Thursday, March 21, 2013

Beer Review: Ballast Point - Sculpin

Ballast Point Brewing Co.
Sculpin India Pale Ale
American IPA
7% ABV

Appearance: Pours a slightly hazy bright yellow orange with a fluffy two fingers of off-white foam.

Smell: A tropical fruit medley of pineapple, mango, papaya, and grapefruit. A little yeasty. Quite pungent but nice.

Taste: Ye gods! Bitter! Sharp tangerine and  grapefruit with abrasive, resiny pine bitterness. A touch of nutty malts. Rather harsh and not all that pleasant to drink, to be honest.

Mouthfeel: Medium bodied but sticky. Once it hits your tongue, it coats it with a thick and lingering bitterness that you just want to scrape off. Very dry finish.

Overall, I was disappointed with this one. I had been trying to obtain this for awhile and was excited when I finally found some. It's a very well-reviewed beer and is widely regarded as one of the best IPAs in the world so I was expecting good things. It started off promising with a great appearance and a bold fruity/yeasty aroma but the flavor was so overly harsh and unbalanced. After reading other rave reviews I wondered if I had an old bottle but there's an "enjoy by" date right on the label that read 07/13/13 so I have to assume this is relatively fresh. The lively hop aroma certainly attested to that. Its unfortunate the flavor didn't live up to the smell. I really wanted to love this and while its by no means a bad beer, it is unbalanced and excessively bitter in my opinion. Still, I'll be generous and give it a...
3.5 out of 5

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