It's been a while since I got excited for a release, they were just draining my funds way too much. But now comes the 3rd batch of Sculpin IPA to be released by Ballast Point. The first batch made its way to a few stores I think, but the second batch was brewery only. I missed out on both. Since I don't have a whole lot to do this Saturday I'll be down at their Old Grove brewery off the 15 and Miramar to pick up some bottles (after tasting it of course).
Word is Alpine's Nelson ("golden rye IPA") should be released for growler fills this Thursday. That is another I plan to head to fill up my growlers with.
Thursday, December 11, 2008
Sculpin IPA Release This Saturday
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6 comments:
You are in for a treat. The first Sculpin release was, in my opinion, a little better than the second. It is one the best beers I've had this year. I hope Ballast Point will have some left on Monday. I've been wanting to try Nelson, but know I won't make it out to Alpine.
Worth the trip for both Sculpin and Nelson. You probably saw on BA that you'll be paying $7.99/22oz and $20 per growler for Sculpin. If it was cheaper I would buy a couple of cases instead of 5 or 6 bottles. I agree that the first batch was tastier than the last one. At the last Old Grove release you could get a pint of Sculpin from cask for breakfast. When you come back for Nelson, check to see if O'briens has a cask at the same time. Nelson is an amazing cask beer.
Yeah saw that price tag, pretty hefty for an IPA of only 7%, no matter how much flavor is in there. So I will also be limiting myself to a few bottles purchased, but thankfully I'll be able to spend the day at a bunch of other places in SD to make the trip worthwhile.
I'll probably try the cask if any is available, but there has been no beer I've ever enjoyed on cask more than it's kegged/force carbonated counterpart. That's just my weird senses. Casks may be "live" but they never seem that "lively" to me.
For comparitive sake, since Sculpin slides in as a single IPA with its 7%, what IPAs would you say are equal or better?
FWIW, I am from NorCal and my favorite SD IPA would be Alesmith IPA and my favorite double would go to Alpine Pure Hoppiness.
With Pure Hoppiness growlers being under $10 it's hard for any place to justify a 22oz bottle of beer for $8. As we all know, Pure Hoppiness is one of the best IPA's/DIPA's in the country, and my favorite from this area. There's so many really good IPA's out there like Racer 5, Stone IPA, Alesmith (which I don't prefer a whole lot but most people of course love it), that it's hard to think Sculpin can be so much better, or use so much more ingredients that it's double the price of all the aforementioned beers. But Ballast Point knows what they are doing and they understand the Craft Beer Hype Machine/Brewery-only releases and that we will flock down there and pay without thinking.
Yeah I know I sound like I'm bitching quite a bit here, but it's not so much that I wouldn't go pay $8 for a few bottles (which I'm going to), it's more like I'd rather it be lower priced like all the other IPA's in CA so we could buy a bunch of something that's suppose to be so good, and only being released at the brewery... It's always nice to have a large amount of fresh IPA around :)
Steve, nice to meet you. When you get the chance post up some impressions of Sculpin. By the way, I wish I could have convinced you to get out to Alpine yesterday too. Tried the new batch of Alpine Bad Boy IIPA and it was awesome. In the past BB had some residual sugar that made it seem too malty/sweet. This batch is completely dry and sluggable.
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