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!
(17 votes, average: 5.00 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.
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.
New batch as of 9/08 even smaller than the last; no distribution to retailers, brewery only for 22oz ($7.99) and growler fills ($20).
[...] makes it the color more copper than straw. Smell is of fresh fruit, pine, citrus. Reminds me of Sculpin on a smaller scale and brings back memories of Kill Ugly Radio. There is that magical smell that an [...]
I just about fell over in the aisle today when I saw a single bottle of this sitting on the shelf at Deluxe Foods in Aptos tonight. One bottle. Of course, I bought it and promptly quaffed it. Damn, this is a seriously good IPA. I can’t figure out how they get it so light… that light, crisp aspect to the malt lets the citrusy Simcoe hops show through so clearly. It’s like sucking on a simcoe lollipop. I fuckin love this stuff.
We’ll send you up a case if you’d like one the next time they brew a batch! Growler fills are ridiculously priced there though. Around 28-30 bucks if I remember correctly.