Positive Tension
Blue Point Brewing Company

Blue Point Brewing Co. "Positive Tension"
16 fl. oz. can coded "14DEC21 BP 1309"
$4.99 @ Total Wine & More, Cherry Hill, NJ

Notes via stream of consciousness: So once again I have to ask, what do we have here? And how many of these "Illusion Series" beers are they going to put out? This one is a "DDH SOUR DIPA at 8% with Galaxy, El Dorado, and Amarillo hops. It's poured a hazy golden body beneath a finger's width of white foam that seems to be holding really well for a sour beer. I'm tempted to just watch it until it drops but let me give it a whiff first... it's mineralish, acidic, malty, and fruity. It's citrusy without really being clear on what fruits are involved, probably because of the acidity. I'm thinking lemon with a touch of orange. There's also a small bit of peach to it. Apricot? Perhaps. On to the taste... well that's a tart little number then, isn't it? Yes, that's sour. The apricot that I wasn't sure about in the aroma is definitely there, as well as the lemon, and a bit of the peach. Oddly the orange is limited as that's what I mainly find in Amarillo hops. As it warms and I get used to the acidity it's starting to show off more character so let's see what else I might find... it's grassy so there's that... and I'm finding passionfruit but I find passionfruit in all of these citrusy/tropical hop beers anymore so maybe that's just me. What else... ? Ahh, there is a hints of pineapple but not much, and now I'm finding more tangerine - not orange, but tangerine, which is more focused and less watered down. That's more than enough for a beer like this, and to be honest I'm slightly surprised that it's as complex as it is. The bitterness is moderate but it's plenty acidic and finishes quite dry. Some mineral and a mixture of fruitiness linges shortly. At this point I can say that the head has held up quite well for being such a sour beer, and I'm more than half of the way through. There's some very interesting balanced lace left behind on the glass. It looks like rings of crowns or short points of lace in a row all around rather than solid rings of lace. It's thin but it's still there whereas a lot of times the lacing just fades away into nothingness. In the mouth you obviously have the bite of the acidity but they've kept the carbonation restrained so it's not amplified, and the body is medium giving you a sour and acidic but smooth feel. So what to say about this beer? The appearance is very good, I have to give it that. It has a lot of mineral character in the aroma and I think I can safely say that it's a lactic fermentation, but there's also a good amount of hoppy fruitiness to it as well - it's hard to dry-hop a sour beer as the hop acidics don't readily combine with the already acidic malt. The balance is on the acidic side but it's not really overdone, I've seen worse, and you do get used to it - the maltiness even holds out through the acidity so there's that as well. It's not the best dry hopped sour beer that I've had but it's pretty damned good.
Review #7,907