Blue Point Pumpkin Ale

Before beginning this review, a word of apology. The PumKing and I have been derelict in our reviewing duties-- I, the Duke, was recently betrothed and subsequently away from my desk-- but we have not been idle. At the wedding, an event of special magnificence, to borrow a phrase, we sampled many fine pumpkin beers on draft and indulged in countless bottles of Saranac Pumpkin. Then, upon my return, we surveyed the new lay of the pumpkin land and acquired some half dozen new brands to try. We pledge a more diligent posting policy in the weeks ahead as fall and fall beer approaches peak season.

Accordingly, we turn now to Blue Point Pumpkin Ale. The PumKing and I shared a certain high amount of trepidation regarding this beer. As a rule, we resist the temptation to play favorites with breweries, and we certainly attempt to avoid forming a priori opinions on beers before we taste them just because we harbor some fondness for the label. Basically, we strive for impartiality in hopes of assuring that nothing but the flavor of any given brew colors our interpretations. Historians should know better. As with scholarship, so with beer; we often find neutrality an exceedingly difficult aspiration. It cannot be denied, for instance, that we both have something of a soft spot for our hometown Saranac. Blue Point, a Long Island brewery, hits the PumKing right where he lives: it is almost literally in his boyhood backyard. Compounding matters, though it falls outside the purview of this blog, Blue Point boasts one of the finest summer blueberry ales available. From the outset, then, we wanted Blue Point to succeed, and we crossed our fingers as poured the copper liquid into our goblets and drew them back for that first sip. "Please," we intoned, "don't let this be bad."

We were not disappointed. Those master craftsmen/women at Blue Point did it again! We would have settled for an adequate beer and were rewarded instead with a most excellent one. Blue Point begins with a pleasing aromatic experience and stays good to the last drop (unlike some of its competitors which somehow progress from sweet to bitter in the drinking of a single bottle). Overall this beer is remarkably crisp and balanced, catering to the strength of the pumpkin by enhancing its natural flavors-- that is, by going very light on the cinnamon and nutmeg and letting the gourd stand relatively alone-- rather than adding sweetener, pie-filling, or cloves. You taste the pumpkin, not the supplements. We rank this as one of our early favorites, so far only a little below Saranac.

Priced at $8.99 a six-pack at Wegman's, Blue Point falls into the high-middle price range of craft beers but is worth every penny. Packaged in a diminutive way, in a plain case adorned only with a simple cartoon pumpkin, Blue Point makes no gimmicky promises about "capturing the essence of the season." Instead it lets the beer the do the talking. It is as if they are saying: "You know us by now and you know what we're capable of. Trust us." Our trust, indeed, should never have wavered.

We award this beer a solid A.