Tasting Notes: Ballast Point: Sculpin IPA

Ballast Point: Sculpin IPA (USA: IPA: 7% ABV)

Visual: Massive head on a hazy light apricot flesh body. Very lightly carbonated.  The head is solid for an exceptionally long time, and for a while it seems it will never die. When it finally does it leaves many lace traces around the glass in an off lemon and egg white colour.

Nose:  Light lemon sherbet, bitter hops and some dry wheat. Light apricot. Slight bread crusts. Peach skins.

Body:  Huge bitter front. Peach melba. The body seems very crisp initially.  Light plain yogurt. Nettles. Hop oils and lemon juice. The head has a great silk like texture as it touches the lips.

Finish: Dry bitter hoppiness. Light lemon curd and whipped cream. Dry bread. Peach. The bitterness grows slowly.

Conclusion: The very first thought that came to mind for the is write up occurred nearly immediately after pouring “Damn, that head looks so smooth you could think it was one of those evil smooth/cream flow beers. Thankfully, unlike said cream flow beers this is not utter shit.

The head sticks around, and before I move on to the rest of the beer I would like one final comment on it. Specifically its texture.  Since the head is so long lasting you sip roughly half the beer through it and it results in a sensation not quite unlike what I would imagine sipping hops through silk would be like. A very unique and expressive sensation.

Anyway enough talking about the head, if only to stop the nigh inevitable innuendo that will end up in the comments section. The beer itself is the thing!

Well like a lot of the USA IPAs it comes in heavy on the bitterness over a quite dry and crisp body. Subtle peach and lemon flavours bubble up, though without the force to completely contrast.  The lighter peach and lemon flavours feel like it would need a more IIPA weighting to them to properly fight the hops.  Oddly a lot less sweet that I would expect.

It does work though, and the crisp body gets creamier over time, again in a flavoursome way not a cloying cream flow way.  Despite the build up though the back never does properly scrap with the hops.  It does very well for, if somewhat more subtle than expected.

A very crisp creamy and just slightly sweet IPA. Near the end the crispness is hurt slightly by the growing creaminess. It adds to the roundness of the beer but at the cost of the drinkability it has been working on.

Overall a very full force IPA with well made flavour to it despite my criticisms, not a favourite but enjoyable.

Background: Drunk to celebrate finally 100% completing the computer game “Super Meat Boy” a game of quite evil difficulty and fun.  IPA falls pretty heavily into my favourite beer style, though I seem to tend more towards the NZ interpretation of the style currently.  This beer was picked up from Brewdog’s guest beer section of their store.  I’ve been hearing rumblings about Ballast Point for a while but never tried them before. On investigating this is currently rate beers third highest rated IPA.