Wholefoods Bowery Growlers

So this past weekend I made a day of going to the Wholefoods Beer Room in the Bowery to check out their selection of New York beers on tap that you can buy in growlers.  They had a deal where you get the first growler (just the container) free.  So I bought a few of them, but I have only tried the Blue Point No Appologies Double IPA.  Blue Point Brewery, which is in Long Island, also makes the Hoptical Illusion IPA, which is one of my personal favorites.  These IPAs have a slight fruit taste to them, but are by no means fruity.  As with all IPAs they are quite hoppy and the No Appologies has a slight earthy taste.  The No Appologies does not taste at all like it is 10% ABV and goes down very smooth with no taste of alcohol the way many barley wines of similar ABV do.  After drinking just one glass, I quickly could validate that it is in indeed 10% and I was happy to have made the effort to go to the Bowery to pick up these growlers. 

The growlers are a great thing to pick up on the way to a friend’s apartment to bring a beer that you can share that is very unique.  It is very economical compared with a six pack in a bodega and the beer is local so you can support craft beer in NYC.    Another benefit of the growlers is that you have to drink them all at once…yes a benefit.  Although it is feasable to drink one on your own, it would be difficult and the growler size instead encourages you to share one with a mate who will most likely be happy to have a great draught beer in their apartment (which will probably be the first time for those people who don’t own keggerators).  Who needs those lame Heineken mini-kegs that taste like uber-carbonated donkey urine when you can have draught local New York strong beers?