Ballast Point Big Eye IPA

Brewed by Ballast Point Brewing Company
Style: India Pale Ale (IPA)
San Diego, California USA

Serve in Shaker, Tulip

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Bottle. Golden amber colour with a small white head. Hoppy light sweet fruity aroma and a sweet hoppy light bitter taste. Medium body and a light sweet bitter dry finish.

Pours a nice white head, somewhat lingering. Deep yellow amber color. Excellent hop aroma, some fruit notes but mainly piney. Fruitiness evident in the nose, nice medium body with detectable residual sweetness. Sharp palate with some astringency, most evident in the finish. Floral notes also best represented in the finish. Not a huge character IPA, but well balanced with excellency in hop characteristcs that are all but overlooked in other examples of the style.

Draft at Carmel Mountain Golf Course. Golden Amber with a great hoppy flavor. Just enough maltiness to keep the finish nice.

Orange amber ale with a restrained citrusy hops aroma. Nice malt base with respectable hops. Very hush-hush, all in moderation type of IPA, very well balanced. Like a British buttler. Thanks guys!

Herbal nose. Dryish toasted malt, a little lemon, more of the herbal hops in the flavor. Sweetish herbal hone finish. Meh.

UPDATED: JAN 29, 2013 The Lure:
A slice of foam sticks to the translucent golden amber. Leafy, citrusy and flowery hop wealth lathers the apparently rotund toasted and caramel sweetness.

The Festivities:
Mellower than expected, the grassy, resinous hop flavors still blend efficaciously with the toasted, sweet malt. Aftertaste is rigidly hoppy, wooden, and does not disappoint. This is a valiant IPA, but it’s not as endearing their citrusy and lightly honeyed Sculpin.

Transcendence:
Straight to the point and efficient works well with me.

UPDATED: SEP 7, 2008 Clear dark gold, light white head. Very oily, sappy and foresty hops. Strong woody character and mellow malts make for a very diplocatic nose. Intense retronasal, fuelic and warming for 6%. Very floral, very orangey, mouth coating bitterness yet soft feeling overall. Good balance I guess, but not really my type of beer, straightforward and good for what it is, but don’t expect any malt complexity. Lightly oily, sticky bitterness, strong carbonation. Very clean example.
A new tasting in August 2008 revealed a very unified IPA. I had not known it was a single-hop Centennial version. It did not have the earthiness I usually associate with the hops and felt hugely resinous in comparison, but had the fleshy orange character and an exquisitely clean, bright mouthfeel. Raising the score from 3.3 to 3.5.

Orange-grapefruit-pine signature American hops are assertive in the nose without being aggressive. Clear orange-tan coloured body with decent off-white head that recedes to cover with some lace. Strong American hop flavour with moderately extreme hop bitterness. Good supporting malt base. Very well-balanced despite it’s strength though obviously tilting the scale towards the hops. Medium body with fair carbonation. Perhaps due to all those resiny hops it coats the teeth. Mild alcohol warming. Bottle enjoyed with Lubiere, MartinT and Rastacouere.

(22 oz bottle: $3 at the brewery) Solid IPA, and it’s definitely the type of IPA I tend to gravitate toward as it shows a nice balance between a fairly strong malt base (compared to many other IPAs) and a definite piney hoppiness. Bitterness is moderate, as is the sweetness. The aroma is distinctly piney, but again balanced by solid malt aromas. Really, the flavor and nose is wonderfully balanced in every way, but as far as being an all-out flavor bomb it’s not quite there. Medium in body, but thinner than some other IPAs. Light copper color and fully clear. The creamy, off-white head is of average size after the pour, settling to a thin layer, but leaves plenty of oddly-shaped lace on the glass. So with the exception of the mouthfeel, this is a very nice IPA, solid, well-crafted, but not in my highest percentile.

Poured a darker, murky orange color with an averaged sized off white head. Aromas of stronger pine and spices. Citris (oranges and grapefruit) and caramel in the taste as well.Sweet start with a lightly bitter finish. The body was a little on the thin side.