Blue Point Brewery Sweeps 1st Annual Golden Tap Awards

Blue Point Brewery Sweeps 1st Annual Golden Tap Awards – Wins Best New York State Brewery, BP Toxic Sludge Voted Best Long Island New Beer of the Year & Toasted Lager Beer of the Year

Patchogue, NY – Blue Point Brewing Company, Long Island’s oldest and most award-winning microbrewery, won four awards at the 1st Annual Golden Tap Awards held at The Boulton Center for the Performing Arts in Bay Shore, New York, on May 19, 2011.

In addition to the prestigious Pioneer Award, Blue Point Brewing Company won Best New York State Brewery, besting nominees including Brooklyn Brewery and Greenport Harbor Brewing Company. Blue Point’s BP Toxic Sludge, a limited-release “new-style” Black IPA, that is hopped at four stages of the brewing process to combine a hoppy India Pale Ale with a richer, darker malt base, earned Best Long Island New Beer of the Year. Toasted Lager, Blue Point Brewery’s signature session beer, took home top honors of Long Island Beer of the Year, beating out Greenport’s buzzed-about Black Duck Porter and Great South Bay Brewery’s ambitious Blonde Ambition.

Attendees and nominees at the event included Black Forest Brew Haus, Blind Bat Brewery, BrickHouse Brewery, Brooklyn Brewery, Great South Bay Brewery, Greenport Harbor Brewing Co., John Harvard’s Brew House, Southampton Ales & Lagers, the Brewers East End Revival (B.E.E.R.), and Long Island Beer and Malt Enthusiasts (LIMBE), among others.

“We’re proud to have helped start the craft beer revolution on Long Island more than a decade ago, and we’re even more proud of the quality of the beer that we continue to brew for our drinkers and, let’s face it, ourselves,” said Mark Burford, co-owner and brewmaster of Blue Point Brewing Company. Owner and President Pete Cotter added, “The entire Blue Point Brewery crew shares in these wins, along with our friends at Clare Rose and popular outlets like Superstar Beverage, as well as the passionate people, like Bobby Gulinello, who pour our beer every day at their establishments.”

At the after-party held at the Cortland in downtown Bay Shore, proprietors Bobby and Ben Gulinello tapped a cask of Blue Point’s No Apologies IPA in honor of the brewery’s numerous (and unapologetic) wins.

The culimination of the first ever Long Island Craft Beer Week, which ran from May 13-May 22, 2011, the 1st Annual Golden Tap Award honorees also included Phil Ebel of Great South Bay Brewery (Best Long Island Brewery Sales Rep), Hap Boening of Boening Brothers (Lifetime Achievement Award), Southampton Publick House, and The Cortland (Best Long Island Beer Bar).