for months. With that aside, I am not a huge fan of St. Pauli Girl, but then again, I don't seem to like any light commercial German lagers. The taste is more bitter than your average light lager, and the finish is not as clean as american, mexican and asian beers. Would I drink it? Sure, why not. Would I ask someone to please pass me a St. Pauli Girl? Only if it was the St. Pauli girl herself handing it to me. Did I recently drink three of these out of a ginormous beer mug? Yes. Did I do it for this blog? Definetly. It actually wasn't as bad as I had remembered it being, and it might actually be a decent beer to eat with some bratwurst or other German sausage, since personally I like a light beer with most heavy German foods.

Number of beers drank in one sitting: 2.5
Pair with food: Only the heavier German food (is there any LIGHT german food?)

Get Some Free Pictures of the St. Pauli Girl (Oh, and info about the beer)