Ballast Point Brewing Company — Sculpin IPA — Limited Release
Second 22 ouncer of the night! YES! I need to remind myself that I also had three tall boys of Coors Light earlier in the day, so I’m now considering myself reminded, and also a bit drunk.
Let me start this review out with the preface that I have never, in the past few years, really experienced that WOW factor from any of the beers brewed by Ballast Point Brewing Company. Although they are considered to be some of the foremost experts in the craft beer/hombrew scene in San Diego (Home Brew Mart in the earlier years), I found most of their beers, (dare I say it?)… simply average. Be it Calico Amber, Yellowtail Pale, Bigeye IPA, Dorado Double IPA, Wahoo Wheat, or Black Marlin Porter, these beers have never really knocked my socks off. But in the past couple of weeks I have had three brews from BPBC that truly deliver!
The one that I will be discussing here is their Sculpin IPA. There is only one problem with a beer of this quality, it runs out way too damn fast. Just three weeks after the production of this limited release, the brewery wasn’t even offering growler fills. Luckily, I picked up a case of 22 oz. bottles from the local BevMo, so my taste buds would not go dry. The label on the bottle describes a Sculpin’s stinging barbs as paralyzingly poisonous; however, the meat is one of the tastiest of all fish. What a metaphor! Tasty beer that delivers an inebriated sting to all gray matter. This is what an India Pale Ale should taste like. Strong ruminations of fruit, short on the malt spectrum, with a medium body, and ultra-smooth finish. And there is just something magical about a 7% IPA.
A great beer to get those hesitant Colorado Kool-Aid drinkers into a more pleasureable, albeit expensive, habit. At $6-9 a bottle, this expensive limited release is worth every penny.
Overall Score:
100/100 — a perfect score!
L’Chaim!
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(13 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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This beer is so good I want to bathe in it.
A goddamn firestorm of reviews! We better pace ourselves.
Sextant Stout, Sea Monster Stout, and Fathom India Pale Lager are three other delicious offerings from Ballast Point Brewing Company available now. Reviews to be posted shortly.
Is everyone seeing the picture? I think I figured out how to post photos that we take ourselves.
Sweet! Looks good from my house.
Not seeing the picture…
This is not tasting as fresh and fruity as it was on release. No more tropical fruit/ orange essence… Next batch please.
After the previous comment I have had two more great bottles, WTF? Still my favorite beer…
Killed last bottle (another great one) on 5/30. Ballast Point needs to do whatever it fuckin takes to make this a year round brew. Stop making Yellowtail, Big Eye, whatever it takes! I will be crying myself to sleep until the next batch is released.