Adam's Beer #6 - Ballast Point Sculpin IPA

In a post a couple of weeks ago I listed a few personal regulations when it comes to drinking beer, but I also have a few rules that I never break:

1) Try any beer once, even if it was made with Blueberries. That does not mean I will buy it, but if given the opportunity to sample who can say no?
2) If going to a new city I will try to find the local brewery to fill a growler. The most recent was Middle Ages Brewing in Syracuse – Yum!
3) If a beer is on the Beer Advocate Top Beers on Planet Earth or Rate Beer’s Best Beers in the World lists, and locally available, I must purchase it.

While touring Valley Discount Liquor in Ansonia, CT (yes, I said Ansonia) I came across the Limited Edition Ballast Point Brewing Sculpin India Pale Ale. Currently ranked #40 on RateBeer.com and #14 on BeerAdvocate.com (recently pushed from the #13 spot by Cantillon Blåbær Lambik) it fit into my rule book flawlessly.

Jim and I parked ourselves at his dining room table and opened the bottle over a conversation of our usual beer nonsense. Once poured the talking turned to sniffing, it was hard to make out what was going on in our noses. The fruits were so distinct that you seem to be able to pinpoint them all on their own. Grapefruit, apricot and other citrus aromas were tuning their instruments waiting to be discovered by our pallets.

I have to come clean that at first sample I did not really get the hubbub, but fast-forward a couple of days later to bomber #2 and I realize what we had was something very extraordinary. When you knock back a beer with a high I.B.U. (International Bittering Unit) you expect to be all pucker with no flavor (see Moylan’s Hopsickle Imperial,) but not the case here. The fruit and hops work so well together I would say that they are the Joe Montana and Jerry Rice of beer. I have read often of drinkers tasting a pine taste, but I think the hops and citrus are too dominate for other flavors to materialize.

Overall I give the Sculpin a 9/10 – it is right up there with Pliny the Elder as one of the best IPAs I have had the pleasure of drinking. Not a beer I could drink everyday, but it makes for one hell of a night.