Blue Point Toasted Lager, you say! How do you toast a lager? You will forgive me if visions of some brewery worker jamming 12 ounce bottles of beer into a toaster slot pop into mind. It’s the malt, of course, that’s toasted, not the beer, and while Blue Point calls their beer “toasted Lager”, that’s really kind of a gimmick, I think. All malt is kilned to a degree to dry it, and the process is much like toasting.

Still, given the name I would anticipate a soft malty, mildly hopped beer that allows the delicate nature of a lightly kilned malt to shine through. What malts does Blue Point use to make this beer? Let’s hop on over to their website and find out. They use six different malts, actually. English Pale, Crystal, Munich, Carapils, Wheat, and Belgian Caravienna are all listed.

Further, Blue Point also adds this piece of puffery:

The best thing to come out of a brick oven since pizza. Well, we’ve upgraded from our original direct-fire brick kettle, but our flagship Toasted Lager still has the same toasted flavor it was named for.

If you need additional proof that this is a malt accented beer, I can tell you that they don’t even list the hop varieties on their webpage. Blue Point does offer the the IBU level (28) and an alcohol content of 5.5% by volume. They claim it is their best selling beer, and call it an American-style Amber Lager. Sort of like a Vienna Lager-Lite if you will; the use of Munich and Caravienna malts support that.

Anyway, here comes my brimming mug at Taco Mac.

Blue Point Toasted Lager pours to a bright golden color with a medium sized creamy head formation and a soft toasty malt nose. Sipping, the palate is creamy and smooth; crisp and delicate with a deliciously fresh tasting light biscuity maltiness. Perhaps the gentlest hint of caramel as well. In the finish there is just a touch of grassy hop aroma and bitterness, just enough to balance really without stealing the malt show.

Overall, I find Blue Point Toasted Lager to be a very refreshing and easy drinking beer with plenty of flavor. It’s the second beer I’ve tasted from Blue Point, and I’ve enjoyed both as good efforts. Priced right at $6 a pint at Taco Mac, this is a beer I can easily see quaffing on a summer afternoon; it would go nicely with barbecue brisket I’d think, too.

Update 5/19/2016: Blue Point may have been acquired by Anheuser Busch a few years ago, but the Toasted Lager hasn't suffered for it. Still a tasty treat with fresh biscuity malt and caramel, and perhaps a hint of toasty malt. Tonight I'm drinking "Jay Wright Blue Point Toasted Lager". When you hit 1000 beers you get to pick a keg and a special name for it. Good old Jay Wright hit 1000 beers and picked Blue Point Toasted Lager.

I'm not too far from 1000 myself. Maybe mine will be Staradumsky's New England Patriots Konig Pilsner Bruschi?

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